Once again there is “a” word that has caught my attention in a particular scripture verse and that word is “cast”. Matthew 7:5 tells us to first cast “…the beam out of our own eye; and then we can see clearly to cast out the mote in our brother’s eye.” Further down it tells us to not cast “…our pearls before swine” and 1 Peter 5:7 tells us to “cast our cares upon him, for He cares for us”. Jesus even cast out demons during His ministry (e.g. Matt 8:28-34).

As I thought more about the actual word cast, it made me think of what needs to be involved when one is casting anything. First, a decision must take place; you must decide that you’re going to cast or throw something out or away. Secondly, you have be able to put your hand on it – to cast it; whether physically or mentally, and third, you must exert some level of strength in your throw for it to proceed some distance to be considered a casting.

Now, unlike fishing, this is not a type of casting that you hope to throw back and forth until you’ve caught something. If I’m casting my cares on Jesus – I don’t want to catch them anymore – or do you? Humm…this needs to be answered honestly. Some of us have every intent of holding on to our cares because they serve a range of benefits; such as continual attention or allowing us to stay in our ‘never-ending’ pity party, or it simply provides us with an excuse not to change. However, remember this is a ‘distorted’ benefit. Who is it really helping?

In our Sunday School class this past Sunday we had a member share a wonderful revelation regarding the importance of truly ‘casting our cares’ on Him. She stated that it’s not enough to simply ‘place’ our cares down because it allows for a quick retrieval, but we must earnestly CAST our cares far into our world of faith – with no strings attached.

Let’s make a decision to truly cast those cares on the LORD – let’s cast that ‘beam’ out of our own eyes before we look to judge the speck in someone else’s, let’s not cast our pearls among swine, let’s even cast our dreams and visions to a new level knowing that this ‘release’ is really our first step of faith.

“Dear LORD, forgive me for taking back what I’ve cast in the pass; let me truly release those cares that have become nothing but burdens; give me the strength to throw this cast like no other and once released….thank you for allowing the wind of your Spirit to catch and carry if off to a place that I cannot retrieve.”