Care: CARE: Greek word melo (verb) - It can mean anxiety or earnest concern, depending on the context. Care: Greek word mevrimna (noun) - anxiety. Both are used in 1 Peter 5:7 - “Casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you.”
In the New Testament the word “care” can carry the undertone of positive or negative.
Let’s start with the positive. “… a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.” (Deuteronomy 11:12)
13 ‘And it shall be that if you diligently obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,
14 ‘then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. 15 ‘And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.’
Did you get what He just said to us? He loves and cares for the land! Why? Because He cares for us! The land is what sustains us physically. That is why He cares for the land. He loves and makes sure His rain from heaven tends to the land/ground, which in turn gives us blessings. The ground/land meets our needs. What is your “ground/land” that needs tending, needs rain from heaven?
What is it that you need a change in that can only come from heaven’s rain? Trusting that God will let His rain from heaven fall on our situation is faith. It shows He cares for us. It shows He loves us. It shows He provides for us.
1 PETER 5:7 says, “Casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you.” Maybe we could say, “Cast all your anxiety (merimna) on Him, because he cares (melo) for you.”
When there is anxiety/earnest concern in our hearts or head then there is fear of an outcome that we have no control over. Remember the damage that stress, anxiety and fear do to a body? Those things start attacking the body.
Think back to Jesus riding on the donkey and people flinging their clothes upon the donkey for Jesus to sit on? Remember the clothes and palm branches they flung upon the ground? All of that to honor the coming King Jesus. That is a principal of us throwing all of our burdens [cares] upon Jesus (our burden-bearer), and He takes them and keeps riding toward His destiny.
Can you see it? King Jesus rides off with our burdens! We no longer have them. We must not go after them. Trust that Jesus has your answer!
