Casting and Catching

     "Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved."  Ps.55:22
     Now there's a promise you can sink your teeth into!  Stop hauling all those burdens around, all those worries weighing down your heart.  Burdens weigh the heart down--no wonder we speak of being "heavy-hearted."  Our hearts were not meant to bear the continual weight of burdens.  God designed us to constantly, moment by moment, cast those burdens onto Him.  We cannot carry them, but praise God He can carry all our burdens with ease and in exchange gives us rest and peace for our weary hearts.
    Jesus commanded "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." (Mt. 11:28-29)
     Don't we all desperately desire to release those burdens?  Those worries and fears and uncertainties and sorrows that snatch our joy, rob our peace, steal our slumber?  And how often have we tried to hand those niggling doubts and frustrations and anxieties to the Lord--only to pick them right back up again in days or hours or even minutes?
     But you know, I think that is the point--He wants us to keep casting them to Him, over and over.  It's never a one and done deal or we'd be off our knees, puffed up with pride and self-sufficiency, and headed for trouble.  He knows we are but dust, weak, faltering, and He longs for us to keep casting, keep casting, keep depending and experiencing His sufficiency.
     As I was thinking about casting, however, my mind immediately went to trout fishing.  Our family (especially our boys) LOVE to go trout fishing.  Every summer for one glorious weekend, we go with all my brothers and sisters and their children (or as many that can go) to a beautiful spot at the base of Mt. Mitchell called Cane River.  Cane River is just a little foretaste of heaven.  We all stay in a big old log cabin--with, praise the Lord, no TV or cell phone service!--and trout fish all day, eat huge lunches and dinners together, laugh and talk a blue streak, and crash in exhaustion at night.   All we see all day long are crystal clear streams tumbling down ancient boulders and rocks and pine trees and rhododendron.  Well, and the occasional black bear as well.  That'll get your blood pumping!  How I love to sit out on the old  covered porch and read and breath deep that clean mountain air.
     Sorry, I digress into Cane River bliss.
     My point: when you trout fish, you have to cast a tiny little trout fly into the mountain stream.  Now, 99% of the time, you cast and cast and cast... and you catch... well, certainly not any trout.  It turns out trout are some of the most brilliant creatures designed by God.  yeah yeah, just a fish, you say. But believe me, you can almost hear the trout laughing as we try to hide behind boulders and cast our lines into deep serene pools.  The fish swim by our feet in a flash, yelling to their buddies, "Look at this big oaf in blue jeans!  He's not even wearing camouflage!  I could hear him coming a mile away!  Is this all they've got?" I'm sure it doesn't help that our youngest son always loves to hurl copious rocks into the water, scattering fish for miles ahead.
     So, unless you really know what you are doing, you do a lot of casting and not much catching.  Unless, of course, you count the bushes and trees and sticks in the stream.  The fish may not be all that interested in the tiny trout flies attached to your line, but believe me, everything else within a one mile radius loves to snag your fly.  We've caught innumerable leaves, twigs, flowers, tree branches... you name it, if it's not a trout, we've hooked it.
     But here's the thing, when you cast, you expect to catch.  You want to pick up something with your line.. well, except the trees, bushes, leaves, and sticks.  But the goal, the whole point is to cast and catch... a trout, that is.  Cast and pick up.
     And isn't that exactly what Jesus tells us to do?  Yes, cast our burdens and cares upon Him, but then catch something from Him.  "Take My yoke upon you"--pick up His yoke, for it will bring rest and peace to our souls.
     How do we do that?  Well, one very practical way: pick up a promise in His Word.  Cast your burdens on Him and then pick up a promise in return.  His Word is full of promises of hope, of guidance, of strength, of enablement, of power, of forgiveness, of grace.  We need never come up empty handed when we cast and then catch His promises!
     How about this one: "Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." (Is.41:10)
     Or one of my all time favorite verses (that I just used and prayed and depended upon this morning!): "Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory... forever and ever. Amen" (Eph.3:20-21)  That'll put some starch in your soul!
     His beautiful, supernatural, powerful Word is full of promise after promise just waiting to be picked up in exchange for your casting away your burden.  Cast your burden, catch His promise.  Daily.  Hourly.  A hundred times a day if necessary. Write His promise to you on an index card and put it on your mirror or in your car.  Text it to your child.  Share it with a friend. Meditate on it.  Pray it out loud to the Lord.  He has promised if we cast our burdens, He will carry them, and when we pick up His yoke--His promises--they will sustain us and fill our souls with His joy and peace.  But we have to read His Word to catch us a promise and then keep it before us!
     Cast a care.  Catch a promise.          
     What an exchange!  But isn't that just like our Lord--give Him our worst sins and take His perfect righteousness, give Him our burdens and take His supernatural promises?  Let's start casting... and catching.   To God be the glory forever and ever.