Cast Your Cares
Cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.1 Peter 5:7
Looking back over the years, I see a major transformation in my prayer life. As a young child, I recited the standard prayers at bedtime and at mealtime. Although I knew it was the right thing to do, these prayers meant very little to me. I recall becoming involved in church youth groups as a teenager, but my memories of those times are filled with fun activities, camps and meeting with friends on Sunday night. I have no real memory of meaningful prayer during that time. As I entered college, I found friends at the campus ministries and enjoyed the fellowship but recall little about prayer. I know that I prayed but my prayer life was more like like a “laundry list” of things I thought I needed. I do not remember offering praise to God or acknowledging His blessings. The first prayer I clearly remember was almost one year after I married when I prayed asking Jesus to forgive me of my sin and come into my life as Lord and Savior.
Although this prayer established a relationship with God, I still knew very little about prayer. My faith was growing, but prayer was more of an exercise than an experience. Though I prayed to God, I did not have the faith to trust Him because I had a very shallow knowledge of Him. I shared my concerns in prayer, then lived as though it was up to me to solve my problems. I did not know how to yield – to give up control and trust God.
In the past two decades, I have learned the power of meaningful prayer. James 5:16b (NLT) states, “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.
This gradual process of learning how to pray has transformed my life dramatically. In his book The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence writes, “Let all our employment be to know God; the more one knows Him, the more one desires to know Him. And as knowledge is commonly the measure of love, the deeper and more extensive our knowledge shall be, the greater our love; and if our love of God were great, we should love Him equally in pains and pleasure.” As I have studied the attributes of God I have come to know Him intimately. I have experienced the freedom of knowing that God hears my confession of sin and offers forgiveness. I have become keenly aware of God’s work and His blessings in my daily life, acknowledging that He is my provider and giving Him thanks. And slowly, but surely, I have learned to yield. I have learned to “cast my cares” upon God and leave them with Him.
Recently a speaker illustrated this verse by referring to how a fisherman casts out his line. But unlike the fisherman who pulls the line back in, she had a basket of all different kinds of balls and just started throwing them out to the audience. “This is the way we must cast our cares upon God,” she said. “Cast them out – give them up – yield them to Him.”
Just last week at a prayer group I lead, one of the ladies shared an urgent need and together we prayed earnestly and specifically for God to do what only He can do. Later that afternoon she shared that she had just received an e-mail message providing exactly what we had asked from God. Glory to God!! To me that is one of the most exciting things about seeing God at work. It gives us the opportunity to give Him glory.
Very often as I speak to individuals, they share that they are not confident about their prayer life or they simply do not know how to pray. I try to encourage them and explain that prayer is simply a conversation with God. Just as we would carry on a conversation with a friend, we can speak to God-out loud, in a whisper, or even just a silent thought. God hears.
Corrie Ten Boom once said, “Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden.”
God has shown me that when I come to Him with praise, confessing any known sin, and acknowledging His work and provision with a thankful heart, I can cast my cares on Him – yield them – give them up and trust Him to work according to His perfect will, in His perfect timing and in a way that will bring Him glory. As I experience the power of prayer I continue to be in awe of our wise, trustworthy, faithful Father God.
Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. Psalm 63:3-4 (NLT)
Carol, you always express the Word’s concepts so eloquently. I’m learning to praise more, ask less.
Thank you for the reminder to cast our cares on God, and praise Him.
Carol, what a great Word and Reminder how important prayer is. Reading your post reminded me of the staggering statistic of how many kids who grow up in church actually do not know the foundations of what they believe when they get to college. They are so easily deceived because the foundations are weak. Prayer is the strongest foundation that we can build upon. BLESSINGS.