A Prayer to Cast Off All Your Worry
By Alisha Headley
Bible Reading
“Cast all your worries and cares to God, for He cares for you.” - 1 Peter 5:7
Do you feel worried right now about something in your life? Does everything around you give you reasons to worry, and you see no resolution, and you don’t yet know the outcome? It’s so hard not to worry in this world. We worry about our spouse, our kids, our future, our finances. Our worry often leaves us feeling overwhelmed and never at peace. Some of us are crippled with fear, and that fear controls the way we live our life. We live in a fallen world, and there are so many things we worry about but we have no control over. This is why the Lord left us with a guide and the greatest weapon, the Bible, to lead us to live worry-free lives in this worry-filled world.
Today’s Scripture talks about casting all your worries and cares to God because He cares for us. Let’s dive deeper and let today’s verse sink in some more. The idea of “casting” comes from the Greek root word rhiptó, which means to throw and specifically throw off something or toss yourself onto something or someone else. It was often used to describe a man throwing a heavy burden onto a camel’s back. So casting is an intentional act to relocate an object – to move it from one place to another, like taking off your jacket and tossing it off onto your couch.
In this context, with today’s scripture, it means to throw one’s burdens onto God and to trust in Him to carry them for us. This means we are to cast off or transfer our worries, fear, anxiety, or any care in the world that is weighing us down. We must transfer and throw it off our hearts onto God’s heart. He becomes the bearer of all our burdens. What a glorious thing! We no longer have to carry the weight of our worries and cares even if we don’t know the outcome of our circumstances that are worrying us. We can’t force the outcome to come sooner, and we can always change the outcome, but we can cast the worries of the outcome on God and no longer be weighed down.
Let’s start the casting in our hearts onto God’s heart right now in prayer.
Let’s pray:
Dear Lord,
Our hearts are so heavy right now. We don’t want to live this way anymore. We don’t want to go to bed thinking about the thing that is weighing us down and wake up thinking about the same thing all day. We choose today to cast all our cares and worries on you and list them all one by one, throwing them from our hearts to yours. All our fears, our thoughts, and our worries that are weighing us down. Forgive us for the times we have filled out minds with worry and for when we try to fix it on our own. When we do that, we still feel overwhelmed and consumed. We are choosing today to fully give it all to you. We are throwing it off our hearts onto yours. Thank you for being such an amazing Father. As I throw each worry off, you don’t miss one. You are the perfect Father and the perfect burden carrier. We know you can carry this for us and resolve it the way you see best and the outcome that you desire. We trust you! We want to honor your Word and no longer carry the weight of our world. Hold us close as we humbly come to you. We love you.
In Jesus’ mighty name, we pray, amen.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/m-imagephotography
Alisha Headley is a writer + speaker who has a desire to meet the everyday woman in her everyday life with biblical truth. Stepping into her true calling, she left the corporate world behind as a former-financial VP to love on her family as a stay-at-home wifey + dog mama, while also being able to pursue her passion as a writer. Healing from a chapter of life consumed with lies she once believed about herself, she is inspired to point women to Christ to experience the freedom + power to overcome those lies with the truth written in God’s word. In her free time, Alisha enjoys road trips around the country, working out so she can eat her favorite foods, and creatively styling her outfits with a craft for fashion. Alisha is a proud wifey and dog mama living in Scottsdale, Arizona.
You can follow her blog by visiting her website or connect with her on facebook + instagram.
Editor's Note: We're proud to announce we've just launched a new nighttime companion to Your Daily Prayer: the Your Nightly Prayer devotional. You'll soon be able to subscribe to receive Your Nightly Prayer via email, or as a podcast, but for now you can find it on the website at crosswalk.com/devotionals/your-nightly-prayer. We hope it's a relaxing and soothing way to wind down your day with rich meditations on who God is.
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