Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let
your requests be made known unto God.
—Philippians 4:6
Casting all your care upon him; for he
careth for you.
—1 Peter 5:7
Casting the whole of your care—all your
anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns,
once and for all—on Him; for He cares for you
affectionately, and cares about you watchfully.
—1 Peter 5:7 (AMPLIFIED)
One evening after a service, a woman came to me and said,
"I want you to agree with me in prayer about something. The
burdens of life—the cares, the worries of life—are just so heavy
I can't bear them."
She began to cry. With sincerity she said, "I want you to
pray God will either give me grace to bear these burdens or else
take about half of them away. I can carry about half of them—I
just can't carry all of them."
"Dear Sister," I replied, "we don't have to pray about that—
we've already heard from heaven. God's Word is our message
from heaven. His Word couldn't be more sure if an angel
suddenly came down here and wrote with his finger on a granite
block: GOD'S WORD IS ETERNAL."
She looked startled.
I opened my Bible to First Peter 5:7 and asked her to read
out loud. She read, "Casting all your care upon him; for he
careth for you."
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22 Praying To Get Results
Then I said, "I can't pray God would give you grace to bear
your cares and worries. He doesn't want you to bear them. And I
can't pray God would take away half of them, because He
doesn't want you to carry even half of them. He wants you to
cast all of them on Him."
"I can't do it!" she said.
I said, "Sister, God is not telling you to do something you
can't do. He would be an unjust God to do that. You've been
praying about this for years and have never gotten an answer.
That's not the way to solve this problem. You solve this by doing
what God said to do."
"Yeah," she replied, "but you don't know what I've got to
worry about!"
"But God does," I said. "He knows and understands. And He
said to cast all your cares upon Him."
It seemed to me a person would be glad to find that verse in
the Bible and would be thrilled to act upon it. But she turned,
walked away, and said, "I couldn't give up worrying."
Some people are content in the knowledge that God knows
and understands their problems. But still they hold on to their
cares, so they don't get deliverance. It's not enough that God
cares and understands. We must go on and do what He said to do
—cast all of our cares on Him, for He cares for us. This is the
prayer of commitment, of casting or rolling our cares and
burdens on Him.
Psalm 37:5 says, "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also
in him; and he shall bring it to pass."
Jesus had this to say:
MATTHEW 6:25-27
25 Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or
what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye
shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the
body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not,
You Don't Have To Worry 23
neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your
heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better
than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit
unto his stature?
Jesus is asking which of you by worrying is going to change
anything. Luke records, "Therefore, I say unto you, Take no
thought for your life...." (Luke 12:22).
Paul said in Philippians 4:6, "Be careful for nothing...." The
Amplified Bible reads, "Do not fret or have any anxiety about
anything ...." Too many times people want to pray and get God
to do something about their anxieties. But God tells you to do
something about them. He said, "Be careful for nothing." Or,
"Don't you fret or have anxiety about anything."
As long as you do not take this first step—as long as you fret
and have anxiety—you are nullifying the effects of your prayer.
You haven't cast your burden on the Lord. You still have it. And
if you have it, God doesn't.
Casting all your care on Him isn't something you do every
day. It's a once-and-for-all proposition. This puts your situation
in His hands. The Lord could do a lot for us, but often we don't
let Him because we don't follow His rules that govern the
operation of prayer. We don't do what He tells us to do. Then we
wonder why things don't work out.
If you cast your burden on the Lord, He has it. You don't.
You cannot go around talking about your worries anymore. A lot
of people don't want to get rid of their worries. They claim they
do, but they really don't. If they got rid of them, they wouldn't
have any reason for people to sympathize with them. They
wouldn't have anything to talk about. They would have to cease
conversation entirely.
Years ago, when I was on the bed of sickness, this was the
first thing God began to deal with me about. I had to quit
worrying before I could receive healing for my body. This is the
24 Praying To Get Results
reason a lot of people are not healed. Sometimes worry is what is
keeping them sick. Any disappearance of the symptoms would
only be temporary, because the cause of the sickness is still
there.
You may think a 15-year-old boy couldn't worry. But
children are replicas of their parents, and my grandmother and
mother were world-champion worriers. As a child, I knew they
were always worrying. I had a heart condition, and I couldn't go
out to run and play like other children. I had to stay in with my
mother and grandmother. Hearing them complain and worry, I
learned to worry at a very early age.
While on the bed of sickness, I got saved, and I promised
God I would never doubt anything I read in His Word. I further
said, "As I read the Word and better understand it, I promise to
put it into practice."
I read the 26th verse in Matthew 6, "Take no thought for
your life...." The Bible I was reading had a footnote that told me
the Greek read, "Do not be anxious about tomorrow." Another
reference said, "Do not worry, do not be filled with anxiety." I
was full of anxiety, worry, and fear. Not only was I nearly dead,
but also I was about to worry myself the rest of the way to my
grave!
My conscience bothered me because I was not practicing the
Word. As the Lord dealt with me, the words seemed to leap from
the pages of the Bible. Yet I didn't think I could live without
worrying—without being anxious—so I closed my Bible. When
I did, I got in darkness. I opened the Word again and tried to
read, bypassing that Scripture.
Until then, everything I'd read had been all light and
blessing, but now it was all dark and fuzzy to me. You're not
going to get more light (or understanding) until you walk in the
light you already have. Don't be concerned about the things you
don't understand in God's Word; make sure you practice what
you do know. The rest will take care of itself.
You Don't Have To Worry 25
I read on. I even studied about the Antichrist. (That certainly
was not what was bothering me.) But I felt guilty because I was
not practicing the Word. Finally, I made a commitment to God.
I said, "Lord, forgive me for worrying and for being full of
anxiety. Forgive me for fretting and for being discouraged.
Forgive me for having the blues and feeling sorry for myself.
Forgive me for having a 'poor old me' attitude. I know You'll
forgive me, because You said You would if I would confess it.
From this day on, because You've forgiven me, I promise I'll
never worry again. I'll never be filled with anxiety again. I'll
never be blue again. I'll never fret again. I'll never be
discouraged again."
Many years have passed since I made that commitment.
Although I'll confess I've been sorely tempted, just like you
have, I have not worried. I haven't been filled with anxiety at any
time or become overly anxious. I haven't had the blues in all
these years! God's Word works. I wouldn't encourage you to do
anything I wouldn't do, or haven't done.
When I was 21 years old, I was pastor of a church which
was 23 years old. There were people in that church who had had
the baptism of the Holy Spirit two years longer than I had lived.
You can understand why I would feel insufficient. The church
had problems, and I knew something should be said, but I didn't
know what to say. I knew if I said anything, I would say the
wrong thing.
I prayed, "Lord, there are problems here. I don't know what
to do. I feel so inadequate." I could sense the Spirit of God
reminding me of the Scripture, "Casting all your cares upon
him; for he careth for you" (1 Peter 5:7).
I said, "Lord, I know I have responsibilities as pastor, but I'm
going to turn this over to You. I'm not going to worry. I'm going
to preach the Word and leave everything else to You."
My burden lifted and I went singing on my way to church.
God met us and marvelous things happened.
26 Praying To Get Results
The ministers in our area had a fellowship meeting on the
first Monday of every month. The preachers talked about their
burdens, cares, responsibilities, and anxieties. Often they would
ask me, "How goes the battle?" (They were all in a battle, but I
didn't have any battle. I had the victory! Men in battle haven't
won the victory yet. The battle is the Lord's; the victory is ours.)
Here were these preachers with long faces talking about their
burdens, cares, and problems in their churches. One of them said
to me later, "Your faith condemned us when you'd wave your
hand and say, 'Men, I don't have a care! Things couldn't be
better!'"
Some would shake their heads and say, "The poor boy—he
doesn't have enough sense to worry." The truth is, I had too
much sense—too much Bible sense—to worry! If I had cast my
cares on the Lord, then I didn't have them. He did. I didn't say no
cares existed. I said, "I don't have a care."
One pastor would say, "He's lying. I'm his neighboring
pastor, and I know him better than the rest of you. I know about
the problems in his church."
But I'd breeze by and say, "Men, I don't have a care!" I
didn't. I had cast them on the Lord once and for all. You can,
too!