Cast All Your Burdens on God: 4 Practical Ways
Do you want to learn to cast all your burdens on the Lord? I invite you to join me in the woods, and we’ll talk about practical ways to cast our cares on Jesus.
Cast All Your Burdens on God: 4 Insights
The forest is silent this morning. Shrouded in a fresh cloak of frozen ivory, every fallen log and standing hemlock dozes beneath the weight of winter’s breath.
Suddenly, a rustle behind me catches my attention.
I turn, startled, expecting a deer or coyote.
The forest sleeps.
I hear it again and realize the noise is coming from somewhere closer than I first realized. Looking at the ground just a few feet away, I see the culprit. A field mouse has emerged from beneath a rock just a few feet away.
The tiny creature scurries through a scrim of dry leaves and makes a minuscule footpath across the snow. And to think, I imagined I was hearing a creature a hundred times his size.
Sometimes, life is like this moment. In the silence of your mind, a little problem gets to rustling and stirring up all kinds of noise. When the clamor of your everyday moments blares, you might be able to push aside the tiny rustling. But when the world is quiet and still, the subtle rustling becomes the only thing you can hear. And it feels about a hundred times bigger than it is.
How to Cast All Your Burdens on God
I’ve been a worrier most of my life. As a child, I worried about losing my favorite baseball cap and where to put my lunchbox at school. As a teen, I worried about boys and perfect grades and sports. And now, as the mom of three little ones, I worry about keeping everyone healthy, keeping up with the house, and making sure we’ve studied the weekly spelling lists.
Most of us have our worry lists. We want to cast our cares God, but we’re not sure what this looks like.
Let’s walk through a few practical steps to help us cast our worries on the Lord today.
1. Cast all your burdens on God by naming them.
I consider these tendencies as I sit in the silence of the woods with the tiny mouse, and I walk through the process of casting my cares onto the Lord. First, I begin by naming my worry. I tell God all about the issue that’s causing stress—not because he doesn’t already know, but because I can’t cast out what I have not identified.
Today, I’m worried about dissension in a particular friendship. After a disagreement with a close friend, we’ve decided to move on and “agree to disagree.” The peacemaker within me isn’t thrilled about our arrangement, and I need to talk about it with God.
2. Study your concerns with compassion and curiosity.
For years, I assumed my fears and worries were always sins. Instead of digging to find the roots, I rebuked my emotions. I told myself not to fear and rarely explored the hidden roots beneath my worries.
Fear and worry can lead us to sin. However, the instant you feel fearful or worried, God is offering an invitation. Your emotions are God-given, and he is inviting you to approach these emotions with compassion.
What’s beneath your fear, worry, or anxiety? Are you afraid of rejection, failing, being misunderstood, or inflicting pain on someone else? Are you afraid some worst-case scenario will ruin your life, and God will abandon you?
Ask God to show you what’s beneath your worry. He might reveal a deeper root he wants to pull out, a wound he wants to heal, or a lie you’ve been believing.
3. Cast all your burdens on God by heaving them with force.
I find it interesting that Scripture tells us to cast our cares onto the Lord. We’re not told to lift them gently. God knows our worries aren’t easy to get rid of. For this reason, he tells us to cast them away—like Olympic shotput throwers.
God knows our worries aren’t easy to get rid of. For this reason, he tells us to cast them away—like Olympic shotput throwers. #CastYourCares #Worries #Fear #God Click To TweetImagine heaving your worry onto God. Imagine his strong arms reaching down to take the worry from you. He wants to help you live lighter.
I find the strength to heave my biggest worries onto God by asking myself a simple question. I ask, “Have I done my best to steward the assignment God placed before me?”
If I can answer yes—if I know I’ve done my best with what I’ve been given—I then remind myself of an important principle: God calls me to steward the assignments he sets before me and trust him with the outcomes.
The outcomes in my life are not mine to control. I want happy, healthy kids, harmonious friendships, lots of cushion in the bank account, and pleasant circumstances all around me. However, sometimes life just isn’t pleasant. Kids get angry and sick. Friendships falter. Bank accounts run empty. Life gets hard. Nevertheless, if I can go to bed each night knowing I’ve done my very best to steward God’s daily assignments, then I can trust him with the outcomes—even when I don’t understand his ways.
4. After you cast your burdens on the Lord, stand on his Word.
Lastly, after naming my worry, studying it, and heaving it onto God, I can plant my feet on solid ground by standing on God’s Word. I memorize a fear-fighting Bible verse that speaks specifically to my circumstance, and I repeat it every time I feel fearful. God’s Word is a weapon, and we can use it to find victory over the voice of fear. (For a list of Bible verses about worry and fear, join me right here.)
I walk through these steps as I sit in the woods. When the chill sinks to my bones, I haven’t solved the problem with my friend. But I feel lighter. I find peace.
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A Book to Help the Young Women in Your Life Grow Closer to God
Lastly, in addition to writing to adults, I am also passionate about ministering to the next generation.
My 12-year-old daughter Bekah and I wrote a mother-daughter devotional book together, and it is designed to help moms and daughters connect and grow in faith together. It’s called Girl to Girl: 60 Mother-Daughter Devotions for a Closer Relationship and Deeper Faith. It includes 60 devotions with Scripture, commentaries from both of us, conversation starters, and even a journaling section. We had a blast writing it, and we are so excited to share it with you. Our vision is for girls ages 7-17 to enjoy it with their moms, grandmas, or older women they look up to.
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