Now, there are a lot of invisible stress that people are going through everyday. Like expectations in school or at work, responsibilities in the roles we hold, or even to meet certain societal standards. And busy people are often bounded by their tasks at hand. We easily get absorbed and overwhelmed. Because of own limitations and nature, these could all cause us to go into frequent emotional warfare within ourselves, like feeling inadequate, self pity, unappreciated, or even having lesser compassion for others thus  straining relationship with people around us. So we must really ask ourselves, what is the value in the things we are putting some much care on or being so burdened about?

The Joy That Comes From Casting Our Cares To God

The truth is because of all these real burdens around us, we should all the more cast them to the Lord. Be it stress or challenges from work, situations or people. If we do not do so, we will be easily manipulated by the things we have to do or the people we have to face. This is because all these things can be seen and are very real to us. We will start to have all our thoughts and emotions revolving around in, being greatly invested in these area. So we have to really put in added prayers and understand the whole situation. Philippians 4:4-5 says “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Now the bible speaks a lot about joy and in the book of Philippians, we see the background of Paul where he was facing a lot of lack, being imprisoned, in hunger, but nonetheless, he was able to rejoice. He is the advocate and witness of relying in the Lord to receive unshakeable joy in shaken situations. But when we are practically in our weak and oppressed state, how can we do so? Philippians 4:6-9 continues to tell us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” Our problems may be present, our challenges as well, but above all, guarding our hearts are of utmost importance. Therefore, let our prayers hold on and restore what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable in God’s eyes. When the urge of lamenting comes, when our self righteousness acts up, when things do not go our way, we need to be reminded of the sovereign, righteous and loving God at work above us. Let us put into practice our faith from the example of Paul.

How To Keep Casting Our Cares To The Lord?

But it is true that many of us may have already tried casting our cares to the Lord, but still find things in status quo or we are still laden by many many burdens. So here, we really need to understand what casting our cares to God really means. It does not mean that we are entirely handing matters to God, God will make a way and we do not need to work at it. We need to have a deeper, spiritual understanding on this.

1. To keep guarding our hearts to see God’s works

Firstly, we have to keep guarding our hearts to see God’s works in our lives. There will always be things to do, but the key is how we focus on the state of our hearts to do them. As we can see in the verse above, it is a lot about the concerns of our hearts. What are you giving thanks for? What requests are you presenting to God? Because God cares about our hearts. He reminds us of what we need to think about instead, so that we can have a clearer and sound perspective to see God’s hands in the details of our lives. His perfect will is present when we seek with blessed lens. An example is during the COVID period and my kids could not go to school. I was really tired physically and stressed because of having to work from home while taking care of their needs. Did I lament? Yes I did. Did I lose my cool with the kids? I did too. However, when I really reflected on God’s works in it, it was a period of great opportunity to have devotions with my children, quality conversations and deeper building of our relationship. And when Liora went back to school, the teachers said there was a change in her as well, more settled and confident. All while I may have been fretting, God was preparing soil for His child to grow. So instead of looking outwardly, maybe we can start searching deeper inwardly about our heart’s concerns and how God would want to lead us in this season of worry or fear.

2. Restore fixed time prayers

Now next, if we see Paul’s life, it isn’t all just talk. He lives out the life that God convicts him to. His reliance on the Lord, his peace and surpassing joy, his gentleness. To do it like Paul is no easy feat because we have our own baggages and real time problems to deal with. Therefore, there is no way to do it unless we pray, and not just pray whenever we deem fit, but to have fixed time prayers. To battle the ongoing attacks from the world at all angles, we need to be armoured with the assurance of faith and God’s truth through our fixed time prayers, lest we forget, lest we become overwhelmed. This means, in our morning prayers, we pray as we cast our cares of those burdens we have, upcoming pressures or stressful tasks to the Lord. When we do not do that, we will realise we will always be drowned out by our own worries, doubts. God’s conviction, inspiration or strength will not come to us as easily. We should not be “anxious about anything” but cast to the Lord because that is the beginning of reliance on Him and when the Lord is facing the challenge together with us, we will then get into the right battle mode with our busyness and troubles. Very quickly, you will be ready to guard and defend your hearts with the truth of God, not wasting any moment but having clearer directions of how to manage your time, what to prioritise and so on. It all begins with prayers that guide us to cast our cares to the Lord and getting conviction from Him alone to act.

3. Become An Experienced Caster
Finally, we must know that the devil will never stop working to break our reliance on God. So as we continue to pray and be guided by truth, we have to keep at it until we become an experienced caster of cares to the Lord, until it becomes second nature to us. For this, we have to keep looking into how we lead our daily lives with the Lord. How we manage our time to come to the Lord while we also fulfil our roles in this world as a worker, a student, a parent, a child, a brethren or so on. If we know we will be stressed up with some work tomorrow, we will prepare to be doubly prayerful the night before and the morning after. And when we are done with work and back at home, use the time God has given us to spend time with them. Try not to neglect one area because another area has overflowed into our living. And if pressure comes at one side, keep casting the Lord for wisdom and grace to handle them. Sometimes, I may work later into the night, but I make sure to wake up early with my kids to do devotion and pray. And when I do that, I see peace, strength within my heart and joy in my kids as well, when we give our time to look to God and be with each other. So it is true life’s pressures and burdens are hard to bear at times. But when we become experienced casters, we are not easily wavered and will become more and more ready for life’s little battles or even sudden warfares that come at us.

Brothers and sisters, may the Lord remind and advice us to really challenge ourselves to cast our cares to the Lord and listen to His voice before we hustle through the busyness of life. The Lord is with us and He will help us. God bless.