Learning How to Cast Your Cares
By Emily Rose Massey
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” - 1 Peter 5:7, NIV
I struggled with anxiety and panic attacks for many years in high school and college. Stress and worry were just a part of my life, and I allowed them to move into my mind and become my permanent mental roommates. From money problems to relationship issues, if it became too much, you would find me curled up in a ball in the fetal position on the floor, hyperventilating until parts of my body went numb and crying until there were no more tears left.
After I graduated college, I became a born-again believer and began to walk closely with the Lord and study His Word with great fervor and passion. My mind was being renewed and over time, I learned to trust the Lord with my cares and worries and cast them upon Him like 1 Peter 5:7 tells us to do:
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
Yet, even though I was renewing my mind with God’s truth, I still suffered from panic attacks from time to time over the years. I used to think that my struggle with anxiety and depression made me a very weak Christian who lacked faith in God. But that, my dear friends, is not true.
Because sin exists in the world, so do sickness and brokenness, and no one is exempt from any of it. Although we have been redeemed and our eternal salvation is secure in Christ, as believers, we still are subject to suffering in this fallen world that we live in. God may not cause pain, mental illness, disease, or traumatic experiences, but in His great sovereignty, He does allow it, and He promises to be with us in every circumstance because of His great love for us.
The other night, I experienced a panic attack. There was a brief moment where I was given the opportunity to resist the negative thoughts and take them captive and begin to talk to God like I had learned to do so many times before, but this time, I chose to let my mind run in circles. I was so familiar with the experience of a panic attack that I could literally feel it try to overtake me right before it happened. If I would have set my mind upon scripture in that moment, I would have realized that God offered me a solution for my anxious thoughts. A simple conversation with the Lord would have helped me focus my thoughts and would have brought immediate peace to the whirlwind in my mind.
Intersecting Faith and Life:
Our answer is found in fixing our gaze upon the Lord and anchoring our minds to His unwavering truth. No matter what is going on around us, we can find an unshakable confidence in the Lord because He is ever-faithful to us. This is why staying in the Word consistently is so important when experiencing stressful or unstable times. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17) and the more we are studying the scriptures, the stronger our trust in God becomes. The Word of God is so powerful and the more we study and meditate upon it, our foundation will be strong in Christ, and we will continually know how to look to Him any time stress and anxiety tries to overtake us. Let us always be quick to ask the Lord for His sustaining grace and help in our time of need, looking to Him always because He cares for us. No matter what is going on around us, even if it seems like everything is falling apart, we must remember that God holds the entire universe in His hands. He is completely sovereign. Nothing passes through His hands by accident. He is in total control and has a great plan regarding all of it; We can trust in Him and rest in His great, perfect peace, as He calms the storm of our anxiety. Let us set our mind upon Him and learn how to continually cast our cares upon Him.
Further Reading:
Philippians 4:6-7
Matthew 6:34
Psalm 55:22
Photo Credit: Unsplash/Joice Kelly
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