Casting your cares on Jesus

A couple nights ago I wrestled with anxiety all night and couldn't fall asleep. There were many things on my mind, all of them being about my past and my future. The night has a way of making everything seem more complicated and worse than it really it is causing anxiety and fear. (Obviously the work of the enemy since he does his best work in the darkness) So I don't think it is a coincidence that a few days later I came across this verse:

Psalm 25:22

Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fail.

What does it mean to cast your cares on the Lord? We really need to know. If we understand, we can go through anything with peace in our hearts. Does it mean to offer up a prayer? Not necessarily. Many prayers have been prayed without a sense of peace. Praying does not guarantee internal rest. Our requests of God can be acts of anxiety rather than acts of faith. When we're stressed, our prayers often even accuse Him of not keeping His Word. There's more to casting cares than asking Him to help.

It makes no sense to cast our cares on God and then take them up again. When we trust Him without concerns, we ask Him to manage them. We actively watch, not ignorantly wait. We expectantly believe, not aggressively intervene. We act when He says to act and sit still when He says to sit. We obey His instructions cause we know He's in charge...and we are comfortable with that.

We can go to sleep at night knowing we can do nothing more effective than acknowledging His wisdom, power, love and Lordship. We can wake up without a single burden, because our burdens are on His shoulders.