How can I turn all my worries and problems over to God?

But let not this weaken our sense of the liberty we have to bring all our desires, our every request, to God in prayer. Whilst we can look for a definite answer to our prayers, if acquainted with the mind and will of God, yet we know that it is according to His will that we should "cast all our care upon Him." Have we a care or an anxiety about any thing, remember that He bids us "be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." However foolish our "requests" may seem, let us not demur on that account to draw nigh, but in childlike confidence bring them unto Him. He will grant them if it would be good for us, and if not, if they be foolish or wrong, He will teach us better. He says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God." Your very difficulty may be darkness and uncertainty of mind. Go and tell God that you do not know what to ask for; this is your need, and your need is the very thing to be carried to God. He will meet you there; "it shall be given him." God loves the confidence and seeking to Him of His children. We should ourselves like our children to tell us all their wishes, all their wants, leaving it to us to act as we saw right about them. Ho has all the feelings of the father's heart towards His little ones. But "praying in the Spirit" is our privilege, and the more blessed when in full understanding also.

We may have a great deal of trial (we know we shall) — trial from circumstances around, trial from within, exercise of conscience and the like; but still we have the perfect certainty of God's favour; "and if God be for us, who can be against us?" (Rom. 8:31.) With Paul we may reckon, because of His having given Jesus for us, along with Jesus upon everything. This is the true way to reckon upon His kindness. "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:6-7.) Observe, he says, "the peace of God." Again, the word is, "Be careful for nothing." If one single thing were excepted, God would not be God. Well, if exercised and troubled in spirit, tempted to be "careful," let us go to God about it. Our wishes may possibly be foolish wishes, still let us go and present them to God; if they are so, we shall very soon be ashamed of them.

Then, too, we may express in prayer all the manifold needs of our own souls. "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:6-7). This word is the more remarkable from the fact that it is found in the very chapter in which the apostle assures us, "My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (v. 19). Still, notwithstanding this blessed confidence, God would have us, with all the freedom of children, to make known to Him our requests; and though He does not promise to grant them in every case, He yet assures us that His peace shall guard our hearts. It is in this way, indeed, that confidence is established in our intercourse with God, that the priceless habit is formed of having no reserves with Him, and that intimacy of communion is cultivated. It is in accordance with this that the psalmist cries, "Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him" (Psalm 62:8); and that St. Peter says, "Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you" (1 Peter 5:7).

But, it may be felt, it is easy to write and to read, these words; the test lies in our daily experience. It is true; and the Lord, knowing this, has added, "Ye people pour out your heart before Him"; for He well knew that this is the way of reaching confidence in God. It is the same instruction in Philippians, where the apostle says, "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." It is indeed the all-efficacious antidote to fear and despondency to empty our hearts before God, and to do it continually - during the day as well as at our stated seasons of prayer. It was said by one of old that prayerful ejaculations in our daily lives are the "arrows of God's deliverance." And so they are; and on this account let us give the most earnest heed to the exhortation to pour out our hearts before God.

How then can we find relief? How is it possible to "Be careful for nothing"? Very blessedly the Apostle unfolds the way to be free, not necessarily of the trial, but of the burden of the trial, so that it no longer weighs the spirit down with care and anxiety. He says, "In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." Thus only shall we find relief. "In everything," whatever the trial may be, small or great, make it known to God in prayer; and tell God exactly what you wish, "let your requests be made known to Him." The requests may not be for our good, they may not be according to the mind of God; they may even be foolish, but we are to make them known to God.

And the way to cast all our care upon Him, so that we are anxious for nothing, is told us in this lovely verse in Philippians: "In every thing, by your prayer and by your supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God". Sometimes the load of care seems too heavy to cast it anywhere. Then the Lord invites us to "roll thy way upon the Lord" (Ps. 37:5: Margin). When we were children in Canada, in the winter, we would make great snowballs; and when they got too heavy to lift, we still could roll them. So roll that great load of care on Him, "because it is a matter of care to Him, concerning you," as the Greek so sweetly puts it. And in the Greek Testament two different words are used here for care. The one is "anxious, harassing care:" the other is God's loving "providential care" over us.*

Peter proceeds to say, "For God resisteth the proud." The love of God for His own neither ceases nor wanes — but if we are to know the nearness and blessedness of His solicitude and care, the feature of humility must of necessity displace that of natural pride, for "He looketh upon the lowly, and the proud He knoweth afar off" (Psalm 138:6). The apostle exhorts us to humble ourselves "under the mighty hand of God." The word "mighty" implies not only power and strength but also dominion; the name EL (the mighty One) occurs some 250 times in Scripture, and there are many references to the might of His hand. The beautiful words of Isaiah 40 shew us something of its majesty and power — "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out the heavens with a span, and grasped the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in a balance, and the hills in scales." Men at tremendous cost and labour and risk penetrate into the fringe of outer space — but God covers the whole of the heavens with the span of His hand; and the seas with all their power and vastness are held in the hollow of that same mighty hand. But, beloved brethren, that hand of power is the hand of love — "He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom." Well might this precious chapter commence "Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God." The whole chapter should be read. From the powerful, loving hand of the Father (and that also of Christ Himself) no power can wrest any one of His flock! Jehovah Himself, the Lord Almighty, is to be known as Father, all the love and care which that relationship involves is made available to every individual saint (2 Corinthians 6:17-18).

"Casting (or, having cast) all your care (every anxiety) upon Him." The word "casting" is an emphatic word — it really means "to fling" — to entirely part company with — and is so used in Luke 19:35, where the people cast their garments upon the colt, letting them completely go!

“Be careful for nothing.” That does not mean careless about anything; but knowing God as your Father, who cares about the smallest details of your everyday life, you can afford to leave the cares and troubles, and thus your heart has the peace of God in place of the carking care. Peter says, “Casting all your care upon Him; for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Many bring their cares to God in prayer, but receive little or no benefit, because they carry them away again instead of leaving them in His presence.

We know that the believers to whom Peter was writing were suffering. The word suffering is used in connection with them ten times in the epistle1 and because of these many trials they were in heaviness and distress (1 Peter 1:6). In chapter four we read of the fire of persecution that had come upon them (1 Peter 4:12). They were being persecuted by their Jewish brethren according to the flesh and by the unbelieving Gentiles. They were being persecuted by the power of Rome and it would seem from 1 Peter 2:18-20 that some were being persecuted by harsh and unreasonable employers. We can understand, therefore, how many cares they would be carrying. The first word for care in 1 Peter 5:7 signifies anxious, distracting, care. In his “Expository Dictionary of Bible Words” W.E.Vine says that it is probably connected with a word that means to draw in different directions. Who has not known something of this kind of care, this kind of anxiety? It is care that robs of quietness and sleep. The divine direction is that this care, not in part but the whole, is to be cast upon God. The reason for our doing so is then given “..for He careth for you” and here a different word for care is used. This is care of forethought and interest. It is demonstrated throughout the epistle and a consideration of some of the references to God will show this.

Then there is the sweet comfort: "Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you." All means all--all cares, whatever they are; all burdens, all anxieties we can roll upon Him, with the perfect assurance that He does care. Alas! our anxieties, our heavy feelings, our worry and our hurry, all speak the same language of unbelief. "Lord, dost Thou not care?" Well, it is if we look upon all burdens He permits to be laid upon us, as tokens of His love, by which we may learn His faithfulness afresh. Instead of murmuring then, we should sing and rejoice, being anxious for nothing, knowing He carries us and our burdens and cares as we can never do.