An Answer For Anxiety
Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.
Psalm 55:22 RSV
Almost no emotion is as common as worry—and almost no emotion is as useless. Why? Because most of our worries either concern things that will never happen, or else things we cannot change. Jesus said, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Luke 12:25).
Someone once said, “Worry is the interest paid on trouble before it comes due.” Let’s cast our care on Him, remembering that He is “our salvation also in the time of trouble.”
Trust is one answer to anxiety. We find in the first place that we are to cast our care upon the Lord, and this is to be a continuing process. We aren’t only to take our burdens to the Lord; we are to leave them there. Needless anxiety is contrary to the lessons of nature.
Someone has written a little verse that goes:
Said the robin to the sparrow,
I should really like to know,
Why these anxious human beings
Rush about and worry so.
Said the sparrow to the robin,
Friend, I think that it must be,
That they have no heavenly Father
Such as cares for you and me.
Jesus used the carefree attitude of the birds to underscore the fact that worrying is unnatural. “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them” (Matthew 6:26). From this He went on to the lilies of the field. “And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matthew 6:28–29).
If He cares for tiny birds and frail flowers, why cannot we count on Him for every aspect of our lives? I know that modern living taxes the faith of the greatest Christians, but none of us should doubt the ability of God to give us grace sufficient for our trials even amid the stresses of everyday life. In the middle of our world troubles, the Christian is not to go about wringing his hands, shouting: “What shall we do?” having more nervous tension and worry than anyone else. The Christian is to trust quietly that God is still on the throne. He is a sovereign God, working out things according to His own plan.
Our Father and our God, thank You for Your constant care. Please give me the carefree faith and trust Your other creatures show. Help me to know You will always be there to catch me when I fall or to lead me through valleys of sorrow. Remind me of Calvary and Your amazing love for me. In the Savior’s name. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).