TELL ME WHY SHOULD I WORRY?

Some folks are praying about certain situations and are getting no results. They don’t get an answer because they are not praying in line with the Word of God. They are not doing what God said to do about cares, anxieties, worries, and concerns. It is not going to do any good to pray concerning your cares, anxieties, worries, and your concerns unless you are going to do what God tells you to do about them. In other words, there are some things about which we do not need to pray – about which we should not pray.

This surprises some people. They say, I thought you were supposed to pray about everything.” Well, you aren’t. There are many things you don’t have to pray about and shouldn’t pray about.

You don’t have to pray about the Bible, for example. You need to just accept God’s Word and believe it. The Bible is true, and it will read the same way when you get through praying as it did when you started praying. Therefore, if you would just believe what the Bible says and do what the Bible says, you would not have to do some of the praying you’ve been doing.

Some way or another some people seem to get helped temporarily by just thinking of or acknowledging the fact that God knows and understands what they’re going through. But they still hold on to their cares and, thus, they don’t receive deliverance from their problems or situations. God wants to deliver you out of all your afflictions (Ps. 34:19).

But in order for God to help you, you’re going to have to cooperate with Him. You’re going to have to do what the Word says. You’re going to have to cast all of your cares on Him, for the Lord cares for you (1 Peter 5:7).

If you want to receive total victory and deliverance, it is not enough just to know that God knows and understands and cares. We must go on from there and do what God said in His Word to do. God wants us to cast all of our cares, all of our anxieties, all of our worries, and all of our concerns upon Him, for He cares for us!

This is the prayer of commitment, the prayer of casting or rolling our burdens – our cares, our anxieties, and our worries – upon the Lord. A verse in Psalm 37 may help us see a little more clearly what Peter was talking about in First Peter 5:7.

PSALM 37:5
5 Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; andhe shall bring it to pass.

The margin in my King James translation says, “Roll thy way upon the Lord.” The words “cast,” “commit,” and “roll” are all words that convey the same thought. We are to simply cast or roll our cares upon the Lord. We are to commit our way and our cares to Him. Isn’t that what the Bible is saying in these verses? We are to cast or roll our cares over onto the Lord.

Notice God is not going to take your cares away from you. You are going to have to do something about your cares by casting or rolling them over onto the Lord yourself.
Some people request, “Pray that the Lord will lighten my load.” But the Lord is not going to do that. No, the Lord tells you what to do about your cares. And if you don’t do something about them, nothing will be done.

I say as humbly as I know how, that if you hold onto your cares, your praying will be in vain. It’s as simple as that. So cast your cares upon the Lord.

You cast your cares upon the Lord (1 Peter 5:7).

“You” is the understood subject in First Peter 5:7. You cast all of your cares or burdens upon the Lord. In Psalm 37:5 it says, “Commit thy way unto the Lord….” “You” is the understood subject of this verse too. In other words, you commit your way unto the Lord.

PSALM 37:5 (Amplified)
5 Commit your way to the Lord – roll and repose [each care of] your load on Him; trust (lean on, rely on and be confident) also in Him, and He will bring it to pass.

You roll your cares upon the Lord. You commit your way to Him. If anything is plain in God’s Word, it is this: God does not want His children to be full of worry and anxiety, burdened down with the cares of life or bowed down with worry, anxiety, and concerns.

MATTHEW 6:25-27
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

What Jesus is simply saying is, which of you by worrying and being overly anxious is going to change anything? You can’t do it; you can’t change anything simply by worrying. The same thought is recorded in Luke chapter 12.

LUKE 12:22
22 And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, TAKE NO THOUGHT FOR YOUR LIFE, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on.

Another translation reads, “Be not anxious about tomorrow.”

We know we have to think about some things and make some plans concerning our future. But the main thought in these scriptures is, God doesn’t want us to be filled with worry and anxiety about tomorrow. He doesn’t want us to be burdened down with care about tomorrow. Even though we have to think about the future sometimes so we can make some plans and provisions, we can do so in a carefree, anxiety-free, worry-free manner.

LUKE 12:25
25 And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?

No one can “add to his stature one cubit” or change the circumstances of his life simply by thinking about those things and worrying about them.

Notice again what Paul said in Philippians 4:6: “Be careful for nothing….” We’ve been a little blind to that truth and have not readily grasped what this scripture is saying. Again, I believe the Amplified translation will help us.

PHILIPPIANS 4:6 (Amplified)
6 Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything….

I want you to notice something, friends. This is something you do. I want to reiterate it. Too many times people want to pray and get God to take away their worries and their anxieties. But it is not scriptural to pray that way and it won’t work. God will do something about your worries and anxieties – about the problems you face – but not until you give them to Him.

Again, here in Philippians 4:6, “you” is the understood subject. So when God says, “Be careful for nothing… ,” He is actually saying “You be careful for nothing.” He is saying, “You don’t fret or have any anxiety about anything” (Phil. 4:6 Amp.).

The American Standard Version says, “In nothing be anxious….” The rest of that verse says, “. . . but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”

It is also important to realize that as long as you are going to fret or have anxiety about whatever it is you are praying about, you are nullifying the effects of your praying.

In other words, if you are worrying about something, you haven’t cast the care of your problem on the Lord; you still have it, and you’re not trusting God with it. And if you have it, the Lord doesn’t have it. But if the Lord has it, you don’t have it!

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