Cast your Burden
As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice. ~ Psalms 55:16-17
I’ll never forget the moment I truly understood that God hears me when I call on Him. That realization transformed my prayer life—knowing that God is always listening, ready to walk with me. For years, I would pray, hoping God was listening, but still feeling uncertain, never really knowing if I was being heard or that something was going to happen or change. Even though by that time in my life I had already seen many prayers answered and had been calling out to Him often, I still didn’t have the assurance in my heart that He was listening.
Then once day I read a scripture that said: “When you call on Him, He will answer you.” There was no guess work in that statement and no maybes. It was a straight up promise, and something happened on the inside of my heart that day. Suddenly, I realized that God is not too busy to hear my cry and He isn’t to far away that He cannot hear me whisper. This realization was a game changer for me. After that moment whenever I prayed, I remembered that my heavenly Father was hearing me and was on the move after He heard me. I grew such a confidence in His ability to move on my behalf and change the world around me or just change my heart. My faith stance took on a hole new posture in my time with my Father because now I knew that He was listening and wanted to be involved in every area of my life.
Today’s verse is one of those promises in the scriptures that confirms that He hears my voice. Thank you, Lord! Then later on in this chapter verse 22 says to cast my burden on the Lord and He will sustain me and hold me up. He will never allow me to be moved when I am standing in faith and not trying to carry my burden alone. This means that whenever I am uneasy and having those anxious feelings of not being able to fix something or handle a situation, I can not only turn it over onto Him, but I can actually cast or throw it off like a heavy weight and feel the release of that stress and concern. When I give it over to my Father, He takes it from me, gets rid of it and holds me above the circumstances and gives me His peace in place of that stress. Glory to God!
He will do the same thing for you, but the key is in believing that He does hear you when you call and then trust that He has things in His control. You cannot cast your burden one minute and then start worrying all over again the next. The key is to cast your burden and truly leave it with God. Don’t pick it back up through worry or doubt. Once you give it to Him, trust that He is handling it. Release the burden, and thank Him for already being at work—even when you can’t see it yet. Don’t try to tell Him how to handle it, simply let Him handle it His way, because that will be greater than anything you could have come up with on your own. Trust Him today with whatever you are facing and let Him hold you up above the storms of life.
Today, I challenge you to take a step of faith: Identify one burden you’ve been carrying and cast it on God. After you’ve prayed, release it and stop worrying about it. Trust that He is at work, and every time anxiety rises, thank Him for handling it. Watch as He begins to transform both your situation and your heart.
God doesn’t wait until you call on Him to decide if He is going to help and He is not undependable. He is faithful and you can count on Him always being faithful to help! He will keep His promises and He promised that when you cry out to Him, He is right there ready to work on your behalf. Once you have that settled, begin to cast every concern, fear, worry and doubt over Him and He will sustain you. It may take some practice to fully trust that He is handling everything, but after you tell Him about what is going on, don’t keep telling Him over and over again. Release your burdens into His capable hands, and then begin praising Him for His faithful provision—whether you see the outcome yet or not. He will take care of every concern and in the process, He will change you into a worry-free person.
Today’s scripture reading: Psalms 55
1 Give ear to my prayer, O God, and do not hide Yourself from my supplication.
2 Attend to me, and hear me; I am restless in my complaint, and moan noisily,
3 Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked; For they bring down trouble upon me, and in wrath they hate me.
4 My heart is severely pained within me, and the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
5 Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, and horror has overwhelmed me.
6 So I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.
7 Indeed, I would wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah
8 I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.”
9 Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues, for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they go around it on its walls; Iniquity and trouble are also in the midst of it.
11 Destruction is in its midst; Oppression and deceit do not depart from its streets.
12 For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; Then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; Then I could hide from him.
13 But it was you, a man my equal, my companion and my acquaintance.
14 We took sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in the throng.
15 Let death seize them; Let them go down alive into hell, for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.
16 As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me.
17 Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice.
18 He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, for there were many against me.
19 God will hear, and afflict them, even He who abides from of old. Selah Because they do not change, therefore they do not fear God.
20 He has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him; He has broken his covenant.
21 The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart; His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.
22 Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.
23 But You, O God, shall bring them down to the pit of destruction; Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; But I will trust in You.
The Daily Dose 