Cast Your Cares: How to Offload Your Worries, Stresses, and Fears

What if you could offload every worry, every stress, and every fear you’ve been carrying? How do you actually cast your cares on the Lord?

Two of the most significant verses in my life provide profound guidance on this topic: 1 Peter 5:7 and Psalm 55:22.

“Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).
Other translations say, “Let all your anxieties fall upon Him,” or “Throw back on Him the burden of all your anxiety, for He cares for you.” "He makes you His personal concern, His priority."

What’s weighing you down? Hand it over to Him. Why? Because He cares for you.

“Cast your cares on the Lord, and He will sustain you” (Psalm 55:22).
When we give Him our worries and fears, He doesn’t just take them away, He sustains us. He holds us up, strengthens us, and enables us to keep going.

But how do we do that? How can we make this real and actionable?

A Simple Illustration
Imagine a scale piled high with coffee beans, each one representing a worry, stress, or fear. At first, removing one bean doesn’t seem to make a difference. The scale doesn’t budge. But as you keep taking beans away, eventually the scale shifts, the load lightens, and you realize the weight is decreasing.

Prayer is often like that. It may feel like nothing is happening, but over time, the load is being lifted. I also think of shoveling a large pile of gravel or chopping a stack of firewood—it seems endless at first, but little by little, the pile shrinks until it’s gone. That’s how it feels when we continually cast our cares on the Lord.

Pastor BJ Willhite offers another vivid image: “Some days you’re digging holes, some days you’re planting poles, some days you’re stringing wire, and then one day the circuit is complete, and you make contact.” At times, it may seem like nothing is changing, but something is happening.

How to Cast Your Cares
1 Peter 5 and Psalm 55 invite us to do something powerful: transfer our cares to the Lord. Here’s how:

1. Name Your Cares. Identify what’s weighing on you.
- “I’m stressed about my kids.”
- “I’m worried about my health.”
- “I’m afraid I won’t have enough money for groceries or bills this week.”
Whatever it is, name it.

2. Hand Them Over. Picture yourself giving your worries to God. You don’t need actual coffee beans or a scale to do this—it’s an illustration. Simply say, “Lord, this is what’s weighing me down. I’m giving it to You. Please carry this load.”

3. Trust Him to Sustain You. Psalm 55:22 promises that when we cast our cares on Him, He will sustain us. He fortifies and strengthens us for the journey ahead.

A Daily Practice
Making this part of your daily prayer life can help transform the way you handle stress. For example, when I pray through Psalm 23 (“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want…”), I take a moment to transfer my cares to Him:
- “Lord, here’s what’s troubling my soul today. Here’s the fear I’m carrying. I’m handing it over to You. Please sustain me in this.”

There’s an old song that says:
“I cast all my cares upon You.
I lay all my burdens down at Your feet.
And anytime I don’t know what to do,
I cast all my cares upon You.”

(Cares Chorus lyrics © Kelly Willard, 2012)

This simple prayer-song is a beautiful way to cast your cares on the Lord. Whether you say it, sing it, or simply listen to it, it’s a reminder to hand over your burdens to the One who cares for you deeply.

Take a Moment Right Now
What’s weighing you down today? What worries, stresses, or fears are on your mind? Take a few moments to name them, hand them over to the Lord, and let Him sustain you.

Cast your cares on Him because He cares for you. Cast your cares on Him, and He will sustain you.

​(Watch the video for the full teaching.)