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What can I do about worry in my life?
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Simple. Question answered, article done! In reality, it can feel impossible to practice. Thankfully, our victorious Savior overcomes our worries, doubts, and anxieties, allowing us to live confidently for God.
Worry defined
Concern is righteous. God delights in faithful farmers, dedicated dads, and zealous students. He implores us, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord” (Colossians 3:23). We are to be faithful stewards of our time, talents, treasures, and relationships. Concern is a fruit of faith.
Worry is very different from concern. Concern stems from a love for God and a desire to serve him to the best of our abilities. Worry, however, stems from an unhealthy fixation and preoccupation with the future. Worry comes from a craving for control and an uncomfortableness in things beyond our domain. Worry lacks trust in the power of a good God who controls all things for our benefit. Worry is a sin that needs to be drowned along with our old Adam daily.
God’s cyclical solution to worry
The devil sends trouble into our lives. He prowls around, hoping to prey upon us by using our stresses to turn us from God. But God has another idea! God uses our difficulties, the very things Satan uses to try to drive us away from God, to unite us and bring us closer to himself. How? Through a simple three-step cycle.
- Hardship: An unpleasant predicament appears on the horizon. A trial lies in the future. We’re floating along today, but tomorrow is another story! Difficult situations in our future attempt to drain us of our present joy. We’re tempted to think, overthink, and fret about the future—to fall into the sin of worry. But instead of looking inward, God directs us outward to himself in prayer!
- Cast off: Prayer, simply stated, is communication between children of God and their heavenly Father. Prayer is a complete trust in God, a complete confidence in his care and control, a casting off of worries from ourselves onto God. Casting off our worries does not eliminate troubles. Our trying circumstances may remain. But by casting them off of ourselves and onto God, we are giving up responsibility for remedying our situation. Instead, we are faithfully submitting to God, entrusting him with our whole lives, the good and the ugly. In prayer, we let God be God. We let the One who holds the universe together hold our lives together as well.
- Fill up: Prayer is emptying our lives of worry. Studying God’s Word is filling up our lives with joy. In prayer, we speak to God. In our study of the Bible, God speaks to us. It’s in Scripture that we learn and relearn about the God who “cares for you.
Psychology may offer its own version of casting off through mindfulness, grounding techniques, and the like. But what it can’t offer is the filling up that comes only from God. The Bible alone fills in the void left by our cast-off cares.
Through this repeated cycle, we are emptied and filled. We speak with John the Baptist in a little different sense, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30 English Standard Version).
All means “all”
“Cast all your anxiety on him” means that we cast off all our worries. All means “all”! Of course we take our big worries to God. We also often (rightly!) share life’s major burdens with other Christians so that they can encourage us to cast off and fill up.
But we should cast off our small worries as well. There is no worry too insignificant to entrust to our Father in heaven. He wants to take on all of our worries. He’ll lift the 50-pound dumbbell for us—and the 5-pound dumbbell too! All means “all.” Always!
A tale of two sisters
Luke chapter 10 provides a biblical case study on the cycle of casting off and filling up. We encounter two women: One was full of worry. The other models for us how to cast off worries in order to be filled with overflowing grace.
Meet Martha. I know her well, as I am her and so are you. Jesus came to visit her home, and she wanted everything to be perfect. Striving for misplaced perfection, Martha focused her heart on herself and her preparations. She missed sitting at the feet of true perfection and missed the very reason he came—to fill her up! She filled herself so full of worries about the preparations that there was no room for Jesus. Jesus gently pointed out the condition of her heart: “Martha, Martha, . . . you are worried and upset about many things” (Luke 10:41).
Meet Mary. By God’s grace, I know her well, as I am her and so are you. Mary cast all her cares out of her mind. She emptied herself of everything so she could be filled with the only thing needed—Jesus. Jesus explained, “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42).
The trouble with worry is that it only produces more worry. If you’re worried that you’ve worried too much and are a Martha—cast off that worry too. Today, see yourself as a Mary. God’s mercies are new every morning. Let today be a day at the feet of Jesus. Cast off and be filled.
Author: Aaron Bush
Volume 113, Number 05
Issue: May 2026
Curbing worry
Praise God that he did not create us with the same mysteriously complex ability he has of holding all things in his mind simultaneously. Although we may wish we could solve all the world’s problems at once, God—in his infinite wisdom—designed our brains with the ability to think about one thing in a given moment.
Let’s lean into this natural design to curb worry. When worry creeps in and tries to make a home when you want it to make an exit, have another thought ready to ponder. Choose to use your brain’s single-focus ability to think about what is true, noble, and right.
But what exactly do you think about? There are so many great choices:
- Memorize a Bible verse. I find comfort and perspective when repeating the words Jesus spoke to Martha in Luke 10:41-42 but replacing Martha’s name with my own: “ ‘Hannah, Hannah,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one.’ ”
- Open Scripture to your current reading plan or read a devotion.
- Use your senses to think about the blessings God is giving you. Smell the scent of your favorite lotion, feel the warmth of the coffee-filled mug in your hand, observe the way the light is reflecting on your ring, notice the laughter of a child, enjoy the taste of chocolate—go, get some! (Seriously, look up the benefit of eating dark chocolate when worried and thank me. Well, thank God.)
- Reflect on a list of God’s attributes (God is faithful, good, loving).
- Sing a favorite hymn or psalm, taking time to think about the words.
Hannah Bush
