A Prayer about Throwing Off Anxiety

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7

Caring Father,

We live in an anxious time. 

Whether it is a crisis with our work, church, 

marriage, children, or home, 

or the larger global crises 

of pandemics and failing economies and war, 

we often feel the clutching in our hearts 

and the churning in our stomachs. 

How thankful we are that you invite us 

to “cast” our anxiety on you. 

We must often be intentional about taking 

that heavy sack of worries 

and heaving it on our Lord Jesus, 

who beckons us to come to him 

with our weighty burdens (Matthew 11:28-30). 

We must resist the evil one, 

who likes to tell us we’re alone in our anxiety, 

and no one else can understand (1 Peter 5:8-9).  

We must remember all of the ways 

you have rescued and redeemed in the past, 

both through Jesus Christ, 

and in our individual and corporate stories (Psalm 145:4,6). 

Finally, we must look to the future, 

remembering that one day 

our anxiety will end 

along with our suffering, 

and that we will know “eternal glory in Christ” 

when you, the “God of all grace…

will…restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish” us. 

What good news and great hope! 

In Jesus’ calming name. Amen. 

Read 1 Peter 5:6-11.