Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.
(Ps. 55:22 NKJ)

This verse has a lot to say to us about personal challenge and encouragement. Its three main power words are:

1. Cast
2. Burden
3. Sustain

Cast means "to throw, hurl, abandon, or toss away as no longer needed or wanted." It also means "to dispense with something in such a way as to have nothing more to do with it."

Our cares and our burdens are to be thrown away, abandoned into God's care, dispensed with so that we have nothing more to do with them.

Burden is a word used to describe a load of anxiety that weighs a person down. It has to do with one's lot in life, his particular sphere of influence, his daily duties and responsibilities.

Various Bible scholars have defined the expression "your burden" in the following ways: "God's gift to you," "your hope," "your allotment," "your portion," and "your cares, travails, and troubles that go with your business or your occupation."

Sustain is a good word. It has to do with upholding, feeding, nourishing, supporting, and taking care of. God gives us a life to live and then invites us to turn over to Him the weight of it all so He can carry us and the load.

Incidentally, Peter, quoting from the Septuagint Old Testament, gave us the same words in the New Testament setting: "casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you" (1 Pet. 5:7 NKJ).

God cares for you. Shift the load from you to Him. Then relax, because He knows what to do with it!

Source: The Spirit-Filled Believer's Daily Devotional by Dick Mills
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers