Norman Vincent Peale once said that people are so uptight that they don’t sleep in church anymore. There is much in our world and in our lives that produces stress in our inward being. On the world scene we thought that the fall of the ‘iron curtain’ would greatly reduce our stress as we got out from under the nuclear cloud. Now we are faced with a worldwide threat of terrorism that at any time could become quite personal. It seems that our national economy is always in a state of stress that spills out into our lives as we are overtaxed, underpaid, and too many bills left at the end of the month. Add to that the uncertainty of our own employment, the unknown of our approaching retirement situation, and the exorbitant cost of healthcare. No wonder we are stressed out.

Add to all this for us Christians the changing morals and the cultural battle we constantly face every day as we try to raise our kids with a Christian worldview in a climate of secular/humanistic principles. And this adds even more stress to those who are endeavoring to faithfully follow Jesus.

Interestingly enough, the Bible never uses the word ‘stress,’ but stress is certainly experienced by people in the Bible and the concept of stress in clearly seen in the Bible. One such incident involved a man by the name of Hezekiah, King of Judah. There are times when we are the cause of our own stress. In this situation, however, Hezekiah’s stress was caused by another man, Sennecherib, King of Assyria. The Assyrian armies had been knocking off country after kingdom. In the ancient world, the Assyrians were the most ruthless and brutal of armies. Now he was threatening to destroy Jerusalem and take over Judah. If that doesn’t produce stress, then nothing would.

How did Hezekiah handle this stress-filled situation? Look at verses 14-15a, “Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the Temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord….” Of course there are other aspects of handling stress in our lives. Oft times however we are guilty of rushing into the other ways of handling stress, looking for quick and easy fixes that we fail to start at the place where the Bible starts and that is prayer. It is through prayer that we off-load stress “casting our cares on Jesus because He cares for us” as Peter wrote (1 Peter 5:7). Paul wrote to the Philippian Christians these words, “Don’t be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”(4:6) Then follows the good news and the great promise for us, “And the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

King Hezekiah went before the Lord with his stress causing situation and “spread it out before the Lord.” Look at this prayer. He is praying in all honesty: “The Assyrian Kings have laid waste to the nations and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them.” Then King Hezekiah makes a major pronouncement by saying, “But their gods were name of wood and stone, but you are the living God, the Creator over all the kingdoms of the earth.”

Hezekiah, the King, humbles himself before God and is totally honest in talking with God about the situation. And he asks for deliverance. Notice here Hezekiah’s motive. Most of us pray and do prayer for deliverance to save our own hide. But look at 18:6, “He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow Him…and the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook.” Hezekiah’s motive was far greater than his own personal relief from his stress. Look at verse 19, “Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that You alone, O Lord, are God!” Hezekiah is not as much concerned that his own neck is spared nor even for his people to be unharmed. He asks that God may be glorified in the midst of the nations of the earth. We don’t come by that kind of prayer overnight. This happens when a person “holds fast to the Lord and does not cease to follow Him.” Early in our Christian experience our prayers are childish and self-centered and this is only natural and quite normal. But as we grow and mature spiritually we are able to pray in a more non-selfish manner where it is more about God’s Kingdom and other people than about ourselves. We call this Christian maturity or as John Wesley would describe it as ‘going on to Christian perfection.’

Over in the New Testament as I mentioned the Apostle Peter wrote, “Cast all your anxieties (stresses) on Him (God) because He cares for you.” This is exactly what King Hezekiah did, “He spread then out,” i.e. he cast them before the Lord.” I like that image. It is an image of unloading our stresses. In slang language we could call it ‘dumping.’ In a very real way we could refer to our church as ‘the dump.’ Not a pleasant, uplifting and inspiring thought, is it? Yet in practical Christianity that is exactly what is suppose to happen right here at our church…in worship, in Sunday School, small groups, prayer meetings, revivals, et al. We are to come into God’s presence just as we are with all the trash and garbage of our lives and dump it, cast it down, lay it down, and get rid of it. All the stuff that is stressing us out, all our sin, all our baggage that overburdens us, all the junk that is junking up and cluttering our souls, spirits, hearts and minds, bring it all to God’s dump and leave it there.

The word ‘cast’ that Peter uses here is used only one other time in the New Testament and that is found in Luke’s account of that first Palm Sunday when the disciples cast their garments on the back of the donkey for Jesus to ride on. It’s as if Jesus is saying, “Cast all your stresses on Me as you would cast your garments on a donkey. I’ll carry them for you.” And many times we need to cast ourselves upon Him so that He can carry us through!

The verb ‘cast’ means ‘that which is done is done,’ a once-for-all decision. The reality of our experience is that we often understand the term ‘casting’ as with a fishing rod and reel in that we cast out the line, reel it in, cast it out, reel it in, cast it out and reel it in—time and time again. That is exactly what we do with our stresses, anxieties and worries. We cast them on the Lord and then reel them right back and cast them on the Lord and reel them right back again. No wonder then we don’t experience ‘the peace that passes all understanding.’

In Psalm 55:22 we read, “Cast your cares on the Lord” and this is followed by 2 promises: “He will sustain you” and “He will never let the righteous fall.” Like Hezekiah, when situations occur over which we have no control, we can cast our cares, our stresses, and our anxieties on Him because He cares for us.

As Hezekiah came before God in his time of stress, He came in total openness and honesty—laying it all out before the Lord. When we come in the same open and honest way, God begins to work helping us to analyze the situation and leading us into solutions.

What is stressing you out? What worries are hounding you? What anxieties are causing you to lose sleep? What burdens are making your irritable?

Let me invite you to dump all, to cast all your cares on Jesus because He loves and cares for you!