“Casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully].” (1 Peter 5:7, Amplified Bible).
Every day, we strive to complete our responsibilities, relying only on our own strength. Yet, for believers, we also face many unexpected the spiritual warfare of challenges and temptations that test our faith, trust, and obedience to God.
“I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13). Without asking Christ for His strength to accomplish our tasks for the given day, we deplete our mental, emotional, and physical resources.
Can you imagine carrying a backpack of heavy stones as you perform your daily tasks? From using our thoughts and strength to navigate through life, we pick up Mental and Emotional Stones: Using emotions to react to challenging situations and people.
Collecting Stones: Stones are our emotional reactions, including doubt, fear, failure, discouragement, anger, and hopelessness, that impact our rational thought processes.
The “stones” we collect every day remain in our minds, and as the weight grows heavier, we cannot remain positive or enjoy Christ’s blessings of peace, joy, and happiness.
When we have put forth our best efforts and the outcome is not what we expected, we blame ourselves and begin to accumulate the “mental stones” of failure, stress, fatigue, disappointment, anxiety, and worry.
Stones produce a negative perspective: As we reflect on our day, we are unable to focus on our accomplishments; instead, we focus on the failure to complete our to-do lists, which are often unrealistic. Instead of relaxing after a taxing day, we think about various ways to complete today’s unfinished tasks and tomorrow’s responsibilities.
Although we desire to have positive interactions with our family, friends, neighbors, and others, it is an unrealistic expectation. Many individuals react to stress by communicating with emotional responses.
Stones cause us to overreact: If we take things personally, instead of telling ourselves, “Some people are just difficult, it’s not about me, or “Everyone has a bad day, so their reaction was not about me,” then we pick up the “emotional stones” of anger, hurt, embarrassment, disappointment, and feeling let down.
Taking everything personally leads to harboring feelings of sustained anger and resentment. Remaining upset provokes us to replay the negative interaction, which prevents us from enjoying a peaceful sleep, and our mental, emotional, and physical health begins to decline.
Stones cause Spiritual Decline: Most importantly, our Stones cause us to lose our spiritual perspective. We cannot focus on our spiritual journey with Jesus. Our daily personal worship of Prayer and Bible Study ceases, and our reciprocal relationship with Christ gradually declines. And sadly, we do not recognize that we are separated from Christ.
There is a better way to live! Jesus Is Our Stone Gatherer: “Then Jesus said, ‘Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.'” (Matthew 11:28, NLT).
Giving Our Stones to Jesus Requires Two Actions: First, We Are Who God Says We Are: We Are Loved by God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and the recipients of God’s Grace. Do not practice self-criticism! Incorporate time management skills into your life by asking the Holy Spirit for guidance in your daily activities.
Secondly, a believer’s life is comparable to a soldier’s life: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” (Ephesians 6:10-11, NIV).
In John 16:33, Jesus tells us that His followers will face a life of continuous temptations and struggles. Satan uses people to speak harsh words to upset us so that we will become angry and sin against God with unrighteous responses. “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger…” (James 1:19).
From whispering a prayer for strength, the Holy Spirit will tell us when to respond and when to remain silent when confronted. To avoid collecting Stones, we must depend on Jesus’ Strength and Guidance, which requires us to stay connected to Him through a life of continuous prayer and praise.
A Relationship with Christ built on faith, trust, obedience, and daily prayer, and study of the Holy Scriptures is the only way to have “An Unbothered Mind.”
The Believer’s Privilege of Prayer
“Therefore let us [with privilege] approach the throne of grace [that is, the throne of God’s gracious favor] with confidence and without fear, so that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find [His amazing] grace to help in time of need [an appropriate blessing, coming just at the right moment]. (Hebrews 4:16, Amplified Bible).
Prayer allows us to have a heart-to-heart connection with Jesus, our Creator and Shepherd, who “cares about you with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully.”
Invite Christ into every little detail of your life. Not only will you receive peace, but the Holy Spirit will give you the wisdom to resolve every challenge. We reflect the love of Christ to others through gentleness and self-control, eliminating the need to retaliate with emotional responses.
Reflection: How many times a day do you pray? Whispering prayers throughout our day keeps us connected to Christ, our Source of Strength, and the Giver of Spiritual Peace, Joy, and Contentment.
“There is necessity for diligence in prayer; let nothing [stop] you. Make every effort to keep open the communion between Jesus and your own soul. Seek every opportunity to pray.”
God’s Divine Love Revealed: 24/7, We Have Total Access to Christ!
“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27, NIV).
We do not have to understand the Divine Pathway of how Jesus receives and answers our prayers. Whether spoken or silent, Christ tells us to “pray without ceasing,” and He will empower us with His Divine Strength, Guidance, and Wisdom.
“Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.” (Isaiah 65:24, NIV).
Brothers and Sisters, stop collecting Stones! Use your faith to depend on Jesus. Our Heavenly Intercessor waits for us to seek His Help.
Even if our backpack of Stones is overflowing, Jesus is waiting for us to cast those Stones at His feet, and He will deliver us from the weight of life’s challenges and empower us to live with an unbothered mind. Yes and Amen!
“I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you and continued My faithfulness to you.” (Jeremiah 31:3, Amplified Bible).
Lord God, thank You for Your Amazing Love and Faithfulness that never changes. We desire to begin a consecrated life of prayer; a life that is free from the stony weights of emotional reactions, uncertainty, burdens, anxieties, and worries. Jesus, today, we commit to redirecting our faith and trust back to You. And we thank You for the privilege of Prayer, and in faith, we ask this prayer in the Righteous Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
© 2026 STEPS 2 Success with Spiritual Solutions Ministry
Steps 2 Success with Spiritual Solutions 
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