Sometimes I slip into treating prayer like it’s some kind of game show. Ask for the right things, get 10 points. Ask for the wrong thing, but with the right motive, lose 10 points. Ask for something selfish, and that little whammy guy comes out and steals all your points and you lose a turn.

I have absolutely no Biblical reason for this. God isn’t giving out bonus points for asking for the right things. He’s well aware that He knows more than we do about what is best for us. He’s even aware of all those selfish things I want to ask for, and probably finds it funny that I pat myself on the back for thinking I kept them a secret.

1 Peter 5:7 is an interesting verse. In the NASB it reads “casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.” But the KJV uses “care” in place of anxiety. “Care” has a lot of definitions, and I’ll yield to the Biblical scholars that they mean the same thing. But in modern English, you could paraphrase that to mean entrusting your care to Him, like you cast the care of your child onto a teacher or the care of your health to a doctor. If you read it this way, the next line just affirms the first.

These two ways of reading the verse don’t contradict each other. They are actually reinforcing. We can trust God with all of our worries, because He cares for us. And because we can trust Him to care for us, we should entrust Him with our care.

I don’t treat prayer like it’s a game show because I’m afraid God will be mad at me for asking for something He doesn’t want me to have. I do it because I’m afraid He’ll give it to me, and it’ll be my fault for asking it! But this is so flawed. Part of casting our care and worries onto God means trusting Him to tell us “No” when that’s the best answer. Paul says in everything by prayer…make your requests known to God. He didn’t say God would grant them. He says the peace of God will guard our minds in Christ Jesus. That’s the answer He wants to give us.