Soul Scientist

Isaiah 55:22 ESV Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.

Psalm 23:1 NIV The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

Jeremiah 32:17 CSB Oh, Lord God! You yourself made the heavens and earth by your great power and with your outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for you!

When a sheep falls over on its’ back, it is stuck until the shepherd comes along and sets it up on its’ feet. If the sheep remains stuck on its’ back, permanent damage to the sheep’s internal organs can occur. This damage is so serious that if the sheep is too long on its’ back, it can die, even if the shepherd puts the sheep back upright again.

“Cast” is a term describing a sheep having fallen over and being stuck and helpless without the intervention of the shepherd. Even a strong healthy sheep [often] can’t get itself back upright without help from the shepherd.

Scripture clearly tells us that we lack nothing because our God is our Good Shepherd. He knows every bit of our every one of our lives before we do. Scripture also tells us God doesn’t allow His righteous ones to be shaken.

We can trust God to provide what’s needed when it’s needed.

With all of this in mind, we can know that even if we are upside down (or “cast”) from hard challenges in life, we are never without God and thus, we are never without help.

Only God, our Good Shepherd, is the One Who can take care of every detail of our every need every time. If we trust God to do what He says He will do in Scripture, we can believe He will take care of every need, no matter how big or how small the need. In other words, we can have faith that God can and will handle all our burdens, even and especially when we see our worlds as upside-down from hard circumstances.

God calls us to daily cast our burdens on Him. He knows we can’t carry such a load on our own.

Life challenges can cast us and our lives upside-down. In the doing, challenges in life can make us susceptible to doubt which can be deadly to our faith. Yet our Good Shepherd God is watching over us. He stands ready, willing, able to pick us up along with our challenges, In return, He can give us a faith that brings life to us all the way down to the soil of our souls.

Scripture tells us nothing is too hard or impossible for God. And nothing includes any and every challenge we might face in life, including those challenges we face might face as consequences from sin (be it ours or others). Thus, we should choose to cast our cares upon God knowing that He can and will take care of every bit of everything that tries its’ best to cast our lives upside-down.

One of my all-time favorite quotes captured this idea about casting our cares upon our God in “God-fidence is knowing I can’t but God will.” And that’s what I tell myself over and over and over when I’m trying not to worry about something that is way bigger than I am. I say “I trust You, God, with today’s diagnosis” or “I trust You, God, with this bill, this job, this relationship, this closed door, or…”.

Most days, I have to say those words out loud so that my mind will line up with the truth my heart is trying its best to believe.

Some essential truths about God are this: God is always my Good Shepherd.

God will provide what’s needed when needed, even if the circumstances of my life seem to say the opposite. 

God is faithful, even if I am not.

And relying on God’s love can give me the strength to cast all my cares upon God today because I am confident He is able to carry them and me, too.

written by and copyrighted to Beth Madison, Ph.D., 2026.