A mother and her 4-year-old daughter were preparing to retire for the night. The child was afraid of the dark, and the mother, on this occasion alone with the child, also felt fearful.

After the light was turned out, the child glimpsed the moon outside the window. "Mother," she asked, "is the moon God's light?"

"Yes," replied the mother.

"Will God put out His light and go to sleep?"

"No, my child," the mother replied, "God never goes to sleep."

"Well," said the daughter, with the simplicity of childlike faith, "as long as God is awake, there is no sense in both of us staying awake."

God expects you and me--with that same kind of childlike faith--to cast our cares upon Him in our times of need, knowing that He watches intently and gives attention to our every cry. He is lovingly concerned about each one of His children.

Did it ever occur to you that you are disobeying God when you carry your own burdens, when you are worried, frustrated and confused over circumstances? That is exactly what God's Word says in 1 Peter 5:7: "Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you" (New International Version). Not to cast all of one's cares upon the Lord is to disobey Him and to deny oneself a supernatural walk with God among men.

Is it not logical to believe that He who loved us so much that He was willing to give His only begotten Son would also be faithful to keep His promise to bear our burdens daily?

As the psalmist so aptly states, "What a glorious Lord! He who daily bears our burdens also gives us our salvation" (Psalm 68:19, Living Bible). For the believer, the day will never come when God fails to carry our load, to strengthen us, to impart power to us through His indwelling Holy Spirit--if we but ask.

One of the major burdens we must hand over to God is our fear. Is there some fear in your life over which you do not have victory? Whether it is great or small, you can gain victory over that fear through claiming, by faith, God's supernatural love for yourself and for others, for "perfect love casteth out fear" (1 John 4:18, King James Version).

No fear is too small for Christ to handle, and certainly none is too large. Fear of failure, of the future, of crowds, of heights--whatever--can cause even more distress than more specific fears. Yet in these instances God demonstrates His faithfulness to fill our hearts with His love and to cast out fear.

"If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room," declared Robert Murray McCheyne, a Christian statesman, "I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me: 'He ever liveth to make intercession.'"

Indeed, Hebrews 7:25 says of Jesus: "Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them" (NIV).

A man named George had tried to live a Christian life for many years but finally gave up. "It's no use," he said. "I have tried and tried and failed and failed. I have dedicated, rededicated, consecrated and reconsecrated my life to Christ, and nothing happens. I am a total failure."

I read him several verses of Scripture that emphasize the role Christ plays on our behalf at the right hand of the Father, such as the above verse in Hebrews. "Did it ever occur to you," I asked, "that Jesus right now is aware of your every need and is interceding for you?"

That thought overwhelmed him, and he fell to his knees with tears of gratitude. "Oh," he said, "I knew that Jesus died for me and shed His blood for my sins. But somehow I had never made the connection between the Cross and His present role of interceding for me."

When Satan tempts me to doubt God's Word, often I can visualize a scene that brings instant victory over the enemy. At the right hand of God is a room--a prayer room, if you please--and kneeling there is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, praying specifically for me and my needs.

Prayer is our mighty force for supernatural living and the most personal, intimate approach to and relationship with God. Through God's Holy Spirit, we have access to the Almighty, leading the way to supernatural living. What can be said of the power of prayer is even more true of prayer when it is combined with fasting.

In some theological circles, there is much skepticism and hesitancy about the Holy Spirit. We must not forget, however, that Jesus Himself had much to say about the Holy Spirit. In John's Gospel, for instance, Jesus explained to the disciples that it was necessary for Him to leave them in order that the Holy Spirit would come to them. "He shall guide you into all truth. . . . He shall praise Me and bring Me great honor by showing you My glory" (John 16:13,14, LB).

Just as the Holy Spirit transformed the lives of the apostles and the first-century disciples from spiritually impotent, fearful, fruitless men into courageous witnesses for Christ, He wants to transform our lives in the same way. We need only to surrender ourselves to the lordship of Christ and by faith we will be filled with His power.

It is the Holy Spirit who draws us to the Lord Jesus whom He came to glorify. He makes the difference between failure and success in the Christian life, between fruitlessness and fruitfulness in our witness. Through His filling of our lives with God's love and forgiveness, we are "born again" into the family of God. And it is the Holy Spirit who not only enables us to pray, but who also prays on our behalf: "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 with groans that words cannot express" (Romans 8:26, NIV). The Spirit empowers us for witnessing (Acts 1:8) and produces the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

With the knowledge that our sins are forgiven and the assurance of eternal life, we are also assured that our heavenly Father knows every burden we face--and, more importantly, bears them for us and intercedes for us. Our lives should reflect honor and glory to Him by the way in which we share His blessings and the message of His great love with others.

Allow no burden, fear, need, frustration or discouragement to defeat you any longer. Instead, visualize Christ Himself praying for you. And since all authority in heaven and earth belongs to Him, expect victory over Satan and all unseen forces of evil. Seek to explain this exciting truth with someone else today. Oh, what good news to share!

Adapted with permission from Promises, by Bill Bright, published by Here's Life Publishers, San Bernardino, Calif., 1983.

Bill Bright, founder and president of Campus Crusade for Christ, did five years of graduate work at Princeton and Fuller theological seminaries. He has received six honorary degrees, including doctor of law, doctor of divinity and doctor of letters, as well as the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. He has also written more than 50 books and booklets, and hundreds of articles.