Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
1 Peter 5:7 (NIV)
Loneliness has a way of distorting reality. It doesn’t just make you feel alone—it makes you feel forgotten, invisible, like you’re on the outside of everything looking in. You can be surrounded by people at church, scrolling through dozens of social media posts, or sitting across from your spouse at dinner, and still feel utterly isolated.
That’s the particular cruelty of loneliness. It’s not always about physical isolation. Sometimes it’s about feeling like no one really sees you, understands you, or cares about what you’re carrying.
For years, I dealt with loneliness by trying to fix it through connection—reaching out more, being more social, trying harder to maintain friendships. And while human connection matters, I found that loneliness often persisted even when I was doing all the “right” things.
Then I started seeing 1 Peter 5:7 differently: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
I’d always thought of this verse in terms of worry and stress. But one day, sitting in that familiar feeling of loneliness, I realized: loneliness is a form of anxiety. It’s the anxiety of being alone, of not mattering, of carrying your burdens by yourself.
And the remedy Peter offers isn’t just about relieving stress—it’s about remembering you’re cared for.
Why Loneliness Is a Form of Anxiety
At first glance, loneliness and anxiety might seem like different emotional experiences. But the more I’ve sat with both, the more I see how connected they are.
Anxiety, at its core, is often about feeling alone with your problems. When you’re anxious, you feel like everything depends on you, like you have to figure it all out yourself, like no one else can understand or help with what you’re facing.
Loneliness amplifies this. It’s not just “I have to handle this alone”—it’s “I am alone. Fundamentally. Deeply. In ways that might not change.”
The Greek word Peter uses for anxiety is merimna, which carries the sense of being pulled in different directions, of being divided or distracted by cares. When you’re lonely, that’s exactly what happens internally. You’re pulled between the desire for connection and the fear that it won’t come, between reaching out and protecting yourself from more disappointment.
Peter’s instruction to “cast all your anxiety” includes this. The loneliness you feel—the sense of isolation, the fear that no one really cares—that’s meant to be cast on God too.
The Heart of the Verse: “Because He Cares for You”
The second half of 1 Peter 5:7 is where this verse speaks most directly to loneliness: “because he cares for you.”
Not “he might care” or “he cares in general.” He cares for you. Personally. Specifically. The Greek word here is melei, which means to care for, to be concerned about, to have something matter to you.
Your loneliness matters to God because you matter to God.
This is crucial to understand because loneliness lies. It whispers that you don’t matter, that you’re forgettable, that your struggles and your pain are insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
But 1 Peter 5:7 directly contradicts those lies. God cares about what you’re carrying—including the weight of loneliness itself.
When I’m lonely, I often feel like I shouldn’t bother God with it. Loneliness can feel so personal, so petty compared to “real” problems. People are dealing with serious illness, financial crisis, real suffering—and I’m just… lonely. It feels self-indulgent to bring that to God.
But Peter doesn’t qualify which anxieties we should cast on God. He says all your anxiety. The loneliness that sits in your chest on a quiet evening? Cast it on him. The isolation you feel even in a crowded room? Cast it on him. The fear that no one really knows or understands you? Cast it on him.
Because he cares for you.
How Loneliness Shows Up in Everyday Life
Loneliness isn’t always dramatic or obvious. Sometimes it’s subtle, showing up in small moments throughout regular days:
- Scrolling through social media and seeing everyone else’s connections and gatherings, feeling like you’re missing something
- Having good news or a hard day and realizing there’s no one you feel comfortable calling
- Being in conversations where you’re participating but not really connecting
- Feeling like you’re going through the motions of relationships without real intimacy
- Carrying concerns or struggles that you don’t feel safe sharing with anyone
- Experiencing significant life events—birthdays, holidays, milestones—with a sense of emptiness despite being around people
- Living in a small town where you know everyone but feel known by no one
This everyday loneliness is different from clinical depression or severe isolation that requires professional help. But it’s still heavy. It still affects how you experience life, how you relate to others, and how you understand yourself.
And it’s exactly the kind of burden 1 Peter 5:7 invites us to cast on God.
What Casting Loneliness Looks Like Practically
Understanding that God cares about my loneliness is one thing. Actually casting it on him—especially when loneliness feels so persistent—is another.
Here’s what I’ve learned about casting loneliness on God in practical, everyday ways:
1. Name the Loneliness Honestly
I’ve found that vague prayers about “feeling isolated” don’t help much. Instead, I try to be specific about what the loneliness actually feels like.
“God, I feel invisible today, like I could disappear and no one would notice.”
“Lord, I’m lonely even though I was around people all day. I feel like no one really sees me.”
“Father, I’m carrying this burden and I have no one I feel safe talking to about it.”
Getting honest about the specific shape of my loneliness helps me actually hand it over rather than just acknowledging it exists.
2. Remind Myself That God’s Care Is Present, Not Distant
Loneliness often makes God feel distant too. When you feel alone, it’s easy to project that isolation onto your relationship with God—to assume he’s as far away and uninterested as everyone else feels.
But 1 Peter 5:7 anchors me to a different reality: God cares. Right now. Not in some abstract, theological sense, but in a real, present, personal way.
I’ll pray it back to God: “You care about this loneliness. You care about me. Your care is real and present, even when I can’t feel it.”
This isn’t about generating feelings or convincing myself of something untrue. It’s about aligning my perspective with what’s actually real, even when my emotions tell a different story.
3. Bring God Into the Lonely Moments
One practice that’s helped me is inviting God specifically into the moments when loneliness hits hardest.
Sitting alone on a Friday night while everyone else seems to have plans? “God, I’m bringing this loneliness to you. Sit with me in this.”
Lying awake at night feeling the weight of isolation? “Lord, you’re here. I’m not as alone as I feel.”
Experiencing a moment where I wish I had someone to share it with? “God, I’m sharing this with you. You care about it.”
This doesn’t instantly fix the loneliness. But it does practice the truth that I’m not abandoned, even when I feel abandoned by people.
4. Let Go of the Outcome
Here’s something I’ve had to accept: casting my loneliness on God doesn’t always mean God immediately provides the human connection I’m craving.
Sometimes I pray, release my loneliness to God, and… I’m still lonely the next day. The phone still doesn’t ring. The deeper friendships I long for still haven’t materialized.
This used to frustrate me. If God cares, why doesn’t he fix it?
But I’ve come to see that casting loneliness on God isn’t primarily about God changing my circumstances. It’s about God carrying what I cannot carry alone, and reminding me that I’m cared for even when my relational life feels empty.
God’s care is the constant. Human connection ebbs and flows, friendships go through seasons, circumstances change. But God’s care—God’s attention to me, his concern for what I’m experiencing, his presence with me—that doesn’t waver.
Casting my loneliness on him means trusting that his care is enough, even when I’m still waiting for other needs to be met.
Loneliness in a Small Town
Living in a small town creates a unique experience of loneliness. You’re surrounded by familiar faces. You see the same people at the grocery store, at church, around town. Everyone knows your name.
But knowing someone’s name isn’t the same as knowing them. And being known of isn’t the same as being known.
Small town life can create a particular kind of loneliness—the loneliness of being visible but not seen, of having surface-level connections but little depth, of being part of a community where everyone knows your business but no one knows your heart.
1 Peter 5:7 has been crucial for me in this context. It reminds me that being truly known and cared for isn’t primarily about finding the right community or the right friendships—though those matter. It’s about being known by God, cared for by God, held by God.
That doesn’t make human connection less important. But it does mean that my deepest need for being known isn’t dependent on other people finally understanding me.
When Loneliness Persists
I want to be honest: I still experience loneliness regularly. Meditating on 1 Peter 5:7 hasn’t made me immune to feeling isolated or disconnected.
But it has given me a place to take those feelings instead of just sitting in them or trying to ignore them.
Every time loneliness shows up, I have a choice: carry it alone (which is what loneliness wants me to do), or cast it on God who cares for me.
Some days I’m better at this than others. Some days I remember to pray and release it to God multiple times throughout the day. Other days I forget until I’m lying awake at night, heavy with isolation.
But the invitation remains constant: cast it on him, because he cares for you.
Finding Scripture for Your Emotions
If 1 Peter 5:7 resonates with your experience of loneliness, you might find it helpful to explore other Bible verses that speak to the range of emotions you experience—whether that’s anxiety, sadness, anger, joy, or fear.
That’s why I created The Bible Jar—a simple web app that connects you with Bible verses based on specific emotions you’re feeling. Sometimes we know we need God’s word but aren’t sure where to start. Having a tool that meets you where you are emotionally can open up new ways of engaging with Scripture.
You Are Not Alone in Your Loneliness
Here’s the paradox: loneliness makes you feel like you’re the only one experiencing it. But loneliness is one of the most common human experiences, especially in our current cultural moment.
If you’re reading this and identifying with what I’ve described, you’re not alone—even though loneliness tells you that you are.
More importantly, you’re not alone because God is with you. Not in a distant, impersonal way, but in the way 1 Peter 5:7 describes: as someone who cares about what you’re carrying.
Your loneliness matters to him. The isolation you feel—even if no one else sees it—he sees it. The burden of feeling unknown and unseen—he knows, and he sees.
That’s not just theological truth. It’s an invitation to a different way of experiencing your loneliness.
You can cast it on him. You can bring it to him honestly, repeatedly, as many times as it shows up. And you can trust that his care for you is real, constant, and more reliable than any human connection.
The loneliness may not disappear overnight. But you don’t have to carry it alone.