Let's start in Matthew 6, Jesus is speaking
Said I tell you do not worry about your life what you'll eat or drink or about your body what you'll wear
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? Oh you have little faith
So do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear?
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself
Each day has enough trouble of its own and then in Philippians 4 do not be anxious about anything
But in everything by prayer and petition with
Thanksgiving present your requests to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus
Jesus said very plainly very repetitively do not worry
I'm of the opinion that if Jesus says not to do something he has our best interests at heart
He's not being meddlesome. He's not trying to limit us. He's concerned about our well-being and we've missed something
Something has eluded us. We have tolerated something in our lives in our thoughts in our emotions
We've tolerated something allowed it to flourish that in reality is destructive that Jesus has said don't do that
That we are so twisted and tied up and and melting down in our own
Worries and problems and we forget that we have a Heavenly Father right there saying do you want my help?
And we just got to say I want your help and trust that he can do what he needs to do
Let him do the work that needs to be done. Look if you're counting on yourself to solve all of your problems
Then of course, you're worried and stressed out. It doesn't matter how strong or wise or capable how charismatic you are
It doesn't matter how much wealth or influence you have
You are not designed to be able to take on everything and handle everything you will have more problems
Come at you than what you are capable of handling
When you carry the responsibility of everything, then you have to do everything you have to find the solutions
You have to choose the right direction. You have to power through problems. You have to plan for the future make adjustments
And you have to do all of it at the speed of life. Yeah, you're stressed out. You're worried. Of course
But God does not want you to do it on your own
He wants you to recognize that he is there to lead you to walk you through to guide you through every
step of the way
And here's the deal
He doesn't want to just give you every resource that you need to get through your problems
He wants to be what you need in every situation
It's amazing the problems that are solved the moment that you decide to trust God
in everything
because when you trust God you don't have to try to figure anything out anymore
As you lean on him, then you take the pressure off of yourself
Because you don't have to try to figure stuff out
You don't have to try to change things that you've already tried a million times to change and the more you try to change the
more frustrated it makes you
Because you can just finally say well God I'm trusting you with this
And if you can't change it then I guess they don't need to be changed
The only way you can learn to stop worrying and
Stop trying to figure things out
Stop being jealous of what other people have
Is I just honestly think that in addition to studying the word I think that we just have to try it our way long enough
To finally just get worn out enough
To just say okay God I surrender. You know that beginning, you know the end and everything in between
You know every flaw that I have every fault that I have, you know, every weakness that I have as well as my strengths
I surrender. So many times I have just said God I don't know what to do. God I'm overwhelmed or God
I'm in over my head and you know, I've said this many times God help please
It doesn't have to be long. It doesn't have to be eloquent. I don't have to have the answers or the solutions
I just need to go to the one who does have the answers
Have you ever been on an emotional roller coaster
I mean, you're just up you're down you're this way. And you know what God says, I'll take care of that
You ever go to bed thinking about it
Wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it. In the morning you get up you're thinking about it
Man it has captured your thinking God says I'll take your emotion and your thinking through Christ Jesus
First Peter 5:7 says cast all your cares on him because he cares for you
And what that means is that we take all of our problems and our worries and we choose to place it in God's hands
And Say I trust that you will handle the outcome
Are you confident that you can take your problems and your worries and place it in God's hands and that he can handle everything
Worry is the anticipation of the negative
In fact there's a relationship between faith and worry
It's inverse
faith diminishes as worry flourishes
Or as your faith flourishes your worry will diminish
Worry is the negative expression of what faith in God is
One of them would be I don't want Jesus to ever look at me and use my name and
person of little faith in the same sentence
do you
I want to be a man of faith
Worry are you saying I don't think God can handle this
So I'm gonna pick it up and I'm going to invest emotional energy and my thoughts and my anxiety
I'm not gonna change the outcome a bit Jesus said you can't add one hour to your life
God can add years
God has the best solution for all of our problems. He sees and knows everything
He sees the future. He understands every angle of what is going on in your life right now
He understands how people are viewing it and perceiving it. He sees the best solution to your problems
He's incredibly wise when I worry
I am basically saying I am afraid that my life is not going to be that I would the way that I want it to
but when I trust that God has the best solution I am saying God
I believe that you have the best way for me
even if it's not the path that I chose or that I came up with
And we can trust that if we follow God and if we trust him he will give us every resource that we need
Every step of the way and that at the end he can turn that into something wonderful and beautiful
And let me tell you if you have someone who loves you enough and who is strong enough and who has the best solution
What do you have to worry about
See the reason that worry exists so often is because we just think it's normal
It's not normal. It's common, but it's not normal. It doesn't have to be in our life and it's robbing us of God
It's robbing us of our family
It distracts me from God in people it robs me of my joy and it exists because I allow it to exist
Listen to what I'm saying
Worry exists and anxiety exist because we allow it we are in complete control of our lives
God would never command us to do something that we don't have the ability to do
Worry is a choice and trust is a choice. You can't do both at the same time
You have to choose to put your trust in God
Put the full weight of your problems and your life and your future into his hands and let him carry it
Worry and anxiety means the devil has implanted something in your life
that's just sitting there intimidating you
And because of that you can't focus on God in the people that you love and that's the greatest problem with worrying anxiety it robs you
Of your ability to worship to love the people that you love so it's an enemy
The root of all fear worry and anxiety is an orphan spirit
because orphans are on their own and they have to take care of their own problems
And the devil wants you to feel as though that you're on your own and you have to solve your own problems
You have the best father in the universe stop grieving over the father
You didn't have and start rejoicing that you have the best father in the universe and he loves helping you process
Anything in your life
Nothing is too small. Nothing is too large. He just enjoys the ride
He just enjoys the relationship and as we're sitting here obsessing about something what it means is we're wasting the relationship
He does see your problems and he wants to help you God's love
for you is so immense and that means that you can come to him with anything and
everything
We don't have to lead lives that are defined by worry and anxiety and fear
Doesn't mean those things won't come and they may even come with justification
But Jesus said we don't have to worry about that
He is my provider he is my protector he is my promoter
He is the person that I longed for in every relationship. He is the place that I look to to find home
He is my professor to reveal beautiful new things to me
He is everything that I need and everything that I longed for when I go to him
The key to peace is not being able to solve every problem. The key to peace is resting in who God is
When we give God control there's a beautiful promise that he will never leave or forsake you
Man, we can walk in that path in that promise towards peace
He doesn't want you to be overwhelmed with worry and problems
He wants you to be overwhelmed with his love for you
And you may be saying look you don't understand how many problems I have how many issues and how much I've gone through
Well, you know what God says no matter what you have
I want to take all of your problems all of your worries all of your failures all of your sin all of your brokenness
Give it to me because I can handle it and the truth is only I can handle it