Anxiety is a thief it steals your thoughts it steals your peace it steals your confidence
it steals your joy what good has worry ever done for you all of that anxiety how's that working out
is it productive it's not productive at all worry is like a rocking chair makes a lot of
movement but you don't go anywhere if you don't live with an anchor of faith you're going to
drift in a sea of anxiety and most people in the world they don't have anything to anchor
they have no real grand scheme or purpose in life well worry is a huge problem isn't it
but worry has never done anybody one ounce of good there's no upside to worry
worry is useless I like to use the example of sitting in a rocking chair you can sit in a
rocking chair and rock all day and it keeps you busy but you get absolutely nowhere and that's
the same way it is with worry you can worry all day you can stay awake and worry all night
you can worry for a week or a month and it's not going to do any good but it can do a lot of harm
worry is a complete waste of time and energy there's no shortage of things to worry about
so you just have to make up your mind do I trust God
for a child of God to be always anxious and always worried is in effect saying I don't trust you God
you said some pretty cool things that make me feel good for a little while when I read them
but then I go out and live my real life and I don't expect that you're really going to make
good on any of these things so to be consumed with worry and anxiety betrays a lack of trust
in God caring for you the cure for worry is to redirect your energy and replace your anxiety
the bible gives us a name it's called casting you're familiar with the verse First Peter
chapter 5 verse 7 casting all your cares upon him because he cares for you so don't carry
your cares cast your cares so casting all your cares upon him so the thought here is
to redirect your energy and replace your anxiety with what with prayer why is it
that the very first thing we should do ends up being the very last thing we even try
prayer it's like you know we just let this thing go when we wrestle with it and we
and we it gets worse and worse and then finally we go man there's nothing left to do but pray
yeah you know we should have thought that two days ago when this whole thing first started
we should have immediately let that go and cast that and then kept doing that
as a process along the way Jesus said to his disciples men not always to pray and not to faint
so think of it this way when you're tempted to worry worship when you're burdened
bow because when you do that you are focusing now on God's greatness your thought gets off of the
concern the care of you and it gets on to God and his greatness worship and worry cannot coexist in
the same heart they are mutually exclusive if you start worshiping you're going to find your
worries diminishing and if you start worrying you're going to find your worshipping diminish
and I believe that one of the things that we have to have if we're not going to worry
is a strong belief in the power of prayer I think if we really watch how God answers prayer
sometimes we pray about things and then later on maybe six months later or even a year later
God answers them and we forget we even prayed about it and so we don't give God the credit
if you have to keep a keep a prayer journal keep a record of the prayers that God answers and the
things that he does for you how do you get rid of worry you pray and you believe that when you pray
you're giving God your problem well if you're giving it to God then you can't keep it too
you either give it or you keep it and so when you pray you're giving it over to God and you're
saying God I'm trusting you to do something about this casting all of your care all your worries
all your concerns once and for all on him for he cares for you affectionately and
he cares about you watchfully how do you humble yourself casting your care on God
faith prays faith doesn't worry faith prays worry nullifies prayer if I'm going to pray
about something then I then and worry about it too then my worry cancels out my prayer
the act of prayer says God I trust you and worry says God I don't trust you
doesn't the bible say that we can cast our cares upon him
First Peter 5 7 therefore humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that he might
exalt you in due time casting all of your care what percentage of our care
25 percent Lord I don't I'm worried Lord you're not going to worry enough so I need to worry about some of it
if I don't worry who's going to worry casting all of your care upon him
why because he cares for you James Stewart wrote a little poem
it is his will that I should cast my care on him each day he also bids me not to cast my confidence
away but oh how foolishly act when taken unaware I cast away my confidence and carry all my care
sometimes that's what we do it says cast all your cares upon him
God will take care of you First Peter 5 7 says cast your anxieties on him why because
he cares for you Psalm 55 22 it says cast your cares upon the Lord he will sustain you he will
never let the righteous fall I love that because in those two texts we're given the same command
cast your anxieties on the Lord don't stuff them down give them to him but you're given two very
different motivations as to why the first one is cast it on to him why because he cares about you
and the second one is cast upon him why because he will sustain you why do we cast our cares upon
the Lord other than just he commanded it to be so because he's strong enough to do something about
it and he's loving enough to want to what feels heavy to you is not heavy to him and he wants to
carry those things and he wants to carry you but I like the thought that your concern is his concern
it's his worry and he's not worried it's his concern so hands up worries down
or in the words of the hymnest what a friend we have in Jesus all our sins and griefs to
bear what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer oh what peace we often forfeit
oh what needless pain we bear all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer
the things that you worry about sometimes you look back and you say you know God worked it out and I
wasted all the joy I could have had during that time and peace and good witness worrying about
things I didn't need to worry about God took care of it listen to this this is a classic
worry is blind it cannot discern the future but Jesus sees the end from the beginning in
every difficulty he has his way prepared to bring relief our heavenly father has a thousand ways to
provide for us of which we know nothing when you're praying oh Lord I don't know how you're
gonna solve this problem God says what do you mean how I'm gonna say I got a thousand options
there's so many answers we can't see any he's got a thousand
believe the promises of God believe he's with you believe he's in control
no matter what the problem is God has an answer God knows and sees your situation you
may feel like God's forgotten about you but I can promise you that God has not forgotten about you
God is everywhere all the time and he is not surprised by your situation
he knew about it before it ever happened and he's already got your escape planned
we receive grace only by faith and worry is not faith worry is our work trying to do what only
God can do let me say that again worry is our work trying to do what only God can do
but we've got to be prepared to wait when we give our problems to God
he's got a timing and it's not our timing
and you know the devil sends out a little demon to sit on your shoulder what are you
going to do what are you going to do what are you going to do what are you going to do
well if you don't know what to do just say I I don't know what to do but God does
Jeremiah 29:11 claim the promises of God for I know the thoughts that I think towards you
says the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future into hope you know
sometimes when we think oh God's going to do me in I've got all these problems and God said no
I'm going to take care of you don't worry all these other things will be added I'll take
care of your basics I'll take care of what you need therefore do not worry about tomorrow for
tomorrow will worry about itself George McDonald wrote few men sink under the burden of the day
it's when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today the weight is more than a man can bear
never load yourself so I mean it's one thing to be concerned about the needs of the day but
when you start saying I'm going to worry about all these other days people are often crushed by that
Matthew 6:34 says don't worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about
itself each day has enough trouble of its own E Stanley Jones said worry is the interest we
pay on tomorrow's troubles because worry always operates in the past or the future
you waste today worrying about yesterday are you waste today worrying about tomorrow and God
doesn't want you to do either one he wants you to enjoy today and live today one day at a time
you say well Joyce I just can't help it I'm just a worry or my mom was a worrier
and I'm a worrier don't say that you're not just a worrier you're a child of God
and his plan for you is good
God wants to set you free from worry