Living to Win Over Anxiety
Tom Shrader addresses anxiety as painful uneasiness over real or anticipated events, teaching from Philippians 4:6-7 that worry offends God and weakens believers. He outlines what not to worry about (necessities, uncertainties, frivolities) and presents prayer with thanksgiving as God's solution, promising His peace that transcends understanding will guard hearts and minds.
“When I worry, I'm acting like a pagan, and it is an offense to God because God tells you not to.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Living to Win (2005)
Recorded: April 07, 2005
Duration: 41 min
Themes: anxiety, worry, peace, prayer, thanksgiving, trust, faith, contentment, struggling with anxiety, overwhelmed parent, financial stress, health concerns, worried believer, sleepless nights, decision making, daily pressures
Scripture: Philippians 4:6-7, Matthew 6:25, Luke 12:24, Matthew 6:34, 2 Timothy 4, James 4, 1 John 2, Romans 3
Theological Themes: philippians, biblical peace, prayer life, gods provision, thanksgiving, spiritual warfare, trusting god, divine peace
Full Transcript
Today marks session three of our eight-week series titled "Living to Win," subtitled "Identifying and Unraveling the Entanglements of Life." We're examining eight things that can get you tangled up, hoping to help you work your way through them. We've covered guilt and weakness in weeks one and two. Next week we'll talk about fear, then worthlessness, loneliness, stress, and uncertainty. This week focuses on living to win over anxiety.
When we talk about anxiety, you may have your own definition. I tried to define it myself, writing phrases like "useless worry" and "internal uneasiness." It's that thing that may not allow me to sleep or causes me to wake up in a cold sweat without being able to identify why. Webster does surprisingly better than I did, defining anxiety this way: "Painful uneasiness of mind over an impending or anticipated event." Let me read it again: painful uneasiness of mind over an impending—something real—or an anticipated—something imagined—event.
Interestingly enough, Webster lists "care" as a synonym for anxiety, which threw me. When I think of care, I don't think of anxiety. Care is that gentle, loving, come-alongside quality. But anxiety is this uneasiness. So we'll go back to that idea of useless worry, this uneasiness over something that is real or something that is anticipated. Webster seems to acknowledge that it may be an event out there in the future that we're waiting to come to pass, or it may be something we're anticipating that never happens. Someone once gave me a note that said, "Don't tell me worry doesn't help. Nothing I've ever worried about has happened."
What We'll Cover Today
Today we're going to examine three or four areas: things not to worry about, reasons not to worry, a great risk that comes when you worry, and then we'll give you a positive solution or approach to this problem.
I did a little research on what people worry about over the last fifteen to twenty years, and things haven't changed much. People worry about rising prices, schedules, financial emergencies, lack of relaxation, family illness, personal health, making decisions, and money for the basics. You've got a lot of money-related concerns in there. Loneliness, children, and aging parents all came in at about 18-20% of people worrying about them. These percentages don't total 100% because people may worry about multiple things simultaneously.
I found it interesting that many people of my generation are caught in a vice, with concern for their aging parents on one side and ongoing concern for their children who don't seem to mature on the other. They're getting pressure from both ends.
The Sandwich Generation Dilemma
Erma Bombeck wrote a terrific story about this. She was driving her mom one day when she came to a light that changed suddenly. Realizing she'd have to stop quickly, she put on the brakes and instinctively reached over to grab her mother to keep her from going forward. She said it was like a moment in time where she saw the roles had reversed. She thought of all the times as a little girl when her mom would put on the brake and reach over to stop her and make sure she was safe. There's real pressure that comes from both ends.
Susan was with someone just the other day who didn't look too good and seemed stressed. It was all about their children—the dynamic in the home wasn't what they'd like, and the kid wasn't responding the way they'd like. So now you're getting pressure from both ends, which is a tough deal.
Things Not to Worry About
Whatever it is when we're dealing with anxiety—whether it's illness, financial concerns, or other issues—we want to give you some way to address them. Let me share three things not to worry about, starting with the necessities.
That seems odd, doesn't it? Matthew chapter 6 and Luke chapter 12 are parallel passages. In Matthew 6:25, Matthew says, "Therefore, I tell you, don't worry about your life, what you'll eat, what you'll drink, your body, about what you'll wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes?"
Then He says, "Look at the birds of the air. They don't sow, they don't reap, or store in barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them." It's interesting—He says it's your heavenly Father who feeds them. "Are you not much more valuable than they are?" Perhaps if we're catching you at a bad time and your self-image is low, I'll answer the question for you: You are far more valuable than a bird.
"Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to His life? And why do you worry about clothes? See the lilies of the field, they don't spin, they don't labor, yet I tell you not even Solomon in all His splendor was dressed like these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"
Jesus is speaking here in Matthew chapter 6 and again in Luke chapter 12 around verse 24.
That here is this idea of what I'm going to wear, and where I'm going to live, and what I'm going to eat. He goes to nature and says, look at the way God provides for these birds, and aren't you more important than them? The answer is yes, and you will be taken care of.
Often times in scripture there is this tension. On one hand, He's saying God's going to take care of all of this, but don't think that's a license to go home and watch The Price is Right and Let's Make a Deal and Oprah, thinking God will somehow magically put money in the bank when you check. What He's saying is, as you work, as you labor, God is going to meet your needs.
That "needs" is important to define, because it may not be all of our wants. We may say what we need is this house, a certain kind of house. But God's going to provide you something. We may say we need filet, and He may give you a tube steak, hot dogs, but He'll meet those needs. That's the point. I don't have to be stressed about these necessities. God's going to take care of them.
Consider the Ravens
In Luke's account of this, Luke chapter 12, Luke records Jesus saying, "Consider the ravens." Matthew records Jesus saying, "Look at the birds." I remember when I was teaching through that passage, the word "consider" has a heavy analytical aspect to it. It's ponder. It's not just consider for a moment. It's not think about. It's meditate on the raven. Look at, in an analytical way, the raven.
I took two days, went on the internet, did a bunch of research about the raven. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to consider the raven. At the end of two days, after all of this, my conclusion was: when He says consider the raven, and then how God takes care of them, I look at the raven and ask, what does the raven do?
The answer is, the raven does exactly what God's designed him to do. What does he do? Well, he takes in nourishment. He gets over my car and eliminates the nourishment, and he procreates. That's kind of what he does. He does what he's designed to do, and God takes care of him.
What's the message to you and me? Do what God's designed you to do, and God's going to take care of you. Again, that's not a license to be lazy. It's not a license to say, I'm not going to plan. It may be that He's going to take care of you at His level and threshold, rather than yours. But I don't need to be uptight about this.
The Problem of Moving for More Space
Our church is in Gilbert, right next to the Chandler border. We're on the west side of Gilbert, where the area is really growing, not really around us. I'm looking at a map the other day, and we're in the process of evaluating all sorts of things we're doing at the church. One of the things we're trying to do is geographically figure out how to get our arms around this area, as we have a lot of people who drive a long way.
We have a map with a dot that represents an address for everyone who considers East Valley Bible Church their home. I'm noticing more and more people moving down south. As I'm talking to people, they're saying a lot of our people are moving further away. They're moving further to South Chandler, South Gilbert, out to Queen Creek, toward Johnson Ranch.
I'm asking, why? Why would you move out there? I don't get that. Well, they're moving out there because housing prices are less expensive, and it's a great time to move out there, and they can get another 350, 500 square feet. Let me help you out with that. That is really stupid. That is dumb.
You've just added a half hour to 45 minutes to your commute each day, each way. You've taken your whole base of support—all your gals running to the store together and going to have coffee. Your kids are in the same school. You've broken down all of your support. You're whining because you're alone anyway, because your family's in other cities. You have your own family here, and you break it down. You add the commute—another hour to an hour and a half each day. You're already frustrated driving, and you're doing it for 500 square feet. Are you nuts?
"Well, we just had a child, and they need a bedroom." Put them in with another kid. They don't need their own room. This is really stupid thinking. We may say we want a bedroom for every kid, but God's going to provide you something.
Don't Worry About Uncertainties
You don't need to worry about the uncertainties, for a variety of reasons. You can't control them. You don't even know, in a lot of ways, what is certain. I was reading a book—I like books about the end of life or guys as they're dying. I'm more interested in that aspect, your last 10 years, than your first 30.
I'm reading this book about a guy who discovers he's got some problems. He goes to the doctor, and the doctor says, "You've got cancer. You've got maybe a year or two to live." The book is an account of those last years. He immediately
calls together two of his friends, and he tells them, "This is the diagnosis. This is what's going to happen. And something could change, but this is what it looks like is going to happen." And these guys were all concerned, and they're buddies. They're friends. They feel for it. And they were young men. They were in their 30s.
Within the next year, both of those guys were killed in individual car wrecks. And I thought, there's the story. You don't know. You don't understand. Now, statistically, it isn't going to happen that way.
When Susan had her surgery last week, and then the doctor, who's a good friend of ours, comes out, and I'm trying to get from him some accurate assessment of not just where we are, but where are we going to be? What's going to happen? And he said, "Tom, let me just tell you what I've seen in the past. I've seen situations where there was a small little tumor, and we took that tumor out, and there wasn't anything around it, and there weren't any lymph nodes involved, there wasn't anything else, and in six months, that person's dead. I've seen other situations where there's cancer everywhere, and six years, and that person survives."
And the reality is, and it's interesting because these last three or four months, I get a lot of... when the word's out that Susan has cancer, then a lot of people want to give me and particularly her stuff to read, and diets, and don't take any pills, and all that stuff, and I just take it and give it to Susan and let her digest it and do whatever she wants with it. His point was, we can't explain where it came from. We don't know when it came. We don't know where it's going. And we don't know because in some cases, you can absolutely change a diet, and you'll see something change. In other cases, we've seen medicine, and the reality is it's uncertainty. And that's just a microcosm for life. You just don't know. That's the point. And so it's also silly to worry about it.
The Frivolities of Life
And then the third thing not to worry about are the frivolities of life, those things that really aren't important and yet dominate so much time. I think of fashion. You know, it is so funny to me to watch, literally, I can go to my closet and pull out these beautiful argyle sweaters that I've for 15 years been going to throw out. And when I wear one now, the kids, the high school and college kids are coming up and saying, "Man, where did you get that? That is so cool. I want to get one of those." And I'm saying, "Well, you got to go back to Johns or whatever it was 30 years ago where they had it or Mills Touche or something." So don't worry about those things.
Reasons Not to Worry: It Offends God
Here's reasons not to worry. Number one, it offends God. There's certain sins that we have sanctioned in the Christian community. If you're gay, you're screwed in our economy. If you're divorced, you might as well be gay. I mean, that's kind of where we are. We just, we bury those sins, not excuse them, just saying we bury those. And if you get somebody that can't drive past a Krispy Kreme, we somehow think that's okay. You get somebody, every time we have a Christian event, we load it up with sugar and this and we got people who are fat. And it seems to me that unless there's a medical reason, that's a sin. That's what it says.
Another sin that we sanction is this sin of worry. So they say, "Well, she's worried. Well, she's just that way." Well, that's like telling the adulterer, "Well, he's just that way." It's a sin to worry. Why? Because God tells you not to.
And when I worry, I'm acting like a pagan. So when we think of that, we hear that word pagan, we think of a native somewhere carving a little statue and burning some sort of candle or burning some sort of sacrifice to this god of stone or wood. A pagan is someone who's worshiping an idol, which is anything that's taking the place of God. So you have pagans all around you. They may have iPods and computers. They may be living in this 2005 on their own jet planes, but they're pagans. They're flying in their pagan or they're listening to their idol. When I begin to act like a pagan and think like a pagan, no matter what I call myself, it's an insult to God. God says not to worry. And when I begin to worry, it is an offense to Him.
Worry Weakens You
It also, secondly, weakens you. All of a sudden, resources that you have that are finite—time, energy, effort, even money—is now distracted toward these things that may never happen. In fact, Matthew chapter 6, verse 34, at the end of that little section, Jesus says each day has enough trouble of its own. And if I start taking the resources I have for today and start worrying about tomorrow, I'm going to run out of stuff pretty fast.
And it also denies a reality. It denies the reality that, in fact, God is in control. "Don't lose heart, though. The outer man is decaying. The inner man's being renewed day by day, for momentary light affliction is producing in us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, because we look not at the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen, because the things that are seen are temporary. The things that are not seen are eternal." All of a sudden, I'm beginning to look at things, I'm diverting my resources, and I'm denying the reality that Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit love me and are going to take care of me.
The Greatest Risk: Worry Chokes Your Growth
Here's the greatest risk to your worry, is that it'll choke your growth. There's a guy, and he's kind of an anti-hero for me in the Scripture. You meet him three times in the New Testament. His name is Demas. Paul has Demas as part of his traveling support team. Twice, Paul mentions Demas in a positive light, either at the beginning, greeting letters, or more often at the close, where he'd say, "Luke and Timothy and Demas, these guys who are with me, say greetings to you, hello to you, bless you, wish you the best," that kind of a thing.
In 2 Timothy, chapter 4, it's the last record we have of Paul's writing. 2 Timothy, chapter 4, at the end or the close of that book,
Paul writes to Timothy and says, "Come quickly to me. Only Luke is with me. Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me." When I first read that, I remember thinking, "Wow."
I was a big Larry Wright fan and still am. I had a chance the other day to speak at a place where Larry's daughter and son-in-law are involved in a church plant. When I was done, it's customary to give gifts, which is a cool thing. They gave me a gift in a box about like this, and this box was filled with CDs containing every recorded message that Larry ever delivered. Here's this magnificent resource for me, and I love to listen to Larry. If I had to pick a teacher to listen to, I honestly think Larry would be the guy I'd listen to.
But imagine hanging with the Apostle Paul. Imagine listening to Him preach, and listening not even to the matters that are recorded for us, but listening to the discussions He had sitting at night as you're sitting under the stars at the end of the day, winding down and talking about life. Imagine that. And Demas walks away from that. Why? He loved His present world.
James has an idea in James chapter 4, and John talks about it in 1 John chapter 2, and it's this conflict: don't love the world or the things of the world. James says it this way: don't be an adulterer and have an affair with the world. They're in conflict. If you love the world and the things of the world, the love of the Father is not in you. Having loved this present world, Demas walks away. All this worry, all this stuff begins to distract me.
What Not to Worry About
We've got 25 or 30 minutes in this. What should I not worry about? Well, don't worry about the necessities, and don't worry about the uncertainties. Don't worry about the frivolities, and don't worry because it's offensive to God, and it will weaken you. It denies the reality that God's working in your life, and it will ultimately run the risk of having it choke your growth away.
So what do you do? If you have Bibles with you, open them to Philippians chapter 4. We'll spend 15 minutes there. Philippians chapter 4, verses 6 and 7. Let's read it, and we'll come back and break it apart: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all human understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."
The Ultimate Solution
Here's what you should do. Here's the ultimate solution. Number one, acknowledge that apparently you have the ability to stop worrying. That's how He begins: "Do not be anxious about anything." He's not saying here, don't have concern for people. He's not saying, don't be caring about people. That's absolutely appropriate, but here's what He's saying. The answer to this whole idea of worry is not in action or apathy, but it's in a proactive approach. Do not be anxious about anything.
Well, what should I do? "But in everything"—so worry about nothing, but in everything, pray. Pray, petition with thanksgiving, and present your request to God.
Prayer and Thanksgiving
Frequently, as you're navigating your way through the scriptures, when you see some discussion about prayer, you will see it coupled with the idea of thanksgiving. Oftentimes, when you see a discussion on prayer, coupled with it is the idea of "God, here's what You've done, and I am so grateful." There's that little acronym, ACTS: adoration and confession and thanksgiving and supplication. When I am in this thankful spirit and I begin to contemplate what God's done for me, my experience is that praise begins to rise up inside of me.
I used to go to a church that was wound pretty tight. They'd wear suits in the morning, but at night you could wear a sport coat. That's a little tight for me. They had hymns that you could sing in the morning, but at night you could get down and dirty. You could really go after it. They had this one wild, knock-out hymn they used to sing, and it went something like this: "Count your many blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings, see what God has done." That, by the way, is pretty good advice, to begin to count your blessings, to begin to take an inventory of what God has done for you.
You might want to start at the very beginning, with those of you who are Christians, with the idea of salvation. We come into the world as sinners separated from God. We are all, each and every one of us, without exception, lost. If we remain in that condition and live our life in that condition, we'll spend eternity in hell. But there's salvation in Christ, and in Christ alone.
Salvation by Grace Alone
There's salvation not in any works that we do, not in any works that we have done, not in any works that we are doing, not in anything that we might do in the future. In salvation, I'm saved by grace, and a vehicle of that grace is faith, and all of that is generated by God. So if you're sitting here and you're saying, "Well, here's what happened to me. Somebody presented the gospel to me, and I believed," here's what I'm saying to you: that belief was not a work that you generated. That belief was the ultimate result of what God's placed in you. You didn't believe on your own.
I was watching a discussion last night on Christian television, and there was a guy—he happened to be a Catholic priest—and he was saying, "God's created two entities here in His image: angels and human beings." He said what distinguishes human beings is that human beings have free will and make free choices. Well, that's sloppy language. We make free choices, but we don't have free will. Our will is in bondage to our nature.
The Scripture says I don't have free will. I get this all the time. "What about free will?" Good idea. Don't have it. Good idea.
I have free choice. I'm free to make choices, but the choices that I make will always be in bondage to my will. I'll give you a great example of this. If I go to the back of this room, and I've got a vulture there, and up here I've got a piece of meat and a piece of lettuce, and I release that vulture, where's the vulture going?
Well, wait a minute. How can you say that? It's just nature. Well, maybe we just got a weird vulture. Let's get another vulture. Maybe it's an Arizona vulture, or an American vulture. Let's get a Bolivian vulture. And now we've got meat and lettuce, and we release the Bolivian vulture. Where does it go? Meat.
See what he's got? This is just like a human being. He's got free choice. He doesn't have free will. His will is going to take him to the meat. Man has free choice, but he doesn't have free will. His will's in bondage to sin, so he will pick sin every time, unless he can put the heart of a rabbit in him. Unless he can change him.
Man's Bondage to Sin
When this priest—and I'm not picking on the priest, because he's got a whole lot of other issues we'd argue with, but I'm not picking on the priest—I'm bringing a Methodist in, or most of these other pastors, and they'll tell you man has free will. Man doesn't have free will. Man has free choice. So all of a sudden, here you are, your will's in bondage here, you're in bondage, right?
You've got sin and the gospel. No one can come to Christ unless the Father draws Him. Man will always pick sin. He cannot do good. "No one does good, no not one." That's Romans 3.
Is the gospel good? Sure. Has man ever come to the gospel? Not on His own. Well, wait a minute, here's a room that's filled with people who have said, "Wait a minute, I believe that gospel." What happened? God saved you. He put a new heart in you. He gave you not just a desire, not just an inkling—He drove you to the gospel. Because everyone who He chose comes to Him. The Father doesn't lose any.
True Thanksgiving for Salvation
Now when you say, "I want to thank you for my salvation," it takes on a little bit of a new depth when you look at it that way, doesn't it? And that's just a starting point. The ability to get here today—I don't care. Some of you, I'm sure you've got all sorts of issues and problems and economic problems. You've got all this stuff.
I don't care in the sense that no matter what they are, they are nothing compared to how God has blessed you. Not denying the problems, not saying they aren't real, I'm not saying I don't care, and we're not here to somehow help you, but I'm saying don't miss what He's done. The fact you could get up that escalator today and into here is a great blessing.
Now I start with all that thanksgiving, now I go to prayer. All of a sudden I find myself, when I pray, I find myself rarely praying for things that I want for myself. I find myself spending an extraordinary amount of time praising Him for who He is, acknowledging my sin, thanking Him for what He's done, and saying, isn't it going to be exciting to see what happens in the future?
Prayer with Proper Perspective
I do pray for Susan daily, and in the course of that, I'll pray, "God, here's what I'd love for you to heal her, that'd be great, I'd love for her to live and live as long or longer than me, that'd be great, but ultimately, God, this is your call, and I'd rather have what you want than what I want."
Here's what I used to do. I'd say, "God, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to turn some stuff over, some little things, and if you're faithful in the little things, I'll turn over the big things to you." So I'd pray, "Father, here's the issue, we got it here, let's do something about it, it's got to be A, B, C, or D, and B is my preference," and He would come back and say, "Q, that's the way we do it."
I'm going to turn it over and turn it back. I think it comes from two things. I hate that phrase, "I'm turning it over." I don't even know what it means. I think it's a misunderstanding. I think we feel that if we turn something over, that somehow we're cut off and we never think about this again, we never have any thoughts about it again.
Anybody who's raising children understands that you can dedicate these children to God and acknowledge that they're God's and truly trust Him—that doesn't mean you're never going to think about this again. That doesn't mean there isn't a sense of healthy love and concern about that child, or that job situation, or that health concern. But here's what it says: I'm going to trust Him with absolutely everything.
The Nature of True Prayer
When I pray, here's what happens. When I pray, I'm not praying, "Okay, God, here's where I am, here's where You are, come on over here and join me." When I pray, I'm saying, "God, help me see this like You see it." Just the fact that I'm praying acknowledges that I trust Him and believe that He is in control of the circumstance, and I'm not.
So I begin to pray, and I have to say, "God, this is Yours, I can't control it, I don't even know what's going to happen." Now two things take place, and we're out of here. When this process starts, when I'm anxious about nothing and I pray about everything and I present my request to God, there is a peace that passes all human understanding—Philippians 4:7.
The Peace of God
"And the peace of God"—let me just say it to you again, this is the fourth time today we've made the point—we're not talking about peace with God. This presumes that you have peace with God. In other words, this presumes you're a Christian. The peace of God which transcends all human understanding will be yours. The peace of God, so that when people look at you in the midst of this and go, "I don't understand..."
The Source of True Peace
You know how you can possibly endure it, how can you stay so calm? And the answer is, I can't, but He is in me, and He's in control, and so there's really not a great deal I can do about it, other than trust Him. And candidly, I wouldn't want it any other way.
Honestly, in your heart of hearts, who would you rather have in control? An omniscient, all-loving God, or you? Who do you want? Who do you want to make the call on whether you get sick or not?
Recognizing Counterfeit Peace
So you're getting the peace of God. Again, one little pause button here, because this peace of God has become, I think, there's a counterfeit peace out there, and I see it a lot in marriage relationships, especially bad ones, where they'll separate, and one of the two spouses will say, "I think this is right because there's such peace about this." I don't buy that for a second.
If you're in an awful relationship, terrible relationship, horrific relationship, and now you pull apart, what you're experiencing is the cessation of that aggravation. I've got a rock on my foot, and I walk around all day on this rock, and I kick the rock out, all of a sudden, it feels more comfortable.
If you're here today, and you're two Christians, and you're married, and now you're separating, you're pulling apart, and you go, "It must be right because I look at the peace I have," I want you to understand that's a counterfeit peace because it wouldn't be God's desire for you to separate.
The Peace That Guards
So I pray about everything. I'm not anxious about anything. It's God's issue, not mine, and the peace of God, which transcends all human understanding, guards my heart and guards my mind. All of a sudden, I begin to experience a relief on an emotional basis and an intellectual basis.
All of a sudden, my life begins to take on an understanding of who He is, and I realize I don't have to fix it. It's not my job to fix all this stuff. It's not my job to figure out the future.
I was in a meeting yesterday, talking about, "Where do you think we'll be five years from now?" I said, "How in the world would I know? I haven't got a clue where I'm going to be five days from now." I don't know where I'm going to be, and you know what? I don't need to figure it out. I need to plan. Let's be clear, because you've got to always do this. You need to plan, and you need to anticipate, but it's all God.
Christianity as a Crutch
"Christianity is just a crutch." How many times have you heard it? It forced me again to the dictionary. A crutch, here's the definition: "A staff with a centerpiece at the top to support the lame or infirmed in walking." And all of a sudden, I realized that's exactly what Christianity is. It's a crutch.
It's something that I can lean on, because I am lame, and I am infirmed, and in walking through life, it's Christ that I trust, and He guards my heart, and He guards my mind.
The Heart of the Matter
I don't know where you are today. If today's not a day where you're anxious, tomorrow will be. Here's what he's saying. And by the way, men and women, there ought to be a sense in which you say, "Jeepers. This is a little repetitive," because we go back to this same thing day after day, week after week.
This all boils down to knowing God and knowing who He is. This isn't about being a whiz-bang Bible scholar, although I think go ahead and be that. I think there's a lot of value to that. But it's about knowing God and who He is.
And when you say you're a Christian, it means that you're trusting Him. And when you worry, you're saying in your Christian faith, "God, I don't really believe that You'll do what You say You'll do." It's as easy as that? Yep. Do we need a follow-up? Do we need a support group now, an anxiety-free support group? I guess. Go ahead and get one. Probably be nervous about where you're going to meet, anxious about what time to do it.
It's His. You know God, and you trust Him. And you pray, and you love Him.
Father, please help us see this. We know that life has with it some challenges and questions and difficulties, and we cannot tell the future. We don't know what the future holds. But we know that You're the one who does hold that future. We trust You. You're in control. We aren't. And that's good.
Help us understand that at the core of this issue is, we want to fight it, and we want to control it, because our pride and our ego says, we want things to depend on us. And they don't. They depend on You. So help us quit fighting. Help us quit resisting. Help us submit and accept Your love and Your care, and what You have for us. Help us give You control, and see that. And then rest, and enjoy life. Father, please, we ask You to do that work in our life, and we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.