I have the spiritual gift of worrying. It seems like I worry about everything and then when there is nothing to worry about I worry about that. I think: “Everything is good so when is something going to go wrong?”
A definition of worry
Worry is the sin of saying: “You know what God, either I don’t trust Your promises or I don’t trust Your ability to act on Your promises.”
It’s the sin of distrusting the promises and the power of God.
For all us worriers out there, here is an important truth for us to remember: God never panics!
God never wakes up and says: “Oh man what am I going to do now? I didn’t see this coming. Oh I don’t know if I have the ability to handle this. What is going to happen?”
If God never panics, why should we worry about anything?
How do we get beyond being anxious?
Even when there is chaos and tension all around us we can find peace. Inwardly we can find a peace that really goes beyond what people can understand.
Here’s the Apostle Paul’s solution to anxiety:
We need to know that Paul wrote these words from a Roman prison awaiting the very real possibility of execution. If anyone had reason to be anxious it would have been Paul. He could have been killed and yet he still wrote this words. Amazing to me.
The result
When we pray about everything and worry about nothing we are promised the “peace of God which transcends all understanding that will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
What is the “peace of God”?
Paul is referring to the tranquility of God’s own eternal being, the peace which God Himself has, the calm serenity that characterizes His very nature and which we are welcome to share.
How does the peace of God transcend all understanding?
This can be taken either of two ways:
- It may mean that the peace of God is so marvelously vast that no human mind can ever fully comprehend its significance.
- It can mean that God’s peace is able to produce exceedingly better results than human planning or that it is far superior to any person’s scheme for security or that it is more effective for removing anxiety than any intellectual effort or power of reasoning.
God’s peace is unfathomable!
How does God’s peace guard our hearts and minds?
The verb that is used for “guard” here is a military term picturing God’s peace as a detachment of soldiers “standing guard over” a city so as to protect it from attack.
This would have been an easy metaphor for the Philippian Christians to understand because there was a Roman garrison stationed at Philippi.
God’s incredible unfathomable peace, like a garrison of soldiers, will keep guard over our thoughts and feelings so that they will be sage against the assaults of worry
This a wonderful promise that is available to all of us!
What do you worry most about?
I agree with you. A lot of people are getting sick because of too much worrying. Some are not able to do a lot of advancement in life for the same reason. If they will only learn to trust in God…
Definitely easier said than done but it is necessary!
Thanks for sharing Daniel!
There is an unconscious strategy for being in peace and joy and there is one for being worried and anxious.
We are free to choose the most functional one when we step back and observe the images we ” construct” in our minds and the terrible things we say to ourselves.
Turning to God is about TRUST and when we trust that what we have attracted is for our best good even it it does not show immediately we can immediately let go of fear and worry.
Thanks for this inspiring post Kevin.
Best wishes;)
Thanks for sharing Patricia!