Worry is like a rocking chair because it doesn’t go anywhere. It is like a merry-go-round that always takes you back where you started. Worrying doesn’t solve anything. It is a negative influence that produces stress and anxiety. If it is allowed to become a pattern of thinking, its harassment will rob you of your peace.
Where does worry originate? How do you break this obsessive habit? How can such a powerful force sneak up on you and before you realize it, you find yourself tormented with a painful, migraine headache or hyperventilating in the middle of a panic attack? The root source of worry is fear. Changing the cycle requires an overt effort of your will to deliberately re-focus your thoughts on your faith in God to bring resolution to the situation.
Philippians 4:6
“Be anxious for nothing.”
Practical Application and Assignments:
How many times have we taken our worries and concerns to God, cried about them, talked about them, and kept worrying about them? The Scripture says in I Peter 5:7, “Cast all your care upon Him; for He cares for you.” It requires an effort to cast something.
- Cast your cares on the Lord the same way you cast bait into the water on a fishing expedition, or throw the ball to the person on the other end of the court. God is there to retrieve it. When your worries are on His end of the court, He knows what to do with them.
- Refuse to worry. You cannot have worry and faith at the same time. Worry holds hands with doubt and unbelief. Faith leaves the worries at the altar and walks away because God cares and He is faithful. Faith involves trust.
- Put your trust in God. Corrie Ten Boom, who courageously survived the Holocaust stated, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, it empties today of its strengths.”
“Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs it down, but an encouraging word makes it glad.” Proverbs 12:25
