Day Nineteen
“Be Anxious for Nothing”
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Philippians 4:6
People deal with anxiety in different ways. Some turn to rest and relaxation to get their minds off of their troubles. Many turn to alcohol and drugs to help them cope with their anxieties. Some people go to the doctor and take prescription medicines to flood their hearts and minds with calmness. We are encouraged in today’s text to take our anxieties to God in prayer.
By this time, this forty-day challenge may be proving to be a greater challenge than you anticipated. Surely by now you have faced spiritual warfare as the enemy has tried to distract you from praying in faith and believing God for those spiritual goals we started with nearly three weeks ago. I am sure you have battled every kind of emotion ranging from spiritual elation to cruel, dark depression as well. You may not have seen things turn out like you had hoped, and instead of trusting God perhaps anxieties and doubts are plaguing your thoughts and cutting off your confidence in Christ.
When a person is battling anxiety they are going to be preoccupied with their own self interests to the neglect of others. They will be distracted with their cares, and so troubled by them they can become paralyzed in fear. These are real issues in the battle of the mind and the soul. We are told in this verse to be anxious, troubled, distracted, and weighed down by NOTHING.
Surely Paul was mistaken! People who have lost their jobs or retirement savings in this economic downturn have something to be troubled over, right? Surely the pastor who reads about a fellow pastor being shot while preaching should be anxious about his own safety. Bankers should fret over the lack of ability to get home loans and the retailers should lie awake all night worrying over profit margins. But read this verse again slowly and carefully - we are to be anxious for nothing.
Death? No. Sickness? No. Poverty? No. Injustice? No. Persecution? No. The opinions of men? No. There is not a situation in this world that should cause us stress and worry if we are really abiding in Christ, His word is abiding in us, and we are forging ahead in faith. Now, I will be the first to admit that this is easier read and said than done, but that does not negate the truth. We are called not to live in anxiety or to become distracted and preoccupied with our cares.
We are to take them to God - all of them. This might take some time, and since we seem to always be in a hurry especially when it comes to praying there are many cares that do not get left at the throne of grace. We cling to them and fret over them, even though many of them are beyond our control and many of our anxieties will never happen but are only fears of things we think MIGHT come to pass. We are to bring them all to the Lord and leave each of them with Him!
With thanksgiving we are bring our requests to God. That may seem impossible when circumstances are difficult or painful, but there is always something for which we can be thankful. We can be thankful that God never sleeps and always hears our requests. We can be thankful that God is compassionate and concerned about the cares of our lives. We can be thankful that faith-filled praying moves God to work mightily on our behalf. So pray in faith with thanksgiving and trust God with the results.
Steps to Faith:
Lay your anxieties down one by one. This may take some time, but do not carry even one anxiety away with you.
Pray over each care you are facing, but do so with the conviction that God cares and will intervene.
What do you have to be thankful for today? Make a list and spend some time worshipping the Lord with a grateful heart.
What is the Lord speaking to you? What steps of obedience is He leading you to take?
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