Worry, anxiety, tension, call it what you will, it’s all the same. It’s nervousness over the future, about paying the bills and putting food on the table, about getting accepted for that job or getting promoted. It’s being touchy about your abilities to measure up. Worry, worry, worry. What’s the outcome of all our worrying? “Anxiety in the heart of a man weighs it down” (Proverbs 12:25). All that anxiety and stress makes matters worse. In the end it gives you a heavy heart. It weighs you down.
What’s the answer? “Do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on” (Matthew 6:25).
“It’s not that easy,” you say. The Bible does not leave you dangling. Prayer is an answer to worry. First, you stop worrying because it is sin. God’s grace is sufficient. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Second, you turn to God in prayer “casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).
Philippians 4:6 sums it up. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
Contributed by Dr. Dennis J. Prutow djprutow@juno.com
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