Do Not Be Anxious

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

- Philippians 4.6

A few people close to me have lately been full of anxious and worrisome thoughts regarding certain things going on in their lives. As I listen to them and lift up prayers, these thoughts came to mind, so I jotted them down in my journal. It is all something I also need to remember.

God is BIGGER than our biggest, most difficult problems. He can handle anything we throw His way. In fact, He wants us to throw it His way.
Do not be anxious.
The Lord tells us.
Instead, He says, offer up prayers of thanksgiving.

Well, if being anxious isn't helping you feel better about a situation, then you might want to try the opposite of that. To pray prayers full of thankfulness.
For, a lot of times the Lord tells is to do the opposite of what we automatically lean toward:
- Love your neighbor as yourself
- Blessed are the meek
- Turn the other cheek
- Do not judge others

These are all things we probably have to pay great attention to, isn't it? They don't come naturally. I certainly need some help with loving my neighbor, not being judgmental, etc..
So it makes sense that we need to be told to not be anxious. It is obviously an age-old problem that we all have. And God is age-old, in fact without age. He is before time. So, I think God knows how to take care of us and our anxious thoughts, don't you?

I like to believe that our Creator, who is above all things, and who is bigger than any mountain of anxious thoughts we may have piled up. And at the same time, He loves me as an individual, every ounce of my being.

I like to rest each night in the comfort and the arms of the Lord who is gentle and loving, but who can also fight battles for me.
You don't have to carry that weight around.
Set it down, and let go of it.
Then thank God for taking the weight off. He will take care of it.