Worry, stress, and anxiety affect me every day. These emotions have kept me from pursuing great opportunities. As much as I fight it, they negatively affect how I live my life.
But the work of becoming the best version of myself has pushed me to find ways to keep going and do what I need to do no matter how I feel.
Wisdom is doing today what your future self will thank you for, but those negative emotions have kept me from making beneficial choices and decisions.
In his Life Principles Bible, Charles Stanly writes, “God did not design us to be anxious or nervous.”
An anxious mind is like a mouse running on the wheel. The faster the mouse runs, the faster the wheel moves - but he doesn’t make the slightest progress. He does not even have the sense to get off the wheel.
He writes that this is what anxiety does to you. You run faster and faster, trying harder and harder to meet demands or prevent disaster - and still you do not have control over your circumstances. So when something does not go quite right, your frustration level continues to grow.
Stanley says the way of the wheel is throwing your cars on Jesus and leaving them there. During his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told crowds, “Do not worry.” He then said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
Here is what Jesus said about worrying and trusting Him Matthew 6:25 - 34:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?
So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
God doesn’t want us to worry. In Matthew 11:28, Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
First Peter 6:6-7 says, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”
Stanley then writes, “Jesus wants you to throw your cares on Him and leave them there. You depend on Him for life itself, and you acknowledge this reliant relationship by saying “Here, Jesus. Take my problems. You have the answers! I trust You to show me what to do to take care of the consequences.”
THIS WEEK
1 - How can you seek God first in all that you do? For me, I want to read the Bible, pray, and meditate for 1-2 minutes every morning before I leave home. What can that look like in your life?
2 - When you feel anxious or nervous, how can you rely on God? For me, I will go immediately to prayer, read the Bible, or meditate on God’s word for 1-2 minutes. What can that look like in your life?
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