Why pray when you can worry?

Many of us feel some anxiety from time to time. But exactly what is anxiety? Many definitions could be shared, but according to Dr. Frank Minirth and Dr. Paul Meier in their book ‘Worry Free Living,’ “Anxiety is linked more to the future, while depression is linked to the past. Depression is the past superimposed on the present, and anxiety is the future superimposed on the present.”

Not knowing what will happen in the coming weeks, months and years (which of course we don’t) can easily bring anxiety.

Matthew 6:34 says “So do not be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time.” (TLB) This is sound wisdom and an utterly reliable promise, but conquering our anxieties can be tough. We seem to like clinging to our “what ifs.”

Linda Dillow wrote a book called “Calm My Anxious Heart.” In it she points out “Certainly we are to pray, plan and prepare for tomorrow, but we are not to worry about what might happen… Walking with God through today’s twenty-four hours is difficult enough.”

“It is tomorrow,” said F. B. Meyer, “that fills men with dread. [But] God is there already. All the tomorrows of our life have to pass Him before they can get to us.”

What a comfort to know that God wants us to toss our worries onto His incredibly broad shoulders: in I Peter 5:6-7 we are told “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him for He cares for you.” (NIV)

Matthew 24:6 is meaningful to me in a couple Bible versions. “See to it that you are not alarmed” is the New International Version. In The Message it is stated thus: “Keep your head and don’t panic.” Even more clear (or blunt?) is well-known Christian Author Max Lucado’s unofficial interpretation of this passage in his book Fearless: “Don’t freak out when bad stuff happens.”

Further, Lucado advises: “Life stinks, but it won’t forever… Avoid Pollyanna optimism. We gain nothing by glossing over the brutality of human existence. This is a toxic world. But neither do we join the Chicken Little chorus of gloom and doom, ‘The sky is falling! The sky is falling!’

“Somewhere between Pollyanna and Chicken Little, between blind denial and blatant panic, stands the level-headed, clear-thinking, still-believing follower of Christ. Wide-eyed yet unafraid. Unterrified by the terrifying. The calmest kid on the block, not for lack of bullies, but for faith in his older Brother.”

Billy Graham once declared “God never abandons us when life becomes difficult. He is always with us and wants to help us, even when things seem to be going wrong.

“He does not guarantee to reverse every misfortune, but if Christ lives in our hearts, we have His promise that nothing ‘in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Romans 8:39).” (NIV)

“What a guarantee!” Reverend Graham went on. “Instead of being fearful about the future . . .  we can trust and believe that God is working a purpose in our lives. We can have hope!”

God’s Word offers so many great promises, but sometimes we allow fretfulness, and that makes us forget or doubt those promises. Philippians 4:6-7 in The Message is one of my favorite Scriptures. Why? Because it tells me what to do instead of worrying.

“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.”

“Courage is simply fear that has said its prayers,” Dorothy Bernard said. Let’s shape our worries into prayers.