No Worries
As long as I can remember, I have struggled with anxiety. I think it’s my thorn in the flesh. My life verse is 1 Peter 5:7 New American Standard Bible “Casting all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” My problem is not casting my anxiety on Him; it’s taking it back from Him. That’s why I was drawn to Philippians 4:5-7 New American Standard Bible and began studying the following verses:
Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Let’s look at some key words in this passage. “Anxious” G3309 means “to be careful for, to be anxious about, TAKE THOUGHT”. This word comes from the root G3308 which means “care or concern for someone or something, through the idea of DISTRACTION.” If we look up “Anxious” in my favorite dictionary Noah Webster 1828, it means “greatly concerned, respecting something in the future or unknown, being in painful suspense.”
Anxiety is painful. Proverbs 12:25 King James Version says:
Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop, but a good word maketh it glad.
Heaviness in this verse comes from the root for anxiety. Stoop means to weigh down. So, anxiety weighs our hearts down, but meditating on a good word- His word- makes our hearts glad!
It’s all about our thoughts! Let’s look at some scriptures using the same Hebrew root word for anxiety G3309. Matthew 6:25 KJV says,”Therefore I say unto you, TAKE NO THOUGHT G3309 for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not life more than meat, and the body more than raiment?” And in verse 27, “Which of you by TAKING THOUGHT G3309 can add one cubit unto his stature (=height, life span)?” (Italics and numbers mine). Anxiety and worry do not ADD anything to your life! Not one single thing!
In verse 34 KJV, we read, “TAKE THEREFORE NO THOUGHT G3309 for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for itself. Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof.” Or in the English Standard Version Bible, the same verse says, “Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Anxiety makes our minds jump forward, thinking about things in the future that might go wrong and that we have no control over. Our minds jump forward trying to work out how to handle problems that we have not even encountered yet. The thing is-when we look forward like this, in our mind, we are the only one working out these problems; we forgot that Jesus will be there to help us when we actually face them!
I am sure, as a mom, you have more than enough to think about for one day-for today! Let’s agree to TAKE THOUGHT only about today, and TRUST Him even with the moments yet to come today, that He will be WITH US in those moments.
In His love,
Suzanne
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