How Can I Overcome Anxiety?
I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Matthew 6:25, 26
It seems that we are constantly seeing another report or study documenting the fact that we are worrying ourselves to death. The use of drugs to deal with worry and depression keeps growing dramatically. Everyone seems to be on “something” to deal with the anxieties of life. The world continues to turn up the pressure. It may be work, finances, marriage, kids, parents, health, emotional problems, or any of a host of other issues. Everyone has something happening in his or her life that no one else seems to understand.
Do you have something in your life about which you would say, “Not even God can do something about this.” Maybe you wouldn’t actually say that, but you are living that way. We have let the world inflate the power of our circumstances and shrink the power of God. That is not the way God meant it to be. We have let the world convince us there is a ceiling on what God can do. It is as if we think He has a power limit He cannot go beyond. Today’s scripture says God gave special attention to the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. Certainly He can deal with the situations faced by the ones He has created in His own image, the ones for whom He made this world!
Worry is all about where you put your attention. Are you putting it on the things of this world, or the plan God has for your life? When you put Him first, your anxiety will begin to lessen dramatically. There is nothing you will face today that the Lord cannot handle. You are only a manager of what He has given you. He will always make the right decision. *
Lord Jesus, today I give You control of every part of my life. When I try to take control and do it my way, I pray that You will remind me that Your plan is always better than mine. I know that I need to spend my time seeking Your guidance rather than trying to do things according to my desires. Help me to see that success is not getting my way, but making sure that I live according to Your will. Amen.
*Mike Hamlet, Spartanburg, SC