“No Worries??!!”….
Written by Mark Willey
You hear it all the time. “No worries”. A gracious response to you when your mess up was at someone else’s expense. How lovely it would be if our lives could be lived in this mantra, “NO worries”. But, then life hits. So, when Paul says, “Do not be anxious about anything” (Philippians 4:5-7), it is an attention getter. He reminds us…
Remember that God is a real part of addressing worry. “The Lord is at hand” (vs. 5). This is Paul’s lead to the topic. God is the resource that needs to be tapped into. While medication may be important in controlling the obsessiveness of anxiety, and to bring a person to a level emotional playing field, God is still the ultimate resource and hope. His sovereignty, His presence, His power, and His love remind you that God is not wasting experiences in your life.
Be honest about your worry. The phrase, “do not be anxious” is in the present tense. He is saying, “continually do not be anxious”. Nothing to worry about today. OK. Tomorrow is coming! No one is immune from worries. Some guys think worry is a female quality. Paul begs to differ. When you find yourself regularly distracted and divided in your mind (ie. like a bunch of gnats flying around your head), you are worried. (Worry is actually a compound word meaning “divided mind”). If you are feeling exhausted all the time, worry may be a part. “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down”. (Proverbs 12:25)
Cast your cares on God in prayer. Worry is creativity on steroids. We creatively imagine dire, dark results! Billy Crystal and Bette Milder are grandparents in the movie, Parental Guidance. Their daughter is panic struck with the idea of leaving their 3 kids with her parents for a few days. She hyperventilates in the car as they pull away from the house. Her husband asks, “ What is the worst scenario you can imagine happening? She replies, “Everybody dies”. Husband – “Then anything short of that will be a happy surprise”. Sometimes you do need to just play out in your mind the worst that can happen. But, Paul implores us to then give that over to God. “Let your requests be known to God”. So did Peter in I Peter 5:7 – “Cast your cares on God!” You can cast your cares on God. Or, you can carry them. There is no Door #3. Carve out some time to list your worries and cast them one by one on God.
Cast your cares with thanksgiving. “with thanksgiving” (vs. 6). To pray with thanksgiving changes the lens on how you see things. You begin to see them in the context of a big God. “Thank You, for allowing this in my life, thanks for what you are going to do with it!!” Initially, it will be a step of faith to thank God for what He is doing with it. But, you will find a peace you cannot explain if you cast with thanksgiving.
Have less input in your life in seasons of worry. Stressors are real. Stressors are things that threaten us into “fight or flight mode”. We add extra stressors (news junkie, waking up to the financial news, talk radio, constant social media input) when we should be looking for quietness (Christian music in the car, turning off the sound when texts come in, getting offline for a while, etc.). The Lord is near, but we can’t hear Him because other voices are loud and compelling.
No worries! Probably not. But, we can unload our worries on to the God ……who…. is…. near.