#29 Don’t Worry
History has taught me to be careful about what I say because it can come back and bite me unexpectedly. Everybody has heard the phrase, “don’t worry about it.” Generally spoken by a trusted individual, we are told this during times of stress or anxiety. It’s sound and seemingly simple to do. “If I don’t think about it, it will go away.” The Bible tells us not to do it.
“6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)
From personal experience, we all know that worry never helps. Matter of fact, it tends to make things worse. We spend hours pondering over mistakes and their possible ramifications; creating the worst-case scenarios and taking measures to avoid them. Most of the time, these efforts are for naught and we end up mentally and emotionally exhausted over something that never came to pass. Does any of this sound good to you? To me, it sounds like a nightmare and feels like one too. So, if worrying is a terrible idea, then why is it so easy to do?! It’s not healthy, comfortable or beneficial. However, it acts as a default response, for many of us, when it comes to the issues of life.
Last week, while I was walking around my church, I decided to try something. The breeze was creating a whistling noise that I enjoyed. The birds were flying around, singing to one another. Unfortunately, it was a moment I couldn’t fully enjoy because I found myself thinking. Thinking about what? Literally anything! As an overthinker, this is my instinctive extracurricular. I think and analyze everything! So, I decided to try and turn that off for the walk and just enjoy the moment. IT WAS HARD! See, what made this difficult is that my mind wanted to wander. That’s not a bad thing, but it became clear to me that not thinking about a topic is much harder than it sounds. I had spurts that resembled the flicking of an on/off switch. I would be enjoying nature, then boom! I was thinking about something. Though this example isn’t based on worrying about anything, in particular, it highlighted a truth (at least, subjectively) that often goes unnoticed when it comes to worrying.
There are moments when we feel like we can’t control what we think about. Is this true? I’m not sure. It certainly feels that way to me at times. Worrying is easy to do because the issue becomes a centerpiece for our thoughts to focus on. If a negative situation happens at your job, then your thoughts may begin to revolve around what happened. We don’t ask for this to happen; it just does. So, is there a way to conquer this response? You can absolutely win this fight on a DAILY basis. Philippians 4:6-7 gives us a great place to start when worry begins to creep into our lives: Pray About Everything. Yes! It is fine to let God know what is going on in your life. The good, the bad, the ugly, all of it. His love overshadows all. When you pray about everything, it is laid before Him. You’re putting the issues of life in front of not only Him, but also yourself, hopefully creating a place of perspective. The key part of this is that we don’t do the conquering, He does. HIS PEACE will guard your hearts and minds in Christ. Our peace can’t do it, but His will. Worrying is something that we can’t battle by ourselves. However, we have the greatest ally that will fight with us and win for us.
