April 9, 2008
No
More Anxiety
Anxiety…Fear…Panic…Worry…These
are feelings we as Christians must not tolerate! These are fruits of the
enemy’s lies that we begin to believe. He begins to whisper and chatter to us
and we begin to listen. As we listen we begin to doubt our God. We begin to
question His promises. We forget the victory of the resurrection! We must
recognize the enemy’s ploys and put a stop to it NOW!
Proverbs
12:25 says,
“Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, But a good word makes it
glad.” Once we give in to the seeds of Satan’s lies, we allow anxiety
to bud and the fruit to follow is depression. Do you know the good word that
will make it glad? The Word of God—the Truth! As soon as you begin to feel the
doubt creeping in, grab the good Word and feed yourself some truth.
The
Psalmist writes in 94:16-19, Who will rise up for me
against the evildoers? Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?
Unless the LORD had been my help, My soul would soon have settled in silence. If
I say, "My foot slips," Your mercy, O LORD, will hold me up. In the
multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul. God
is our help out of our troubles! We cannot allow doubt, unbelief, and questions
steal our peace any longer. When we falter, we must count on God’s mercy. His
comfort will delight our soul and rid us of anxiety. Nothing else!!! Everything
else is temporary.
Philippians
4:6-9 says, “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 understanding, will guard your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true,
whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure,
whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any
virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy — meditate on these things. The
things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the
God of peace will be with you.”
The
Lord once spoke to me and rephrased this verse by saying, “Be anxious for NO
thing.” All He did was put a space in the word nothing to emphasize the first
syllable. What an impact it made on me. Be anxious for NO thing. That means not
the big things--not the small things. Then He said, “Can you trust me in ALL
things?” We need to remember that the answer to this question must be yes
Lord, yet all too often we don’t trust Him. Anxiety is nothing more than not
trusting the Lord. Philippians says instead of being anxious, we need to pray
beginning with praise and thanksgiving for everything we do have and are blessed
with. Anxiety causes us to focus on what we don’t have or what is not
happening instead of what God has given us and what God is doing.
After we get refocused, we are to share our hearts with God. Finally, we are to
redirect our thoughts and think on good and pure things, because it was our
thought life that got out of hand in the first place. Then God’s peace will
return to us.
Next
time the enemy tries to throw you a curve ball to get your mind wandering in the
wrong direction, straighten him out! Tell him your God loves you and His word is
true. He knows what you have need of and He has told you to be anxious for NO
thing therefore, you will trust Him in ALL things! Then begin thanking the Lord
for everything He has given you and everything He is doing in your life starting
with recognizing the enemy’s lie!
Janet
Fairbrother