Matthew 6:25

That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing?

 

Worry is a normal reaction to a stressful or troubling event, and it usually goes away on its own. But what happens when the worry doesn’t go away? Some people worry all the time—even when everything is okay. They might feel like their worry is out of control or feel like they just can't stop their worried thoughts. Others don’t notice their problem with constant worry until they feel physical signs of stress, like headaches, stomach aches, muscle tension and fatigue. We all worry sometimes. But if you seem to worry much more than other people and you worry so much that it affects the quality of your life, you may have something called generalized anxiety disorder.

 

Generalized anxiety disorder, or GAD, is a mental illness. It belongs to a group of illnesses called anxiety disorders. People living with GAD worry much more than other people, and they worry more often than other people. They often worry about many different activities of daily life, such as their home, work, finances, family, health and the future. People living with GAD also find it hard to control or stop worrying once they start to worry. 

 

 

A study showed that 85 percent of what subjects worried about never happened, and with the 15 percent that did happen, 79 percent of subjects discovered either they could handle the difficulty better than expected, or the difficulty taught them a lesson worth learning. 

This means that 97 percent of what you worry over is not much more than a fearful mind punishing you with exaggerations and misperceptions.

 

 

What can we do?

Jesus wants us seek first God’s kingdom and let Him care for us. In other words, turn your worries into prayers. 

 

Phil. 4:6

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. 

 

 

It takes the same amount of effort to talk to yourself about a problem (worry) as it does to talk to God about it (prayer). The difference is that prayer is faithful. Prayer is powerful. And prayer is helpful. Prayer works. Worry doesn’t. Turn your worries into prayers.

 

1. Ask God to forgive you for the times you were anxious about challenges and forgot to pray.

2. Pray that God will grant you peace over worry, and replace your anxieties with trust in Him

3. Father, help me focus on the kingdom, finding comfort in Your promises, rather than in worldly worries.

4. Pray that God will make our faith strong; to see challenges as opportunities for growth and testimonies, not as sources of endless worry. 

5. Father, guide us to seek Your wisdom and to turn our worries into prayers of trust.