How to Worry

I love the way the Lord created what we call a “day.”

Sunshine and light for activity and a moon to glow in the dark night to slow things down and ease us into rest.

We have definitely become adept to upsetting this gentle flow, as many of us have to work at night and sleep during the day. Kids are also great for putting a kink in our awake and sleep patterns!

It is commonplace now for stores to be open all night. Just to age me ( and maybe you,) I remember when stores closed by 8pm and many were not open on Sundays!. AND, get this: TV programming went off by midnight!

We have learned how to beat the clock!

Or have we?

There are just so many options available to keep us awake and our brains on high alert!

With more and more to think about, do and get, are we inadvertently allowing ourselves to be pick pocketed by the very things we are giving our attention to?

Listen to this sound advice given by “the man who had everything” -King Solomon in Psalm 127, verses 1 and 2

“Unless the LORD builds the house,

They labor in vain who build it;

Unless the LORD guards the city,

The watchman stays awake in vain.

It is vain for you to rise up early,

To sit up late,

To eat the bread of sorrows;

For so He gives His beloved sleep.”

I love that the Lord doesn't want us to be stressed out basket cases! It is not Him who is pressing us to stay up all night and get up early to brood over things that concern us.

Instead, He invites us to cast all our cares on Him, because He cares for us. (1 Peter 5:7)

Isn’t it amazing that the God who spins the stars into place cares about the details of our lives?

Worry can feel like a roller coaster ride in your stomach. 

When we recognize it’s gnawing momentum, we can get off the ride by taking a couple of really practical steps.

1.Tell the Lord exactly what it is you are concerned about.

For some of you this is easy, You’re acutely aware of precisely what it is that eating you up.

For others, you know you have the disease of worry and will readily admit it, but the real thing you are concerned about is shrouded by the symptoms you have grown accustomed to feeling: a vague sense of queasy uneasiness.

Getting to the bottom line of what is causing us anxiety is important and freeing!

Ask yourself, “what am I really worried about right now?”

For example: Is it concern over being able to perform my tasks? 

Or is it a deeper fear over what someone might think about me if I don’t do them a certain way?

2. Live in the present.

Jesus said..”Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Matthew 6:34

I love that Jesus didn’t negate the reality that there are things that we will be concerned about. He just told us today’s are enough for today!

I think that is the key to dealing with crippling worry. Not projecting all our “what if’s” into tomorrow.

In all these passages, I see the love of our Father reaching out to lift the burdens of His weary children. A touch made a reality because of Jesus.

It is He who cries out to us, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Wherever you are right now, may you be deeply comforted by fact that He is right there  with you, awaiting to graciously lift off your weights of worry.