Right now, we must let go of all of our worries and give our worries over to God. We need to give up all of the junk in our lives to God. It is not good to keep all of the junk that we’ve accumulated over the course of our lives and let it hurt us over and over again. If you have pain and hurt from your childhood, why are you still worrying about that pain? We need to have spring cleaning in our hearts and minds right now. Don’t wait. We are going to throw out our old ways of thinking and replace them with brand new ways of trusting in God for our deliverance.
Let us pray. Dear Precious Lord, give us the faith to let go of our worries. We will open our heart so that you can take all of our worry, fear, and pain. We will trust in you, Lord to heal us and to deliver us. We have been taught to read God’s Word and believe. We reject the world’s logic that tells us there is no hope. You are our rock and our refuge. We believe. Help us, Oh Lord to look to your salvation and your love to guide our path. Amen.
Worrying is too easy. Worry paralyzes us. Worry starts to depress us and prevent us from turning to God. Worry forces us to spend all of our time and energy considering every way that life can go wrong. Faithful prayer directs us on the path where God protects and strengthens our life. Faithful prayer is positive action. Faithful prayer replaces our fear.
Proverbs 12:25-26 (The Message) teaches us that “25 Worry weighs us down; a cheerful word picks us up. 26 A good person survives misfortune, but a wicked life invites disaster. Worry is a dead weight. Worry can kills us. Proverbs 12:26 encourages us to trust that we will survive misfortunes in our life if we just trust in God. Faithful prayer invites the Holy Spirit into our lives to help us along life’s journey. Worry makes us forget that there is a God to help us.
James 1:4-6 (The Message) tells us “2-4Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. 5-8If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who "worry their prayers" are like wind-whipped waves. Don't think you're going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.” Our weaknesses can be a powerful testimony to others as they see how we pull our strength from God in our time of need.
God loves to answer our prayers. Prayer turns our problems over to God to solve. We are living a faith filled life when we pray in our time of need. We are asking the Holy Spirit into our life to help turn our weaknesses into strengths. It is a powerful testimony when people see that you were weak and yet God made you strong. What a joy to behold!
James 1 reminds me of our puppy named Pepper. She barks and barks as the waves hit the rocks by our boat dock. She can spend all day long barking feverously at those waves. She is worrying herself into a frenzy about the wave that is about to hit. Pepper paces back and forth until she is exhausted and completely thirsty. She barks until she can’t bark any longer. Pepper is worrying all day long and not praying at all. Did any of her frenzy or worry make a difference in the way that the waves hit the shore? No. Why does she worry above the waves? Why does she pace and bark so loud?
Remember that Jesus Christ walked on the water and calmed the sea during a storm. We can turn our worries about the waves over to God if we just prayed and had faith. The Apostle Peter was also able to walk on water as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus Christ. Peter started to sink as soon as he got distracted from the wind and the waves. Peter was able to walk on water when Peter stepped out on faith and put his trust in Jesus Christ.
Peter started to sink in the sea when he started to worry about the wind and the waves. What is your worry? Do you have worries that cause you to sink into the sea like Peter? Do you keep your eyes on Jesus Christ instead so that the impossible becomes possible in your life?
This story is told in Matthew 14:27-31 (NIV): “27 But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." 28 "Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." 29 "Come," Jesus said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when Peter saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"
Let’s contrast faithful prayer to worry with fear. Worry repeats the fear that Satan is whispering in our ear. Satan is telling us that the person that we love is going to Hell. Satan is telling us that we will die of our disease. Satan is telling us that we will lose our job. Satan is telling us that the whole world hates us and is against us. We are all alone. No one loves or cares about us. We don’t have food to eat. We don’t have any hope. Don’t take the words Satan gives us and turn them into your own words. Use God’s words instead.
Now, we will pray away those fears. “Good day to you Jesus. I give all praise, honor, and glory for my lost family members finding their way back to you. We thank you for healing me of my disease, illness, and pain. Every day, the pain is less and my strength returns so I can serve you better and share the love of Jesus Christ to everyone I meet. Thank you for bringing wonderful people into my life who are touching me in amazing ways. Thank you for the love and care that so many people give to my family and me. Thank you for providing enough food and opening the doors to a new job. I place all of my hope, faith, and belief in the rock who is Jesus Christ. Thank you for giving me the faith to overcome my fears. Thank you for being the Lord and Savior of my life today and every day. Amen.
We have a choice to make. Do we want to live our life with faith or fear and worry? Worry does us no good. Worry only destroys our health. Why do we worry if the scriptures tell us not to worry? God is with us. God has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide and protect us.
Please listen to what Matthew 6:25-34 tells us to do. "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.”
“Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”
“So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.” “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
I didn’t realize the real danger of worry until I studied Matthew 13:18,22-23 (NIV): 18"Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 22The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. 23But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."
The worries of this life can choke out God’s Word and destroy our relationship with God. The real danger is not cancer or some other disease. Worry is the real danger. Worry can discourage us by taking our eyes off of God. We spend our entire life worrying about how we will die and forget about living our life. Our life is a gift from God. Our death is a gift from God as well because it is the first day of the rest of our eternal life.
Now it is time for me to confess about my worries. I have faith that God will heal Susan. I have no doubt, but I worry about the effects of the Interferon treatments that make her nauseous and throw up. I worry that she is not getting enough rest. I worry that she is living her life and not getting enough sleep.
Susan is stepping out on faith and living her life. Susan is continuing to encourage and strengthen others. She is not letting her disease control her relationship with God and her ability to share the love of Jesus Christ with others. In fact, Susan traveled to a baby shower on Saturday to lift up a friend in need in northern Virginia. I should be rejoicing and praying to God to thank him for giving me such a wonderful wife with faith in her time of need. Do I need to worry about Susan? No. I need to put all of my faith and hope in God to deliver us.
Let me explain how Satan twists our mind to worry about stuff. We learned that Sue is cancer free after her PetScan results were given to us on Monday. That news removes the worry about more cancer being found in her body. So I can’t worry any more about cancer. So what can I worry about? I can worry about her treatments. Will my worry improve her results from the treatments? No. If I worry that she is going to get sick, does that help her? No. If I worry that she is living life too much and not resting, will that help her? No. My worry is destroying my health and my relationship with God. Worry is doing and thinking about things that are not productive.
Now, I am going to pray instead of worrying about Susan. Let’s see the difference. “Dear God, thank you for the wonderful news that the doctors did not find any more cancer. That is the answer to so many prayers that were raised up in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank you for Susan’s good first week of treatments. She was able to go to church on Wednesday. She felt strong enough to travel to northern Virginia for a baby shower to celebrate a new life in this world. What a joy! I thank you for keeping Susan safe and strong in her faith. Amen!”
The faithful prayer places God in our life and gives our fears and worries up to him. We are celebrating the good news that God provided. We are speaking with the faith of God. We’ve left the words of fear behind us.
Philippians 4:5-7 (The Message) says “4-5Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you're on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute! 6-7Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”
Now it is time to focus on what we must do to minimize worry and maximize prayer. These are a few of the things we can do:
1. Put Jesus Christ as the center of our life.
2. Remember to pray and thank God in advance.
3. See with the eyes of God what is happening in your life.
4. Moses said in Exodus 14:13, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.”
5. “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." (Deuteronomy 31:6)
6. “Serve the Lord with all your heart.” (1 Samuel 12:20b)
7. “Go about your business without fretting or worrying. Relax. When it's all over, you will be on your feet to receive your reward." (Daniel 12:13)
8. Take action knowing that God will favor your work. (Nehemiah 2:1-8)
9. Remember that “the Lord is our light and my salvation-- whom shall we fear? The Lord is the stronghold of our life-- of whom shall we be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1)
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13) Surely God is our salvation; we will trust and not be afraid. The Lord is our strength and our song; he has become our salvation." (Isaiah 12:2) "Don't be afraid; just believe” that Jesus Christ is the light of this world. (Luke 8:50a) “Trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding;” (Proverbs 3:5) “Surely God is our salvation; we will trust and not be afraid. (Isaiah 12:2)
Next week when the temptation to worry comes to your mind, please remember to pray instead. Thank God for the blessings that will come into your life when God answers your prayer. Rebuke any fear and doubt in your mind and replace the fear with faith. Faith is believing in the unseen before it is visible. Don’t think about all the ways that your life can go wrong. Thank God for all of the ways that you life is going great.
Think about how you can do the impossible through Jesus Christ who strengthens us. Put your trust in God all day long. It is easier to have faith if you are serving God. If doubt creeps into your mind, go and serve God in a powerful way. Jesus Christ gave each one of us the power of the Holy Spirit. Ask God to help you understand his power in your life.
Don’t worry, be in prayer. Don’t start worrying right now. If the thought of worrying comes to mind, replace the thought of worrying with a faithful prayer of thanksgiving to God for delivering you from your fears. We can pray. God will listen. God will answer our prayers. Keep the faith. Avoid worrying and start a new prayer life that starts with God’s word. Your prayer life can conquer your temptation to worry! Start praying today!
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