Someone once said that 80% of what we worry about doesn’t happen. In a research study at Penn University, 29 people with Generalised Anxiety Disorder were asked to write down everything they worried about for one month. The study found that 91% of what they worried about never came true, and for half the group 100% of their, never occurred.
Philippians 4:6 says, ‘Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God’.
For most people the problem is they live within the circumstance they worry about. The kids, the bills, work, that house renovation etc. The verse in Philippians is specific, 1) don’t be anxious, so push that worry away. 2) pray, use the time you would have spent worrying, praying. 3) thank God for the things that haven’t gone wrong. That is the way to defeat worry.
Quote Worry is the biggest distraction of thanksgiving.
Prayer
Father help me to swap the amount of time that I worry, for prayer and thanksgiving, Amen.
Action Point If you tend to worry, take some time to write down all the things that never happened, the good stuff, it will keep worry in perspective.
Copyright notices
(NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Copyright © Carl Brettle – All Rights Reserved. To use in other publications. You can use all of this devotional. You will need to use this credit. Copyright www.faithlift.org by Carl Brettle, subscribe for free.