Philippians 4:6-7: 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.
You cannot predict tomorrow. You cannot fully prepare for all contingencies. You cannot fully provide for all you’ll need in your future. God not only can, He already has! God is never caught off guard. He is never taken by surprise. He never comes up short. So you do not have to live with anxiety about the future. The peace-filled heart is the one that recognizes, “My times are in His hands.”
God desires that we view our troubles, whether present concerns or those looming in the future, from His perspective. We are not to deny them or seek to escape them, but rather to regard them as trials and tribulations that we must overcome.
God never expects us to put up with constant anxiety. He intends for us to confront those situations that make us anxious, to face up to the anxiety we have allowed to fill our hearts, and to come to grips with the agitation we feel inside. He intends for us to resist the tendency to worry or become fearful and to refuse to lay down our peace no matter what the devil sends our way.
I don’t know that a person ever becomes immune to anxiety. But I am confident of this: It would take a lot to make me anxious now. When I look back over my life, I realize that things that once upset me don’t bother me as much now. Things that once caused me to feel anxious don’t cause anxiety now. I also know that the more a person trusts God to meet his deep inner needs, the more his faith is going to grow, and the quicker he will be able to trust the Lord in all situations. I encourage you today to do these things:
• Refuse to allow anxiety to become a “state of being” in your life.
• Believe God when He says you are worthy of His constant care.
• Yield total control of every area of your life to God.
• Refuse to be caught up in what others think of you.
• Refuse to be trapped into operating according to the world’s systems.
• Get your priorities in line with God’s priorities for you.
• Choose to live in today, not tomorrow.
And you will find yourself living with a growing, deep inner peace, free from fear and anxiety.
Charles F. Stanley