“Anxiety in the heart weighs it down, BUT a good word makes it glad.”- {Proverbs 12:25;}

 “Be anxious in nothing but in everything by prayers….”- {Philippians 4:6}

ANXIETY;

 Anxiety means to have “the mind divided.” God desires we love Him with our mind. Anxiety divides our mind and distracts us from devotion to Him. Anxiety “weighs it down,”which is to cause depression, but a “good word makes it, the heart- glad!” We are all faced, tempted with thoughts of anxiety. The purpose is to divide our mind from devotion to loving the LORD. Paul wrote to the people at Philippi to “stop habitually worrying.” They were a mission minded people, sacrificial in their giving, yet they worried. And he tells them STOP it.

They have the ability to. He tells them what to do instead. STOP worrying instead DO everything by prayer. The word “prayer” is used in the New Testament to speak of adoration. Worship of God. The choice with the thought is to  YIELD TO THE TEMPTATION TO BE ANXIOUS,… which leads to despair, divide the mind from devotion to loving God. Anxiety is always accompanied with fear according to Luke 12. Who wants to sign up for that? No, none of us do, yet we often succumb to the temptation to embrace the anxious thought, and try and handle it ourselves and choose not to cast our anxieties upon Him because He cares for us- See 1 Peter 5:7. Jesus said in Matthew 6- Do not worry about what you will eat, drink wear… He said this was characteristic of the heathen, and they were not to be like them as though they had no Heavenly Father who cared for them. He told them instead to change their focus and to continually as the priority of their lives seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. It is a choice of who and what to think on they had to make as do we. They were anxious and He tells them the solution is to

1.- PRIORITIZE – PURSUE.

“But rather seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” The word, “Seek,” can be translated “Pursue,” Jesus has just been speaking about the futility of anxiety and He says instead “But rather Pursue as the priority of your living, the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.”  Anxiety is not  good. It does not honor God. It attacks His character. It is to say,”He means well, but He is not able to help, nor does He care about me in this situation” and so we choose to worry… which leads to despair… is characteristic of the lost … it is to say our Heavenly Father does not care for us…His answer is that we change our FOCUS off the temporal onto the eternal business and He will provide all of our needs. -{Matthew 6:33}

2. – PRAY ;

I Philippians 4:6-7 Paul shows us that Prayer which includes adoration, supplication thanksgivings and to let your requests be made known unto God and in doing so, the peace of God which surpasses all understanding He promises, will guard your heart and MIND in Christ.

Sometimes we say, “Yes I prayed about it, and I’ve been praying about it,” But we are still anxious of heart. Why is this? It can be we have not followed His instructions in Philippians 4:6-7. He guarantees peace of heart and mind when we do. He cannot lie. Sometimes we choose not  to cast, roll our anxieties on Him. We have to choose as a deliberate act concerning casting, throwing ALL of our  anxieties on Him. Name them and by faith give them to Him. It is a trust issue. Trusting Him, following His prescription and as we repeatedly do so we find He is true to His promise. He will “guard our heart and mind with the peace of God which surpasses all understanding.” Say your prayers God’s way.

Often we come to Him and say the right words and get off our knees and still carrying our anxieties. Why is this? Consider with me this little illustration… Imagine you awake in the morning and There is a knock on your heart, your mind is alerted that someone is trying to infiltrate your thinking, “Knock, knock,” “who’s there?” “ Worry, let me in,” the voice replies. I Corinthians 10:13 says this, “No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation God provides the way of escape.”  Anxiety is not unique to you or m alone but is common temptation. Note in the temptation which is a solicitation to sin. God is faithful. With “the” specific temptation He provides “the” specific way of escape that we need not sin against Him in the midst of temptation.

 

Anxiety is not sin until we yield to the temptation to embrace it and act on it. 

 

To take it as your own and yield to it and adapt attitudes and actions that attack the character of God. Then it becomes sin. So in the morning, the enemy knocks, first thing when you wake up. “Who’s there? Anxiety,” and I would like to come in. I want to divide your mind to distract from devotion to Jesus Christ today.” Sorry, can’t do it. Why? The words of the King to me are to stop it, to choose instead to PURSUE Him, His Kingdom and righteousness. Seek as the PRIORITY of life – His kingdom, to sit at His feet and listen to His Word, and to say my prayers. “Prayers” as used in Philippians 4:6 – 60 times this word gets translated prayer as is used in Philippians 4:6 in the New Testament, and it’s always used as reverence for the Lord. It can be translated worship. So here’s the alternative. “Knock, knock.” “Who’s there? Anxiety. Thank you very much for reminding me, it’s an opportunity to worship the Lord.”

 

Here is what I’ll do some mornings. Some mornings I’ll wake up and there’s a situation and the temptation comes to worry, and I’ll say oh, time to worship. And I’ll go through what I call, “The Alphabet of Praise.”  Take a letter from the alphabet and place something that is true of the character of God and praise, worship Him. Maybe something like this may help and encourage you….maybe say

“LORD…

A –You’re Almighty, Awesome…

B -You’re Beautiful, and Believable

C –You’re My Covenant Keeping…You are Creator

D –You’re my Defender, You’re the Delight of my heart

E – You’re Eternal

F – You’re faithful, You are my Father

G – You’re gracious, you’re good, You are God

H – You’re Holy, You’re High, my healer, my helper

I – You’re Immortal, Invisible

J – You’re my Justifier, my joy

K – Your my King, Your Kind, You know me

L – You love me, You are my Lord, You are my light, Your Word is a…Light unto my path

M – You’re my Master, my maker, my Messiah, You are Merciful

N – You’re near me

O – You’re omnipotent, omniscient and Omnipresent

P – You’re precious, You are pure, You’re prefect, priceless

Q – Quiet in Your Love

R – You’re my Redeemer, You Rule Supreme,

S – You’re my Savior, my strength, my song, Sovereign…

T – You’re my triumphant One, You’re truthful

U – You’re unchanging, You are unwavering

V – You’re victorious

W – You’re wonderful, You are Wise and Winsome

You’re my Alpha and OMEGA…

And you know what happens? Just what happened to you right now. For a moment you forgot what you had been thinking of- your problem and changed the FOCUS to the Problem – Solver- the Lord Jesus Christ.

As you recite your “Alphabet of praise,” you CHOOSE not to Be occupied and Yield to Anxieties!  Why? You changed your FOCUS, and you said your prayers God’s way.

 

THREE  WAYS TO RESPOND TO THE TEMPTATION TO ANXIETY?

Attack the temptation by choosing to…

1. PRIORITIZE – What are you taken up with? PURSUE– THE KINGDOM OF GOD. RIGHT PRIORITIES IN YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES.

2. PRAY– GOD’S WAY. -Phil 4:6

3. PRACTICE YOUR OWN, “ALPHABET OF PRAISE.”- Praise Him because He is worthy. He seeks those who “worship in spirit or in truth.” May He find you worshiping Him today!