I was thinking this morning about worry been like a rat in the attic!

You can hear it run across the ceiling. You can hear it eating and gnawing on things but because there is no ladder to get to the attic you can’t get it!

Did you know the word “worry” comes from a word  that refers to “mental strangulation” and that’s what it does! Like someone who is having their oxygen cut off, they can’t breathe, so is “worry” in the emotional and spiritual realm!

Worry is like that rat only in our mind! It runs and eats away at our thoughts,and according to Luke 12 is always accompanied by fear!!!
“But God…” has given us “ a ladder” namely prayer, to stop the rat of worry gnawing away at your emotions and running back and forth in your mind …seeking to destroy, dishearten …it attacks the mind. Why is that so important ? Because the first and greatest command is to love God with ALL of Your…MIND… The word “anxiety,” is made up of two words which means “divide” and “mind!” So the goal is to divide your mind, become double minded and the Scripture says a double minded person IS UNSTABLE in all their ways !! Anxiety yielded to divides the mind from devotion to Jesus Christ. And it begins with a …THOUGHT, that leaves God out of the equation, or impotent or uncaring. Like the disciples in the boat who awoke Jesus as He slept and charged Him with “Lord, Don’t you Care?” Worry is not only an attack on the mind and your faith but also to  ATTACK and distort the character of The Lord Jesus and tempt you to DOUBT God cares for you!!! He says,”Cast all of your cares {anxieties} On Him, for He cares for you!

Here is the Lord’s “Rat Catcher- Exterminator!”
“Stop Habitually being anxious about anything But {rather}in everything by PRAYER with supplication and thanksgiving let your requests be known to God “-Phil 4:6.

Note. They have the power to “ STOP being anxious …,” otherwise He would not tell them to stop. It was a habit. As grammatically it is “stop continually worrying .” They have the ability instead to REJECT worry by REPLACING IT WITH PRAYER…and TRUTH, turning To Him…And if we follow God’s way of praying the four things mentioned in this verse He promises “… and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding WILL Guard your heart and MIND in Christ”- Phil 4:7

Praying His way takes faith in what He says and He honors it! “He who honors Me I will honor.”

Prayer is the “rat”catcher!
Read Philippians 4:8- It is a good verse to memorize to help your thinking … to REJECT the lie of worry and REPLACE it with TRUTH. We have to think of something don’t we. And where we choose to follow the thoughts that come to us will often lead to worry, fear, stress and we end up questions if God really cares for us? For its not enough to tell a person to stop worrying, for the more they tell themselves to stop, the more they focus on worry!  God gives us the alternative,His alternative. But we have the power to choose what we will dwell our thinking on! We Can’t stop a thought but can choose to take it to Him in prayer, and to think on His Word and RENEW our thinking with truth and in it we see His prescription for prayer !! These are two verses I have often used during my illness to combat the “ rat!” which comes to rob, doubt, and divert my attention from loving God with my Mind!

Prayer – His way, Is the “Rat Catcher!”