Tag Archives: worry

September 18, 2025 · 5:30 AM

Worry Is A Choice

Did you know that worrying is a choice? When we worry, we make an agreement with ourselves to spend precious energy and brain power on something that may or may not happen. We’re choosing to allow something to consume our thought life. We lose focus on the present and forget about what’s happening right now in exchange for worrying about an unknown future. We get consumed by the what if’s and all the possible solutions to something that hasn’t happened yet. I’m as guilty of it as anyone. I’ve chosen to let worry keep me up at night, consume my energy and cause me to hoard things so that I can be prepared for whatever.

In Exodus 16, the Israelites had been traveling for a month and a half after leaving Egypt. They began to worry where their next meal was going to come from. They were so worried that they reasoned it was better to be a slave and know where your meals were come from than to trust in God. They were blinded by worry to all He had done for them to set them free. So God offered them mana each day, but they could only get enough for that day. God was testing them with this instruction to see if they would quit worrying and trust in His provision. Many let worry grip their heart and chose to get more than a day’s worth. When they did, the mana became an expression of what was going on in their heart and it rotted. God provided this daily meal until they crossed the Jordan and ate of the produce in the Promised Land.

In Matthew 6, Jesus taught the disciples to:pray one of the most famous prayers in the world. In it, he taught us to pray, “Give us this day, our daily bread” (KJV). Again, He was teaching us to trust in God’s provision for today. The chapter ends with verse 34 where Jesus says, “Refuse to worry about tomorrow, but deal with each challenge that comes your way, one day at a time. Tomorrow will take care of itself” (TPT). This imperative statement reminds us that we need to choose not to worry and to trust God. Instead of being guided by worry, remind yourself of all God has done in the past, and trust in His provision for today. He will give you your daily bread.

Photo by Kym Ellis on Unsplash

Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word. 

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December 27, 2023 · 6:30 AM

Experiencing God’s Peace

What are the things you worry most about? It could be your finances, your future, your job or relationships. Worry and anxiety are usually caused by things, real or imagined, that pose a risk to the future we’ve imagined. How we respond to worry matters. Some people get in a loop with their thoughts replaying out the worst case scenario in their mind. Some carry the weight of it in the back somewhere causing it to knot up. Others carry the worry in the stomach to the point they get ulcers. However you carry it, worry is something that all of us have to deal with. It robs us of our peace, our sleep, our strength and our present. It’s hard to be in the moment when your mind is worried about the future.

In Matthew 8:18-22 a religious teacher offered to follow Jesus. That’s when Jesus reminded him that to follow him meant an uncertain future that may not include a place to lay his head at night. Then Jesus asked someone else to follow Him, but that person was worried about their inheritance and wanted to bury their father first. Jesus didn’t want anything to stand between a person and following him. He then got into a boat with the disciples and a storm arose quickly. Jesus was asleep in the boat in perfect peace, but the disciples were worried. The momentary storm took their eyes off of where Jesus was leading them so they called out to Him. He asked them why were they afraid and worried about the storm. He then rebuked it and there was a great calm.

Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus” (NLT). When we’re worried, we should let those worries direct us to Jesus instead of our fear. When we give it to Him and also have a heart of thanksgiving for everything He’s done, we will experience God’s peace. Either He is in control of our future or we are. If I assume control, worry sets in. If I’ve placed it in His hands, then His grace and strength will be sufficient for whatever I face. Trusting Him with our future is the only way to experience a peace that will guard our heart and mind.

Photo by Tim Bogdanov on Unsplash

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August 7, 2023 · 5:44 AM

Casting Your Burdens

Unfortunately one of the things that is part of our human nature is a desire to do things on your own. Don’t believe me? Try helping a two year old. They’ll snap back, “I can do it on my own!” They often refuse your help, sometimes to their detriment. That nature doesn’t really change. It lives in all of us. People offer us help all the time, but we refuse it under the guise of not wanting to be a burden to them. The truth is that we all need help from others, but we carry these burdens by ourselves and refuse help or to give them up. Some people like the pity and attention they receive. Some don’t know how to accept help. Some have too much pride to let anyone help. No matter why, you weren’t created to carry burdens by yourself.

The Pharisees in the New Testament were some of the most self righteous people you would meet, and Jesus called them out on it. He wasn’t mad at them for trying to follow the Law. He got upset at them for putting extra burdens on the people. He got upset when they added to His Law. He knew people had enough things they were carrying around and didn’t like people putting unnecessary burdens on people in His name. The Pharisees wore carrying burdens it as a badge of honor and holiness. They flaunted how big of burdens they carried and did it to get respect from people. Jesus constantly called them out for this because that’s not His plan for us.

1 Peter 5:6-7 says, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God [set aside self-righteous pride], so that He may exalt you [to a place of honor in His service] at the appropriate time, casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully]” (AMP). God has called us to humility, not self righteousness. Carrying our own burdens is not a sign of strength. We need to set aside our self righteous pride and cast our cares and burdens on Him. Yes, you can do it on your own, but why live like that when you don’t have to? Be humble enough to give them to Him. Be humble enough to ask others for help. Freedom begins with humbling yourself and casting them at the feet of Jesus.

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February 15, 2022 · 5:50 AM

Focus On Today

One of the pieces of advice that I give to people who have gone through something traumatic regarding a relationship is to stop trying to look into the future. Our minds are so preoccupied with what’s coming and planning for things that are to come. The problem with that in these situations is that it takes away precious energy that is needed for today. When you’ve gone through a divorce or have suddenly lost a spouse, the future you had been planning for years is gone. That is a tough pill to swallow on top of your other loss. So I tell them to focus on today. Sometimes you have to get so granular that you can’t focus on today, and you need to focus on this minute. Either way, anything future related is stealing they energy needed to survive the present.

As Jesus was giving the Sermon on the Mount, He told all of us to quit worrying about the future. He didn’t say not to plan. He said not to worry. He reminded them to look at the birds and the fields. God provides food for the birds and flowers for the fields. God cares for you more than those. If He takes care of them, He’ll take care of you. His message was to quit worrying about all the things that might or might not happen in the future. You’re robbing today of its energy and blessings. Then in Matthew 6:34 Jesus said, “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes” (MSG).

What has been stealing today’s energy from you? What has been distracting you to the point that you’re not even thinking about today? If you’re so preoccupied with what’s coming that you miss what God is doing today, you’re in the wrong. God wants you in the present and to focus on what He’s doing for you today. Worrying about what He will or won’t do tomorrow is robbing you of today’s blessings. When you focus on today’s blessings, it will give you the faith to trust God tomorrow for what is to come. No matter what happens, whether your fears and worries come true or not, God is going to provide you with what’s necessary to go through it. It won’t be the end of the world and you won’t be abandoned by God whatever comes your way. Ask God to have His will for what’s coming, then use today’s energy for today focusing on what God is doing in the present.

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September 1, 2021 · 5:49 AM

Displacing Worry

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Psychologists will tell you that worry is intended to protect us from fear. However, God did not intend for us to dwell on it or to let it consume us. When it stays at the forefront of my thoughts, it causes me to run scenarios over and over in my mind of things that will probably never happen. It keeps me up at night, drains my energy and robs me of peace. In a way, worry can be addictive. It can feel like if we’re not worrying about something, we don’t care enough. Thinking that way can cause us to get caught in a loop that feel impossible to break, but we must break it. We must learn to let it go and displace it with proper thoughts.

I love the way the Message unifies this passage of Scripture on worry. Philippians 4:6-9 says, “Don’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. Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.”

Worry often is a sign of a lack of trust in Christ to work things out. Worry takes control of the situation and puts it in our hands. When we pray instead, we give it back to God where it belongs. Then we need to replace it in our mind with productive thoughts so we can get back to living the way God called us to. Worry isn’t just a harmless feeling. It has the power to disrupt how we’re supposed to live and trust in God. If you’re overwhelmed with worry today, begin to pray so you can hand those things and situations over to God. Verbalize that you’re giving them to Him and are trusting Him with the things you can’t control. Any time worry tries to make itself at home in your mind, remind it that you aren’t in control, but God is. Don’t let it take roots again. Fill your mind with praise, God’s promises and the things listed in Philippians 4:8.

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July 12, 2021 · 5:38 AM

The Treadmill Of Worry

In one of the classes I train, the participants take an assessment that pinpoints areas of unproductivity in their job. One of the big one that shows up often is Goal Diffusion. This occurs when a person has several smaller goals that distract them from their big goals. What happens is that they spend and focus their energy on things that don’t move them forward. They may feel somewhat accomplished because they are doing things, but they find that they aren’t advancing. It’s like being on a treadmill. They’re putting out a lot of energy, but they’re not moving. Instead of being laser focused on one goal, they’re dispersing their energy in a lot of different directions. The correction is to refocus on what matters, to choose a large goal that will move them forward and then to channel that all their energy in one direction.

The same thing can happen to us as believers. Many times we feel like we are busy for the Lord, but we’re going no where. We have our energy diffused by all the little things we’re doing or are worried about. Our enemy is pretty good at using worry and smaller goals to keep us distracted and unproductive. Worry takes up a lot of energy and strength. It also takes our eyes off of what matters and refocuses it on things that seem big, but in reality are not. When we spend time thinking about those things, we waste precious energy that could be laser focused somewhere else. The end result is that we are mentally, physically and spiritually exhausted. We also feel like we’re doing a lot, but we don’t feel like we are accomplishing anything with all of our efforts. Just like I mentioned before, the correction is to refocus on what matters and channel our energy in one direction.

Philippians 4:6 says, “Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude” (TPT). It goes on to tell us that when we do that, we will have the peace that passes understanding and that we need to keep our thoughts focused on what matters (verse 8). What are the things that are pulling you in different directions? What are the things that are creating worry in your life and changing your focus? The correction that all of us need to make is to become more saturated in prayer in our lives. Prayer not only helps us give our worries to God, it helps us refocus on what matters, put our problems in perspective and channel our energy in a direction that moves us forward. Stay focused on the things that matter, stay in prayer, seek God’s Kingdom first (Matthew 6:31) and then you will find you’ve gotten off the treadmill of worry and are moving forward.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

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May 25, 2021 · 5:56 AM

Worry Is A Choice

Did you know that worrying is a choice? When we worry, we make an agreement with ourselves to spend precious energy and brain power on something that may or may not happen. We’re choosing to allow something to consume our thought life. We lose focus on the present and forget about what’s happening right now in exchange for worrying about an unknown future. We get consumed by the what if’s and all the possible solutions to something that hasn’t happened yet. I’m as guilty of it as anyone. I’ve chosen to let worry keep me up at night, consume my energy and cause me to hoard things so that I can be prepared for whatever.

In Exodus 16, the Israelites had been traveling for a month and a half after leaving Egypt. They began to worry where their next meal was going to come from. They were so worried that they reasoned it was better to be a slave and know where your meals were come from than to trust in God. They were blinded by worry to all He had done for them to set them free. So God offered them mana each day, but they could only get enough for that day. God was testing them with this instruction to see if they would quit worrying and trust in His provision. Many let worry grip their heart and chose to get more than a day’s worth. When they did, the mana became an expression of what was going on in their heart and it rotted. God provided this daily meal until they crossed the Jordan and ate of the produce in the Promised Land.

In Matthew 6, Jesus taught the disciples to pray one of the most famous prayers in the world. In it, he taught us to pray, “Give us this day, our daily bread” (KJV). Again, He was teaching us to trust in God’s provision for today. The chapter ends with verse 34 where Jesus says, “Refuse to worry about tomorrow, but deal with each challenge that comes your way, one day at a time. Tomorrow will take care of itself” (TPT). This imperative statement reminds us that we need to choose not to worry and to trust God. Instead of being guided by worry, remind yourself of all God has done in the past, and trust in His provision for today. He will give you your daily bread.

Photo by Artem Kovalev on Unsplash

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May 13, 2021 · 5:30 AM

Goodbye, Worry

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Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

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June 4, 2020 · 5:30 AM

Release Worry And Anger

Two the most taxing emotions are worry and anger. Worry robs us of our strength and anger blinds us. I’ve spent a lot of time worrying about things that may or may not happen. My mind is excellent at going through all the worst case scenarios. If there’s a possible bad outcome to any situation, my mind will think of it and make me worry. That stress then wears me down to the point that my mind and body get exhausted. It hinders me from accomplishing the things I need to get done.

On the other hand, I’ve been so angry before that I couldn’t sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I could only picture a bad scenario. That got me upset, got my heart racing and my blood boiling. It made me fantasize about doing evil things to pay them back that were worse than what they did to me. I didn’t want to get even, I wanted to get so far ahead that they never wanted to mess with me again.

These two emotions were given to us by God for a reason, but we can’t let them run wild and free or they will destroy us. Psalm 37:8 says, “Don’t give in to worry or anger; it only leads to trouble” (GNT). Notice how the writer didn’t say, “Don’t feel them.” No. He said, “Don’t give into them.” Don’t let them rule your mind. Left unbridled, they will destroy your well being and later your life. You can’t dwell on them. In both cases, you have to release them.

I know that’s easier said than done, but it is possible. In both situations, the way to release them is to trust God. Do you trust God to do what’s right for you? Then let go of worry and trust His plan. Do you believe that vengeance belongs to the Lord? Then let go of your anger and trust Him to do what’s right in the situation. If you’re struggling with either of these, pray and give the situation to God. When you release it, you will watch the worry and anger go with it.

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May 7, 2020 · 5:45 AM

Greater Than Worry

Worry. It’s something that everyone deals with. Whether it’s about paying the bills this month, will we find true love, the end result of an illness, or any number of things, we all worry. I love that dictionary.com defines worry as, “To torment oneself with or suffer from disturbing thoughts.” Worry is nothing more than self torture. It’s allowing our mind to put us into a debilitating prison where our mind thinks of every negative thing that may happen in a situation. Worry only looks at the negative outcomes.

If you’re a worrier, take heart. God wants to free you from that torment. 1 John 3:20 says, “God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves” (MSG). Not only does He know you better than you know yourself, He knows your future. There is nothing that is going to happen to you that He doesn’t already know about. I learned several years ago to trust that worrying didn’t solve the problem or change the future, so I began to hand my worry to Him.

I Peter 5:7 says, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you” (NLT). I admit it was difficult to learn to hand them off to Him because I didn’t know what to think about or do since all I knew was worry. But that’s where Philippians 4:6 came into play. It says, “Don’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” (MSG).

Worry never changed the outcome of anything, but prayer has! Quit tormenting yourself and start praying to God about it. Release it to Him because He is greater than your worry and your problems. He wants to trade peace for your suffering. He wants to give you a lighter burden, but you have to be willing to exchange worry for it and leave it with Him. God cares deeply about you and the things you’re going through. Trust Him to do what’s best and give Him your worry. Give no place in your mind to anxiety and debilitating worry. Be free.

Photo by Toimetaja tõlkebüroo on Unsplash

Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other writing ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

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