Tag Archives: worry

November 2, 2026 · 5:49 AM

Give It To God

I was talking to a group of people and asked them to share some of the things that they were worried about. After fielding several answers, I saw a common thread and paused the discussion. I called out the things they had said, but pointed out that the things they were worried about could have been prevented if they had taken care of the little things before they turned into big things. Then I asked them to think about what worried them that was beyond their control or ability to repair. I then asked how many of them had prayed about it. Almost all had raised their hands. I then pointed out that there’s a difference in praying about something only God can do and in giving something to God that only He can do.

In 1 Samuel 1, Hannah couldn’t have children. She was ridiculed and shamed for it. While they were visiting the Tabernacle in Shiloh, she decided to go pray about it. She was in such great distress about it and crying that her lips were moving, but words weren’t coming out. The priest saw her and thought she was drunk. She explained that she was discouraged and just pouring her heart out to the Lord. The priest then told her to go in peace and trust that God would grant her request. That’s when she gave it to God. Verse 18 says, “Then she went back and began to eat again, and she was no longer sad” (NLT). When she decided to give it to God, her countenance and mood changed.

1 Peter 5:7 says, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” Notice that it doesn’t just tell us to take our worries and cares to God. It tells us to give them to Him. He care about the things that consume your mind and keep you up. He care about the things that bring you distress and anguish. Yes, you need to take them to Him in prayer, but there is a difference in casting your burden on the Lord and in talking to Him about it. The way we give it to Him is to release the outcome to His decision and to quit rehearsing scenarios in our mind. When they come up, remind yourself that you’ve given it to God and that you will still trust Him if He chooses an outcome that’s different from the one you want. It may take a while to retrain your brain, but it is possible to be able to let go and let God.

Photo by Herish Natheer on Unsplash

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as anguish, bible study on, bible verses on, Devotional, devotional on, give God your worries, give it to god, give it to the Lord, let go and let god, pray about it, what does the bible say about, worry

April 6, 2026 · 5:46 AM

Shifting Your Trust

One thing I’ve learned is that the longer I worry about a situation, the less strength and energy I have. It’s like my body allocates all its resources to try and get me out of whatever mess or situation I find myself in. People will say, “Give it to God,” but I never understood how to until I read Philippians 4:6-7. 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). When I dwell on worry, it zaps my energy because I’m trying to fix the situation. When I let it cause me to pray, I hand it off to God and give Him the responsibility to fix it.

In 1 Samuel 1, we’re introduced to a lady named Hannah. She was married to Elkanah along with another woman named Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah did not. All she wanted in life was to have a child. Each year they traveled to the Tabernacle to worship. Elkanah offered his sacrifices and gave meat to his two wives. Hannah worried so much about not having kids that she couldn’t eat until one day when she decided to let her worries become her prayers. Eli, the priest, told her to go in peace and trust that God would grant her request. Verse 18 says, “‘Oh, thank you, sir!’ she exclaimed. Then she went back and began to eat again, and she was no longer sad” (NLT). She’s a great example of what Philippians 4:6 looks like in action. In due time, God granted her prayers and gave her a son named Samuel.

In Psalm 28, David was going through a tough season. The first part of the chapter is him telling God about his problem. Then in verse 7 he says, “The Lord is my strength and my [impenetrable] shield; My heart trusts [with unwavering confidence] in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, And with my song I shall thank Him and praise Him” (AMP). Just like Hannah, he experienced a shift in his confidence when he gave it to God. Their circumstances weren’t changed in that moment. What did change was who they trusted to handle it. Worry is a symptom that comes from us trying to solve a problem and it’s beyond our abilities. Peace is the symptom of trusting God to do what we are incapable of. Let Him displace worry and thank Him in advance for what He’s going to do. Your circumstances won’t change immediately, but there will be a shift in your attitude when you shift your trust to God.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as bible study on, bible verses on, Devotional, devotional on, give it to god, giving it to God, hopeless, how do I give it to God, how do I let go and let God, what does the bible say about, 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.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as bible study on, bible verses on, Devotional, devotional on, don’t worry or be anxious, dont worry, dont worry about anything, stress, Stressed, stressed out, what does the bible say about, worry, worry less

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

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as anxiety, bible study on, bible verses on, christian living, Christianity, Devotional, devotional on, dont worry, dont worry about anything, finding peace, giving it to God, god’s peace, peace, peacefulness, what does the bible say about, worry

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.

Photo by Mukuko Studio on Unsplash

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as bible study on, bible verses on, burdens, cares, cast all your cares on him, christian living, Devotional, devotional on, give God your burdens, give God your cares, give God your worry, pride, self righteousness, what does the bible say about, worry

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.

Photo by Benjamin Davies on Unsplash

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as anxiety, bible study on, bible verses on, christian living, Devotional, devotional on, fear, focus on the present, live in the moment, quit worrying about tomorrow, sermon on the mount, what does the bible say about, worry

September 1, 2021 · 5:49 AM

Displacing Worry

Listen on Spotify here.

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.

Photo by Elijah Hiett on Unsplash

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as bible study on, bible verses on, Devotional, devotional on, give it to god, god has a plan, Letting Go Of worry, stop worrying, think good thoughts, think on these things, trusting God, turn worry into prayers, what does the bible say about, worry

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

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as being worried, bible study on, bible verses on, christian living, Devotional, devotional on, don't let worry distract you, focusing on the wrong things, refocus, refocus on what matters, refocusing your thoughts, what does the bible say about, worry

May 25, 2021 · 5:56 AM

Worry Is A Choice

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

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as bible study on, bible verses on, Devotional, devotional on, give us this day our daily bread, manna from Heaven, our daily bread, refuse to worry, Stressed, what does the bible say about, when did the manna stop, why did God provide manna, worry, worrying