An Anxious Heart

May 4

Judges 5

Psalm 55:9-15

Proverbs 12:25-26

Luke 21:1-19

An Anxious Heart

“Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up.” Proverbs 12:25 NIV

In Philippians 4:6-7, Paul gives us the solution to an anxious heart. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (NIV) This sounds too good to be true. You may respond that it is easier said than done and yet, it is a promise we can claim. We are promised that if we turn over our concerns to God, He will give us peace that is beyond our understanding. We will experience a peace that doesn’t make sense. We will not experience this peace if we do not give our concerns to Him and leave them there. Too often, we pray about something, we offer it up as a concern to God, but then we take it back with us. We continue to think about it, worry about it, try to come up with ways to fix it and it continues to weigh our hearts down. We feel obligated to worry about it because if we don’t then we are being irresponsible. Ultimately, we don’t trust that He will deal with it, or we are afraid He will deal with it in a way we don’t like so we keep trying to take care of it ourselves.

Worry is a lack of faith. It is not a badge of honor or an act of love. I have had people tell me that they worry about their children because they love them. They spend their days anxious and afraid for their children’s safety, their choices, what they are doing and who they are spending time with. Their anxiety doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t make their circumstances better and it causes friction in their relationship with their children as they are constantly nagging and complaining. Many of the things we spend our time worrying about never come to pass. And the things that do happen are often less severe than we expected, or God has prepared us to deal with it when it comes. Worrying about it doesn’t change the outcome and it just makes us miserable in the meantime. We can trust God to take care of us. He has invited us to bring our concerns to Him, all our concerns. He cares about everything we are facing, and He wants us to give Him control and let Him carry the burden. It is not irresponsible. Turning our problems over to the One who can bring about the best solution for us and all concerned is the most responsible, practical thing we can do.