TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up. Proverbs 12:25
Listen: Proverbs 12
TODAY’S MESSAGE
It is not just that anxiety pulls you down. It is that you are being pulled down more than you need to be.
Life brings difficulties. Bad things will happen that are difficult and “weighty.” No one will argue that getting a foreclosure notice is a picnic. But if you let it—anxiety over future events can mess up your “today.”
Worrying about things that might happen, could happen and will happen is not what God intends for us. In Jesus Calling, Sara Young says it like this, “Rehearsing your troubles results in experiencing them many times, whereas you are meant to go through them only when they actually occur.”
Rehearsing your “future” troubles ruins thankfulness, joy and peace in your “present.” It can cause you to lash out unreasonably at others and miss out on the enjoyment of your friends, marriage and children. But most alarming—it causes you to turn your back on God.
Dwelling on “what if” eventually replaces God and erodes your trust in his character and promises.
IN YOUR CHAIR TIME TODAY
What is your biggest anxiety? Consider that “God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). Continue to journal three things for which you are thankful, and ask God for his help to keep your mind on “today.”
Download a printable PDF of the BTW week here.
