At peace

The word worry comes from a Greek word meaning ‘to divide the mind.’ Our mind becomes divided between the things we fear and the promises of God. We know we should trust God but we fear what might happen in our futures. But worry doesn’t get us anywhere. Jesus said: ‘Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?’ (Matthew 6:27 NIV). All worrying does is take away our strength and peace of mind. So how can we stop worrying? The Bible has a two-part answer: God’s part, and our part. Our part includes prayer and gratitude: ‘Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done’ (Philippians 4:6 NLT). In order to worry less we must pray more, and also remember to say thank you to God. Before we go to Him for the next thing, let’s take time to thank Him for what He’s already done for us. Too often we can forget what God’s just done in our lives because we’re too focused on worrying about the next thing. So what’s God’s part? He takes the worry we bring to Him and exchanges it for His perfect peace. The Bible says: ‘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.’ The Bible doesn’t say we might experience God’s peace, it says we ‘will’. It’s a promise and a definite. He’s offering His peace to us right now. We need to make sure we’re doing our part by praying and thanking Him, and then we’ll have a peaceful state of mind.

Heb 11:7; Gen 6:9-22; Gen 8:18-22; Matt 24:36-44