No pictures, just words.

Worry, fretting, anxiety... have you ever done any of these?

Okay, so I am gonna make this statement: those verbs up there, each one of them, is, SIN!

Did not Jesus himself admonish us: "Do not worry."?
I have always, always, struggled with worry - about anything and everything, big and little. From what to make for dinner, to when am I going to excercise, to how am I going to ever pay-off my car, and even thoughts of 'will this boyfriend leave me just like the last one' ( just bein' honest, here).

Be honest, are there any positive elements of fretting? I doubt it. Worry literally eats at you. It ruins your day(s). It causes grief in your relationships. Anxiety dampens the joy that should be yours in Christ. Anxiety is actually addicting.

I have always looked at worry as just something you do. It isn't fun and I guess I never thought it was good for me, but it's not a big deal, right? Wrong. As I was reading my Bible and pouring out my heart to God in prayer, listing all my anxieties- wack - it hit me. Conviction slapped me. YOU ARE SINNING. Whoa now, wait a second, worrying isn't all that bad. No, Jesus says how many times in Matthew 6: 25-34, Do not worry? Read for yourself:

25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I think that worry is shrugged away, but I think we need to face it as it really is: REFUSING to lay down everything at our Saviour's feet and simply TRUST HIM with the outcome. God wants the best for our lives, which includes peace, joy and rest (all things that cannot come from an anxious heart).

I challenge myself today let God reign in my life so that
... the peace of God, which transcends all understanding...
(Philippians 4:6-7 go look up the rest yourself! :)