Saturday 18 November 2023

DEALING WITH ANXIOUS THOUGHTS

Romans 12:2 Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think….

I was reminded yesterday about a quote of Corrie ten Boom’s which said. “Anxiety is like a rocking chair, it keeps moving but it goes nowhere. That’s very true isn’t it and unfortunately we’ve all sat in that rocking chair at some time or another!😊

Anxiety sometimes comes out of nowhere and catches us unawares. We can either dwell on it and let it grow out of all proportion, or we can choose to block it with God’s word as soon as it comes. Whatever we pay attention to grows bigger in our minds which is why we know it’s so important to pay attention to God’s word to let it grow bigger than any circumstance we might be dealing with.

Anxiety seems to arrive on our doorstep with its partner the ‘what ifs’, demanding to be let in! It says, “What if such and such goes wrong?” but we can turn any ‘what if’ the other way round and say, “Well what if it goes right! What if it turns out better than you ever thought possible?” 

We may have to fight a tendency to lean towards the negative instead of the positive because God says to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, to retrain our thinking so we come in line with God’s word. It  tells us Jesus came to give us abundant life, it tells us not to worry, that God is holding us in the palm of His hand. It’s full of reassurance, upbeat and encouraging!

God tells us He is the God of all hope and you can’t feel discouraged and hopeful at the same time, so we can smile remembering we’re on God’s side, the hope filled, winning side.

God Himself tells us what to do with anxiety when He says in Philippians 4:6 (Nkjv) Be anxious for nothing,… The NLT 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.

God wants us worry free and He gives us the ‘how to’. Now our part is to follow the maker’s instructions and ask the Holy Spirit to help us get up out of our rocking chairs.😊

Have a great weekend.



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