Series on Managing your Emotions – Worry

Series on Managing your Emotions – Worry -Courtesy Benny Ho:

Worry is common in our modern day living; we all face it and can’t ignore it.

Philippians 4: 1-9

4 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!

² I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. ³ Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Final Exhortations

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹ Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

This is an incident when my wife Sandra was expecting our first child and was at work, called me up and mentioned that she was bleeding. She had an abortion threat. With that one call, our world was falling apart. The dreams that we had for our baby, the hopes and plans were all shattered in a moment. We didn’t know what to expect or what would be the doctor’s verdict. We waited patiently as we had got the gynecologist’s  appointment for evening. However, for those few hours, millions of thoughts were going through our mind. It was only God’s grace that saved our child. Today she’s grown up to be an active 2 year old.

Max Lucado – Somewhere in storm I lost my song. All of a sudden everything from joy became so fearful .

All the peace within me gave away to the worries and anxiety. And I believe all of us can relate with situations like these, where in one moment, everything was calm and the next moment it is a chaos.

Financial issues, Children down with sickness, church is stagnant , church members are leaving. Suddenly we are surrounded by worry. Worry is like a habit. So like any other habit , we can face it and overcome it. Worry is a fruitless activity of our mind, unless you allow it to drive you for a positive action.

Worry is like a rocking chair, it allows you to rock, but does not take you anywhere. We may have seen in movies people who worry sit in the rocking chair, but it did not take them anywhere. They are stuck in the same situation

Worry cannot change the past, but definitely it can ruin the present. Paul writes this letter when he was in prison. You think about his situation. He was about to face a trial and a possible execution. They have charged him with all false accusations. With all his given circumstances, Paul writes this letter because of the concern regarding an issue in the church. He is pleading with those 2 women and also they were not ordinary woman, they were someone who stood with Paul in his ministry. With all the troubles, he is standing strong. And he gives us the secret in Philippians chapter 4 on how to overcome worry.

In verse 6

⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

The word anxious means feeling or showing worry. If we are anxious or worried, it’s like life is literally squeezed out of us. Worry can also have a physical impact on us. It is proved by science as well. Something has gone wrong in mind, which results in our physical body like sickness.

What is Worry? Worry is negative thinking in our mind and negative feelings in our heart about the circumstances, people, things etc. Paul says, don’t worry, Rejoice in the lord and again I say rejoice.

Verse 4

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.

Actually Paul is commanding us to Rejoice , “again I say Rejoice” in Verse 4

Rejoicing is an act of the will and not emotions of the heart. Why Paul is asking / commanding us to Rejoice? What is the basis of Rejoicing?  The basis of rejoicing is not because of the circumstances but because the Lord is near. God is near , meaning two things, that is, firstly, God is with us, the ever present help and God is near us in his omnipresence , secondly, that He is coming soon. That is the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So Why not trust him in first place and believe that he is coming soon and is going to conquer all evil and put everything in place. The days are coming where all sorrows are gone and all tears all washed away. The day is coming where our Lord will put everything right.

Worry is Satan’s biggest weapon against the Church. He uses it to destroy believers . We can see this emphasized by Jesus in “sermon on the mount”. He knows that we struggle in the area of ‘Worry’.

Also , let me put it this way . Persistent worrying is a sin . We have people who know Christ and they only talk about worries. We can’t be worried Christians. We have forgotten that we have a father in Heaven.

How can we overcome worry? Let’s look at three things in order to overcome worries, which apostle Paul talks about.

1. Pray Right: If we really want to overcome worry and don’t want to live a life with anxiety, we need to learn how to pray right. Apostle Paul doesn’t say that Don’t worry and forget about it. In any given situation, if someone comes and says that, “don’t worry , be happy” does it really work? We respond back saying, that it is easy to say “Don’t Worry”, but I am the one who is actually going through it. But it really does not work. Paul is asking us to Face We can’t overlook worry. Learn to face-up your problems. Take it to God in Prayer, face your problems.

A problem worth not praying about is not worrying about.

1 peter 5 : 7

⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Don’t worry because your heavenly father knows it.

Praying is fine, but pray correctly. In verse 6

⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God

When we pray to God, we are bringing God in our picture, and  in our circumstances. It says that we come to God in Adoration , devotion and worship.

When we face worries , first let us come to the presence of God to adore and worship him, for who He is. “Lord , I am facing this situation but I know who you are.” Bring God in Focus

Prayer Focuses on the Person of God. Paul says Petition, which focuses on the problem, therefore the sequence would be that we bring God first and then petition .

 But imagine this, that we bring petition first? When we actually have to Bring God first. He is a great God who can handle. After we bring the problem to God what do we do next? Thank him. When we are thanking and praising, we are sealing the victory for us.

So we need these 3 things in the given sequence , i.e. Prayer , Petition and Thanksgiving.

So what is the outcome?

Verse 7

⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Once we follow the above steps in sequence, we would be at peace and it’ll guard our mind from all worries.

So it’s like , our heart is guarded by a soldier , i.e the Peace of God which transcends all understanding. It Guards our heart and mind from wrong thinking and feeling.

Example: If there is a turmoil in the ocean and the wind is blowing like crazy . We definitely can’t  hold on, however, when we dive deeper into the ocean, we may not even be aware of what would be happening above. So if we guard our heart and mind with the peace of God. We can face any storm. The problem is not solved yet but there is peace.

It is like everyone is telling you that, the situation is really bad, but you have your peace intact within and you know all is well.

Psalm 46 :10 says

¹⁰ He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;

The psalmist is saying be still when?

² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
³ though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.

2. Think Right

     Isaiah 26: 3

You will keep in perfect peace
those whose minds are steadfast,
because they trust in you.

Our mind should be focused on the Right things.

Once our focus is wrong then everything turns wrong.

What you think all day long , you will become.

You Think wrong , You Act wrong.

What should our mind be doing instead of being anxious or worried?

Paul says in Verse 8

⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

If I say all that is wrong, ugly, bad, impure, unpleasant, and have wrong thoughts. How would it look?

If we think about all these, there would be no Peace and Joy. We will be worried, and anxious. Feed the mind with right things.

3. Live Right :

Verse 9

⁹ Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Live a life of faith and trust God

Carry out the will of God . Do what is right .

Walk in faith and the God of peace will be with us.

We started with Peace of God and end with the God of Peace.

God of peace will be with us when we do right . The God of peace chooses his company carefully. Do what is right.

If the God of peace is with us then definitely the Peace of God will also be with us.

The beginning of anxiety / worry is the end of faith.

Let faith rise up today in all our worries.

Just remember this that we will win , God will triumph .

In the end, it will be ok . If it is not ok today then that means it is not the end. God has not finished yet, if it is not the end. God is still doing something . so don’t worry , the God of peace will be with you.

God wants us to live in Spirit and not in our soul (where our emotions are centered) which is always worrying.

Our spirit which is God’s spirit should master over our soul.

We should live by the spirit and not by flesh

Psalm 42 : 5

⁵ Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

The Spirit is talking to the soul. We need to exercise this in our life otherwise our emotions / desires will always master us.

Our spirit which is God’s spirit should master over our soul.

Walk in Spirit not in flesh.Rise above situations …

Virjil Selvan is Pastoring the New Hope Community. The New Hope Community is situated in the heart of the city between Old and New Panvel. We can confidently share that New Hope Community is a Church in Kamothe, Church in Khandeshwar, Church in Khanda Colony, Church in Panvel, Church in New Panvel because we are centrally located and these places surround our church Venue.