Be Anxious For Nothing

by Hallie Gipson

Have you ever been in a fretful state --- that place we know from experience that leads us no-where fast except sleepless nights and minds that can think of nothing else but that upsetting thing?

Unfortunately, I’ve recently visited that ‘state’ and hope my ‘cure’ will be helpful to anyone else stuck there and who is eager to leave it behind in your rear view mirror!

As I settled down for my morning quiet time recently, the first scripture that came to mind was Philippians 4:6-7 --- "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

In His gracious and loving way, God reminded me that the particular situation I am so fretful about is not mine to resolve. I cannot bear another person’s consequences for choices made, nor grieve about them to the point of being ineffective in what God has called me to do. Grieving for what I cannot change makes me ineffective in the ministry God has for me. It also wastes the precious time God has given me each day. I must lay those things aside and leave them in God’s Almighty hands. I know these things, but the 'doing' is difficult.

For me, it is a daily dying to self that makes the ‘doing’ possible. Jesus Himself said, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me."   Luke 9:23

To deny myself is to lay aside anything other than God's best for me. I will know what to lay aside and what God’s best is because He will speak into my heart through the Holy Spirit as I meditate on His word and seek Him in prayer.

But what am I to do about those things that put me in that fretful ‘state’? I am to take those people and situations before the throne of God’s grace and mercy and plead for His will to be done, in His time, and in His way. And even if we don’t know what to ask, God’s Word reassures us that “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”  Romans 8:26-27

Thank You, Holy Father, that we are never left without the Helper, the Holy Spirit. Thank You that You carry our burdens for us and intercede for us when we have no words!