How to worry less. As counterintuitive as it may sound, the missing ingredient in so many of our lives is surrender. While we are taught that surrender is never an option, which in certain situations is most assuredly true, when it comes to matters of faith, surrender is the key to experiencing all that God has for us!
One of the products in our life that surrender leads to is freedom!
Don’t we love that word?! FREEDOM! ’MERICA!
Now, I’m not trying to be silly, we really do love the word freedom! And I want you to know that true freedom in Christ.
I can’t tell you how many times over the years when I’d have people come to talk with me and share what’s going on in their lives, and they’d ask, ‘Well, what do you think?’ and my number one response is always this: You need to go read Matthew 6:33.
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Matthew 6:33
This verse is a part of a larger section of scripture known as the Sermon on the Mount. It stretches across Matthew 5-7 and is the most famous teaching passage recorded in the New Testament. This particular verse is in a section where Jesus is talking about worry.
Jesus here is teaching his disciples that they can be free from worry if they’ll seek His Kingdom first!
If you’ll surrender yourself, stop living for your own kingdom, and instead seek after His, he’ll take care of the things you’re worried about! This means we can take all that energy we normally spend worrying and use it to seek after Him!
This is not a secret formula; it’s written down for all to see! You can be free from worry today!
I love the way Paul writes about this same topic: He doesn’t say, “STOP IT! You need to just quit worrying!”
Rather, he says,
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Philippians 4:6
This is Paul saying, “I know some worrisome things are going on in your life, so instead of just minimizing them or ignoring them, bring them to God!”
Instead of worrying, seek God in prayer, surrender your worry, and find freedom!
Boy, that sounds good to me!
But I get it, worry comes naturally to us. So much so that we even grow accustomed to it. And we keep worry around like it’s a little pet. The problem is that worrying promises to make things better, but it can’t deliver on that promise.
Only through surrender are we able to find freedom from worry!
The real question for us is simply this: Do you believe that God is better than the thing you fear surrendering?
Because when you believe God is better than anything, you’ll give Him everything!
Have you resolved to be a person of prayer only to find it a struggle? Something as simple as talking and communing with God, yet I’ve yet to meet a person who says they pray too much.
