Choose Peace, Not Worry

 Caption of picture: My anxiety is anxious.

By Maria Fontaine                                 Find original article HERE.

 length: 11:45

I would like to talk about the thing that has the potential to damage our faith, drag us down, destroy our peace, destabilize our minds, disrupt our lives, weaken our relationships, and be detrimental to our health. This terrible thing is worry.

There are so many things in this life that might happen to us, to our loved ones or friends that could bring us suffering and sorrow. Whether they are issues in our personal lives or problems in the world at large, it’s dangerous to let those things weigh on us and affect us.

It’s easy to give in to dwelling on what might happen; it’s harder to take the “high road” of casting our cares on the Lord and trusting in Him for the outcomes. But we do have a choice. We can’t deny that tragic or terrible things could happen as long as we live in a fallen world, but we can choose to not allow worry and fear to get a grip on our heart and life. As Mark Twain reportedly put it, “I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.”

Suffering the results of worry and fear about what might happen can be just as bad as going through the actual situations we worry about. As the Bible says, “fear has torment.”1 When you are actually in the midst of struggles and suffering, you have the Lord’s grace, and you can trust in Him to carry you through the hard times. But worry is often focused on the future, and you don’t have the same measure of God’s grace because most of the trouble hasn’t even happened yet and may never happen.

Even if you’re in the habit of worrying, you can change. You can fight back, no matter how long you’ve given in to the enemy’s fears and doubts about things that might happen.

Not so long ago I allowed myself to start worrying about a few things that weren’t huge but seemed pretty big to me. I was losing quite a bit of my hair and I was worrying that pretty soon I’d be bald. I was also worrying that I was behind in my work and I wouldn’t be able to get on top of things again. The enemy saw his opportunity. I was being weakened by these worries, so he began to bombard me with bigger ones, telling me that if these smaller things could happen, then even bigger and more serious troubles could happen too!

However, he underestimated God’s power! The Lord woke me up to where worrying like this could lead. I realized that this was a serious threat to my overall well-being and happiness. It could have a seriously detrimental effect on many other areas of my life and walk with the Lord if it continued! It was starting to weigh me down, and I was struggling.

I had to face the reality that I was going to have to fight. I had to choose to swim or sink, rebuke the enemy’s garbage or be overrun by it. Facing the potential consequences of allowing myself to focus on the worries instead of the truth turned into something wonderful that Satan unintentionally did for me! It so stirred me up and woke me up that I began to fight back.

So what did I do to get rid of worry and replace it with peace?

As I studied and prayed and communed with the Lord on how to break free from worry, the Lord began showing me promises from His Word, attitudes and mindset changes that I needed, questions I needed to ask myself, etc. I had to persevere and at times it was quite a fight, but the Lord didn’t fail to give me the victory.

I’d like to present some of the principles and general thoughts that helped me and that I hope can do the same for you. These are not in any order of importance. They are all important in one way or another. They all helped to strengthen my determination to “choose peace, not worry.”

1. I was going to have to work to break that habit of letting worry creep in. I had to be militant about it.
2. I had to focus on God’s promises. I needed to soak in them, praying them out loud. I needed to take time to think about what they meant and how to apply them to what I was worrying about.
3. God’s Word is powerful when you use it to overcome fear, doubt, and worry.
4. Every time I felt a twinge of worry, I fought to replace it with the truth and promises Jesus has given.
5. There are so many negative things that fear and worry can lead to, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally, and I had to remind myself daily that I definitely didn’t want to go there.
6. I’d been working for a long time on improving my health, but the Lord pointed out to me that if I didn’t stop worrying, the stress was going to cause a serious setback. As somebody said, “You should ask yourself if what you’re worrying about is worth losing your health over.”
7. The good news is, we have a choice. We can overcome worry and reconnect with the Lord. In Him we can be freed from worry, stress, and anxiety. I had to be on guard; I had to make a conscious effort to make good choices each day.
8. Faith is what has to rule in our lives. The Bible is full of statements about how we profit from troubles and from tribulation, and these teach us many things, such as perseverance and patience.2 And, as Peter described, the trying of our faith is more precious than gold and will result in praise, honor, and glory.3 So if the Lord allows something difficult to come into our lives, it’s only because it has something good to bring with it. Worrying about it won’t change it. Trusting the Lord for it will bring the maximum good in the shortest possible time.
9. I have to make an intentional effort to let go of my own agenda. I have to leave the timeline and details of my life in God’s hands.
10. I am determined to say, “Dear Jesus, if it’s okay with You, it’s okay with me!”
11. Our faith has to be based on God’s faithfulness to bring us what He knows is going to be best. We can’t base our faith on what we, in our limited understanding, might think is best or what we would like to see in the moment. When we base our faith on Him and His faithfulness, we can come to Him with thanksgiving. I have to refuse to live under the weight of the “what ifs.”
12. The more we trust in God, the less we fear anything else.
13. You cannot stop anything by worrying about it. The only thing you can stop by worrying is the good that God wants to fill your life with.
14. The Lord reminded me that the more I strengthen my faith now in fighting the smaller worries, the stronger I will be in rejecting bigger worries should they come in the future. I will have a habit of choosing faith instead of fear, peace instead of pressure, praise instead of pouting, worship instead of worrying, and following instead of fretting.
15. Another reminder from my precious Jesus, “The closer you stay to Me, the less fear you will have. The more you fix your mind on Me, the sounder your mind will be. The more surrendered you are to Me, the more settled you will be.”
16. Something worth contemplating is how important these three things are—praise, obedience, and faith—and how they all go together. What is the praise factor in ridding yourself of worry? What is the obedience factor in gaining the peace that passes all understanding? Where does faith come in and how do you define that faith?
17. The Lord showed me to read and study the story of King Jehoshaphat when great armies were surrounding him and threatening to destroy him and his people. It’s a wonderful story of how they followed God closely in obedience. They praised God for what He had done and what He was going to do, and they had faith to do things exactly as He instructed them, even though to the natural mind those things must have seemed very silly. It would have been easy to worry, wondering how such puny measures could overcome the powerful armies coming against them. But instead of worrying, they praised the Lord in song.4
18. Worry weakens, surrender strengthens.
19. Everything the Lord showed me pointed me to the fact that I couldn’t give worry any place, not even a little one, in my heart and mind. Here’s something He said to me in prophecy: “Are you going to believe Me or are you going to believe the doubts and the fears of the enemy? Who do you know really loves you and cares for you? Do you think the one called the father of all lies, the one who deals daily in treachery, is going to tell you the truth? No! I, the One who loves you with unfathomable love, am the way, the truth, and the life.”

 “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”—Philippians 4:75

Read by Debra Lee.

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1 See 1 John 4:18 KJV.

2 James 1:3–4.

3 1 Peter 1:7.

4 See 2 Chronicles 20.

5 KJV.