When life is uncertain, we often react with worry. We start carrying our worries around with us like a designer purse. We throw more and more of our anxieties into that bag of worry.
The trouble is that these worries can weigh us down. Just like a heavy purse can wreak havoc with our posture and cause shoulder pain, worry can cause physical symptoms.
Doctors tell us that anxiety can bring about short-term physical symptoms:
- fast heartbeat
- headaches
- inability to concentrate
- muscle tension
- nausea
- rapid breathing
When we worry, our bodies release stress hormones into our bodies that, over time, can cause more serious health problems:
- suppression of the immune system
- digestive disorders
- raised blood pressure
- higher cholesterol level
- heart attack and stroke
The book of Proverbs tells us, “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down.” So what can we do to empty our bag of worries? Here are 5 strategies you can use to defeat worry.
1. Change Your Focus
Matthew 6:25-27 says:
Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
Jesus tells us, “Don’t worry about your life.”The original Greek word that Jesus used for worry here in Matthew is merinnao which means “to be anxious about, to have a distracting care.”
When we worry about something, it is always on our minds. Whatever we are doing, the problem returns to our thought pattern. When we worry, we focus our mind on the problem, but instead we need to learn to concentrate our thoughts on something else.
One technique to teach your brain not to be distracted by worry is to literally tell it, “Worry about that later.” Although this may seem counterintuitive, research has shown that if people set aside a specific time to worry, they can learn to tame the worrisome thoughts.
Here are some suggestions for a successful “worry time”:
- Schedule a time each day to devote to worrying.
- Don’t worry at other times.
- If you start to worry at other times, write the concern down on a Worry List and tell yourself you will worry about it later.
- Use the list to think about your problems during the “worry time.”
This all may seem rather silly, but the process seems to train the brain to turn off the worrisome thoughts, instead of letting them run wild at all times of the day and night, preventing you from productive work and restful sleep.
Of course, as Christians, we can do more than worry during our “worry time.”
We can give our concerns to God who knows so much more about them than we do. He has the solution all worked out. Coming to Him reminds us that He has everything under control.
2. Trust–Give God Your Worries
Jesus began His teaching on worry by simply telling us not to worry. He continues by telling why we don’t need to worry.
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Matthew 6:30
Jesus rebuked His listeners with the words, “O you of little faith.” in verse 30. It seems to me that Jesus is connecting worry with a lack of trust. I think He is saying, “Little faith = Big worries.”
In verse 31 Jesus repeats the words, “Do not worry.” The Greek verb tense for don’t worry is present imperative—in other words, it’s a command. Jesus doesn’t say, “I suggest that you don’t spend your time worrying” or “You know worrying really is not a great idea.” He comes right out with the order, “Don’t worry.” When I am dwelling on my concerns, I am disobeying Christ’s instructions.
However, I believe Christ’s statement, “Don’t worry,” is also an invitation, an offer to carry my handbag of concerns and apprehensions. Jesus asks me to trust Him and exhibit to the world that I have a loving Father that will take care of my needs instead of acting like people who don’t have God as their source.
Truthfully, my human mind sometimes makes God small; it attempts to craft God in my image. I limit His goodness and power, because I subconsciously picture Him to be like me: powerless, selfish, and unwilling to help.
But God is Big and He assures me that He is in control of the situation. Jesus told the crowd on the mountain, “Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs” (Matt. 6:32 NLT).
Before I even voice my concern, before I yearn for something more, before I can even conceive a new desire, my Father knows what I long for and what I require. He invites us to trust Him and give Him all of our concerns.
3. Seek God
Worry is a distracting care. Concentration on God’s provision is an answer to the distraction. Jesus tells us:
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”Matthew 6:30
Here Jesus tells us that seeking is a way to avoid anxiety. What are to seek? God’s kingdom and His righteousness. But what do I spend a lot of my time seeking? “All these things.” What exactly are “these things”? In the previous verses of Matthew 6, we see that Jesus was talking about what I will eat, what I will drink, what I will wear. Jesus urges me to not be distracted with the physical stuff of life. This was probably not an easy task for Jesus’ original audience for the Sermon on the Mount The people sitting on that mountain had to struggle daily for food and water. They had to walk to a community well and carry water home. Their diet consisted of mostly barley bread and vegetables that had to be prepared by hand each day.
I have never been too concerned about getting enough to eat, but when I worry, it is often about the physical stuff of life: “Will we have enough money to pay all the bills? Will the roof on the house hold out for one more year? How will we pay for the kids’ college education?” I may not worry about having enough clothes, but I may worry about having the right clothes. My kids may bug me for a certain brand of tennis shoes or I see a designer bag I simply “must have.”
God invites me to concentrate on His goodness and provision instead of what television commercials declare I need. He asks me to seek His kingdom. He invites me to concentrate on what is eternal instead of what is fleeting.
And then He promises me that He’ll take care of the rest.
4. Live One Day At A Time
So many times when I worry, it’s about the future. I get all tied up in knots about what might happen. But Jesus says:
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”Matthew 6:34
Jesus says, “Don’t worry about tomorrow.” Live life one day at a time.
In 1913 Sir William Osler gave a speech to a group of Yale students. (It seems that worry has always been a popular topic!) Osler urged the students:
“Touch a button and hear, at every level of your life, the iron doors shutting out the Past—the dead yesterdays. Touch another and shut off, with a metal curtain, the Future—the unborn tomorrows. Then you are safe—safe for today!”
If my life is a novel, I am to concern myself with the page that I am on, not all the twist and turns that the plot will take later on in the book. This should be easy, since I know how the story concludes. Because Jesus is my Savior, a happy ending is guaranteed.
And yet I struggle with concentrating on the here and now. I constantly need to remind myself that these worries can wait. I continually need to tell myself that what I think may happen will probably never come about. But each day I can choose to stay in my “day-tight compartment” and follow Christ’s words, “Don’t worry about tomorrow.”
5. Turn Every Worry Into a Prayer
The apostle Paul also wrote about worry. He told the Philippians:
“Do not be anxious about anything, 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 understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious. About anything.
Impossible, you say.
Anxiety and the temptation to worry are hard to avoid. But when they come, we have an alternative:
“Let your requests be made known to God.”
A few years ago I attended a retreat where the speaker said something that really stuck with me.
Turn every little worrisome thought into a prayer.
For some reason, I had never done that before. I had always struggled with the instructions in 1 Thessalonians 5:17: “Pray without ceasing.” But then I realized that when I’m worried about something, I think about it all the time. My anxiety doesn’t just show up once in the morning and once at night. If I turned every anxious thought into a prayer, I would certainly be on the track of praying without ceasing.
Obviously, I am not totally successful in turning all of my anxiety into prayer. In fact, recently God pointed out to me that I had not prayed about an issue that has been plaguing my worry center for over a year.
But when I do remember to pray, the peace that God promises floods my soul. That tranquility truly is beyond understanding, for the issue is not settled. God’s peace guards my spirit and keeps out the anxious thoughts when I remember: Turn every little worrisome thought into a prayer.
Pick Your Strategy
So when you find yourself carrying around a bag of worries like a designer purse, pick one of these strategies.
- Change Your Focus
- Trust–Give God Your Worries
- Seek God
- Live One Day at a Time
- Turn Every Worry Into a Prayer
Next step: Pick out the strategy that will help you the most. Will you schedule a worry time? Will you remind yourself to focus on living one day at a time? Can you develop the habit of turning every worry into a prayer? Write out the corresponding Scripture and post it somewhere prominent today to help you remember your new weapon against worry.
Re-label
Re-attribute
Re-focus
Re-value