Most everyone worries, but that doesn't make it right or smart. Just like our mothers told us, "If all your friends decided to jump off a cliff, would you do it, too? No! You're a smart girl. Too smart to be jumping off cliffs." Come to think of it, worry really isn't all that different from jumping off the cliff. Worse, since with worry, we jump again and again and again.
I used to think that worry was inevitable. Sort of like the involuntary response of coughing when you swallow something the wrong way. (Swallowing... Hmm. There's something to think about.) Anyway, God tells us NOT to worry, and I guess I always took it like I would if a friend were to pat me on the hand and say, "Well, try not to worry," while both of us knew that worry WAS going to happen.
Actually, worry is fear disguised as concern. It is doubt disguised as probability or even inevitability. It is proof that we have meditated more fully on the scenarios our unrenewed imagination has manufactured than on the possibility pictures God's Word has offered us. Worry is meditation in the wrong direction. So, if you can worry--have ever worried--you have what it takes to meditate on God's Word. Worry and meditation are simply the practice of dwelling on and replaying over and over again what COULD happen. One is based on fear and the other on God's Word. Meditation MUST be based on God's Word. That's how to tap into the real power. God's Word has inherent within it the power to cause itself to come to pass. It is seed. Divine seed--which is to say--God-power seed.
How to kick the habit? Replace worry with meditation on God's Word. On purpose. Take your imagination by the ear and make it meditate on God's Word. Now, anything new is usually hard at first. Especially a new way of thinking. New grooves must be formed in the mind, and it is easy to fall into the old ruts of thinking that are well worn and familiar. But in this exercise, you have God's help. Any time you are handling God's Word in expectation, He is there to enable. He is resident in His Word.
So, meditate regularly, on purpose. And everytime you catch yourself worrying--STOP--REPENT--and replace with MEDITATION on God's Word. According to 2 Cor. 10:5&6, we are supposed to take insubordinate thoughts (those thoughts that don't agree with God's Word) captive and bring them into obedience to Christ. If worrying is a way of life for you, then you'll have opportunity to correct yourself many times day and night. But, the more you practice, the easier it will get, and you'll become proficient in agreeing with God. God's Word, when embraced in faith--and that's what meditation accomplishes--brings peace and relief and rest.
Be Constant in Prayer,
Paula J
