DEALING WITH ANXIETY | WINNING EVERYDAY
Anxiety is an experience almost all of us go through at one point in our lives and because we are still in the flesh, we may always have these struggles between anxiety and fulfillment. But the big truth is, while we may have the tendency of being anxious, we can truly scale through it and stand strong! Jesus knew we would be anxious, He knew reasons to be anxious would come up at times and that is why He encouraged us not to be anxious! Jesus said in Matthew 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”
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Look carefully at that last statement there which came as a question! You cannot add a single hour to your life by being worried and in order words, Jesus is saying “worry solves nothing, it adds nothing and it isn’t even healthy!” This doesn’t mean you have to be carefree about your life and never be cautious but you don’t have to give in to worry and be lost in it! There is no single value worry adds to your life. You can look at the birds of the air and find encouragement! We need to understand the manner in which God provides for them! The birds of the air go all out to look for what to eat knowing that they must find something; they don’t sit back being lazy but they also don’t go out without hope. In fact, hope is what motivates them to go out looking for food! It is in their activeness that God provides for them. So, you do not do business hopelessly, you should be full of hope while you work!
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TRUST GOD
Still stay on what Jesus said! The birds do not sow nor reap, they do not store in barns but God still provide for them in the sense that when they go out looking for what to feed on, they see! How much more we who have better IQ, good strategy, good business plans and means of making things happen! Jesus never said we shouldn’t store up wealth or sow and reap but He wanted to make us understand that if God can prosper birds that have no great strategy, how much more we who have been endowed with knowledge and wisdom to make things happen! Understanding this alone gives you more reasons not to be worried. While God is the creator of birds, God is your father! You have more intimacy with Him than the Birds do.
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Anxiety can lead you into doing things that aren’t right! Many people do all lots of stuffs just because they are fighting anxiety, some involve themselves in illegal businesses just because they want to escape the worries they had put on themselves and therefore running into another misery! Following the natural order God has set will save you from anxiety at some point! For instance, when you work on time, you will definitely harvest on time! Satan would offer a more simple way though but there are always hidden charges and sometimes they only become obvious so much later. God want you to go through the process so that you can be trained in diligence While you stay committed to the things you do, you can decide to overrule anxiety!
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PRESENT YOUR REQUEST WITH THANKSGIVING
The Bible says in Philippians 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” The Bible gives us a simple rule on how we can deal with anxiety and it is to pray with thanksgiving while presenting our request to God! Many people read that verse fast and miss the message but let me explain this a little bit. When you are worried about something, what you have to do is to switch off that worry by coming to God with a thankful heart, being thankful with a mindset that God has settled it already! So, when you are praying to God about that job or that challenge, you aren’t making a complaint, you are rather being thankful knowing that God wants the best for you. No matter what the situation is, do not allow anxiety come near you or get the best of you! It is not wrong to come before God and bare yourself because He is your father but come in a thankful and hopeful heart! In verse 7 you discover this is how the peace of God which passes all understanding can be experienced. Why is it peace that passes all understanding? It is because people may not understand why you had to be peaceful in the midst of all those troubles, they may not know that you do not depend on yourself but on God! They may watch you walking in the valleys of shadows of darkness and yet without fear and they can’t understand the peace you are feeling and why you are feeling that peace.
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Anxiety is not a way to get something from God. Anxiety will never do us any good, you do not have to worry about things you cannot get or things you don’t have. Jesus said we shouldn’t be anxious and worried but rather we can be thankful and hopeful. Your thankfulness in the midst of all challenges clearly shows your level of trust in God. What you must understand is that you can still achieve greatness no matter how much failure seem to have played out; this isn’t mere motivation, this is the truth! Great men are not those who don’t feel anxious but they are those who trampled on those worries and forged ahead! Do not let anything rid you off your trust in God.
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If there is a pill that solves all the anxiety, that would have been nice but there is none and the truth is that you have what it takes to combat anxiety. All that is required of you is summed up in one word, trust God! Just like the birds who go out in search for food with hope, you can go about your lawful activities with hope that God will prosper you! As long as you are human, there is a tendency of being anxious no matter what you know, it is the fleshy inward response to outward issues but you can keep putting your body into remembrance that you have a father who cares for you. I will not judge you for being anxious, it is okay and that is your emotions but it is not okay that you allow that anxiety get the best of you. You can keep reminding yourself about your stand just like the Psalmist who reminded himself that even though he walks through the valleys of shadows of death, he will fear no evil. The prodigal son also came to that point where he reminded himself that he have a father who could meet his need!
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REJOICE IN THE TESTIMONIES OF THE PAST
When life questions you, answer life with God’s word and God’s words says “you have everything you need” you just have to keep discovering them. You may not seen the future clearly but you cannot doubt the past! When life brings you a question of the future, answer life with the winnings of the past. The Bible says in Revelation 12:11 “They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” Our testimonies are the winnings of the past and while we don’t solely glory in them knowing that our future will be better, the victories of yesterday is the proof that we can still win again!
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So many people want to think they had no victories in the past because they are overlooking the very little details! It is in the little details that you see the picture of tomorrow. There is nothing you will experience tomorrow that you have not experienced in the past, maybe in a smaller version. The fact that you have lived up to this moment is a testimony and the fact that out of all the eggs and millions of sperm, you were the one that finally came through and formed a baby in your mother’s womb, it is a big victory! Any big success of today is an addition of all the small winnings of the past.
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Success doesn’t just happen, it comes bit by bit and you must handle each bit of them with diligence as it comes. God doesn’t bring into your future what you have not encountered in your past. If you are faithful in the little you’ll be given responsibility over the bigger version of the same thing you were faithful in. Instead of mourning what you couldn’t achieve, why not focus on the things you could achieve? Why not be grateful for the winnings of yesterday? Why not encourage yourself with them? God picks all of your small success from your past and present them in a bigger way to you. You have to keep details of the victories of yesterday so that when a challenge comes in the future you can say “I won last year, I will still win this year!” Isn’t this why you shouldn’t forget the days of your humble beginning? Many of us are thinking of bigger things without paying attention to the little things we would have conquered without stress. It will require the same faith and commitment with which you won yesterday to win today!
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When David encountered Goliath, he was determined he would win Goliath and he didn’t forget the winnings of the past! He compared Goliath to the Lion he had killed and for him there was no difference between the both for if he could win the Lion he could win Goliath! In fact, Goliath mocked David for approaching him as though he was an animal but that was the perspective with which David saw him! David saw him like that Lion he had killed and so he was determined to go ahead with trust in the Lord. If you have lived to this moment, then you can live to the next moment. You don’t have to give up now!
FOCUS ON TODAY, NOT TOMORROW
Jesus continued to say in Matthew 6:34 “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Many people worry about tomorrow that they totally lost it! Jesus says you shouldn’t be hopeless about tomorrow, you shouldn’t be so lost in the thoughts of tomorrow because you present winning is a guarantee that tomorrow has been conquered! Tomorrow is advanced repetition of today and if you win today, you can win tomorrow.
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The Bible says in Psalms 91:5–6 “You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day, Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.” Do not be afraid of all of those, decide to see differently for your victory is dependent on what you know and not what you see with your physical eyes. The Psalmist saw valleys of shadows of death but he fear no evil because he knew God is with him. Sometimes it is in the midst of crisis that we discover the opportunity God wants to expose us to! You don’t have to run away from challenges, defeat them! The difference between the person who won and the person who didn’t win is not that they had different experiences but that they chose to approach it from different perspective. When storm comes, it is an opportunity to step out of the boat and walk on water. There is no single person that has no opportunity to win. Being anxious exposes you to failure, don’t put it in your way and don’t be afraid to step out of that ship! It is true that when you step out of the ship you may seem to be getting drown but listen, Jesus can’t let you sink! He can always grab you by the hand! Saint Peter will explain that better!
BE HOPEFUL FOR TOMORROW
People who do so many terrible things just to secure tomorrow for themselves are people who aren’t hopeful that there is any great thing in stock for them tomorrow and so they decide to force it happen. Trust in God gives you an automatic hope for tomorrow and it takes hope to actually journey into tomorrow with a motivated spirit! The Bible says in Colossians 1:27 “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” While this verse isn’t talking about worry, it gives us an insightful truth into the current discourse! Christ in us is the hope of glory, He is our hope for tomorrow! Therefore, while we don’t stay lazy thinking God will spoon feed us, we can go out in fervency knowing that God is faithful! You don’t have to spend the nights crying and worrying about tomorrow. Stay hopeful.
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In summary, we have seen that we can defeat anxiety by trusting God, rejoicing in the victories of the past, focusing on today and being hopeful for tomorrow! Don’t take the little things for granted! At the face of challenge what do you see? Reason to be grateful or reason to worry? You can truly win! Hope this blessed you? Let’s get your response on the comment section.
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I am George O.N
The Man-In-God
#GracefulGeorge
