Instead of Worrying, Start Praying

There are times in my life when I couldn’t help but worry on what the future may bring, especially in this time of my life. I realize that the more I focus my attention on the future, the more fear and anxiety I feel. In order not to be carried away with the negative thoughts, I’d take a deep breath and remind myself of 1 Peter 5:7 (NLT): “Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you.”

At the crosswalk.com website, Whitney Hopler writes: “So many of us, even those strong in faith, wonder how they can stop worrying. Living in a fallen world gives you lots to worry about, but living in a relationship with Jesus can free you from having to worry about anything. So, if you’ve been in the habit of worrying, let go of worry and embrace the peace that Jesus offers you.”

How to stop worrying? Hopler offers the following steps:

• Recognize how little worry can help you. Worry doesn’t have the power to prevent anything bad from happening in your life. Also, the bad things that you worry about may never end up happening, and many good things can happen instead.

• Recognize how much worry can harm you. Worrying doesn’t benefit you in any way, but harms you in many ways. Worry harms your physical health (such as contributing to high blood pressure, insomnia, and suppressing your immune system); mentally (by sending a stream of negative thoughts to your mind); and spiritually (by encouraging fear rather than faith in God).

• Trust God to deal with what worries you. Since God wants the best of you, is always with you, and has the power to do anything, you can trust any worrisome situation to Him and invite Him to work it out for the best.

• Change your worrisome thoughts rather than suppressing them. The more you try not to think about something that worries you, the more preoccupied your mind becomes with that thought which makes you think about it even more. Pray for the Holy Spirit to renew your mind and enlighten you.

•  Develop healthier lifestyle habits. Unhealthy lifestyle habits may make you prone to worrying than you would be. So eat nutritious meals, drink plenty of water, reduce or eliminate alcohol and caffeine, avoid smoking, get plenty of sleep, and exercise regularly. Practice deep breathing and releasing tension in your muscles.

•  Look beyond your circumstances, to God. When you focus your thoughts too much on your circumstances, it’s easy for your mind to wander off worrying. But if you focus on God – who is in control of your circumstances, you’ll learn to stop worrying and start trusting God.

• Use prayer and meditation to reduce stress and anxiety. Studies have shown that praying and meditating can significantly reduce stress and anxiety. Pray regularly about whatever concerns you have and meditate on the Bible verses.

•  Most of all, decide to live in the present moment, taking it one day at a time.