Prayer with Thanksgiving > Anxiety and Worry

6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:6-7

I don't know about you, but there are many times I struggle with not being anxious. I know I’m not alone because there are psychology textbooks that are devoted entirely to this issue, people all across the country are taking medication to deal with their anxiety, and the research community continues to analyze the reasons and effects of worry. One such study was done by Dr. Walter Calvert, and here’s what he found:

• 40% of what you worry about will not happen (that's almost half! Almost half of your worries are never going to happen in the first place!)
• 30% of your worries concern the past (does anybody else find this ridiculous? What are you going to do about it? It's the past!)

***For those keeping score, 70% of your worries aren't going to happen or you can't do anything about!

• 12% of your worries are unfounded health issues (have any of you ever worried yourself back into health?)
• 10% of your worries are insignificant and petty issues
• Which leaves only 8% of your worries having actual legitimate concerns...8%!

Pretty shocking statistics! They certainly don’t resemble the trust in God that Paul advocates in our passage. And even though Dr. Calvert says 8% of our worries are legitimate, I think the Word of God says otherwise!

Here’s the good news - Paul tells us there is an answer to anxiety, and that is prayer. Not just any old haphazard prayer, but prayer with thanksgiving. See, when we are worried about everything, what happens to our vision? It starts to get clouded, and we fail to see all of the blessings that have already been poured out onto our lives.

And what an awesome promise we see in verse 7: if we will trade in our anxiety for prayer and thanksgiving, the God of all creation will give us His peace! A peace that not only completely satisfies, but that is greater than anything our feeble, little minds can even fathom. And that peace which passes all understanding will guard our hearts and our minds and protect us from all of the things that might destroy us. But, we have to trade in the worry and the anxiety.

May 2014 be the year when we worry less, pray more, and experience the peace of God in our lives like never before.

Don't worry, it gets better

Well, the day didn't quite start off like I had hoped. I overslept, had to jump start the Neon before we could head out, and got on the road 3 hours later than I had planned. Yet through it all, my excitement for this trip never diminished. I just kept thinking to myself, "don't worry, it gets better!"

We arrived safe and sound in Anderson, Indiana and headed straight over to the Park Place Church of God to get our registration handled. Smooth. Simple. And everyone was smiling :)

Next, we got checked-in to our room in Fair Commons (dorms on campus at Anderson University). And I've got to say, every time I stay here I realized how blessed I am and how privileged we are in the Church of God to have facilities like this available. Thank you Anderson University for my home away from home this week!

Did you know - if you open the door for Marshall (my 2 1/2 year-old), he will invite himself right in and make himself at home? Well, Jeff and Joanie Frymire found this out tonight when we stopped to make a quick visit with them. After some cheese and crackers, and a very funny story about exploding toilet tanks (you'll have to ask Jeff yourself), we headed back out to do a little shopping (a.k.a. buying the things you accidentally left at home).

Now, you might think that it couldn't get any better than this, especially after the way the day started. You might even think that a late-night trip to Walmart could quite possibly undo all of the previous happiness and joy. However, you would be wrong. There was one more thing that would make all of the earlier problems fade off into the sunset, never to be remembered again. Are you ready?

Yes, that is banana pudding ice cream. I totally forgot that I could get this delicious dessert in the great state of Indiana. It might say Blue Bell on the container, but I believe this sweet treat is straight from the hands of God.

So you see, don't worry - it gets better!