Philippians 4:4\u20138 (NIV)
\n4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 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. 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable\u2014if anything is excellent or praiseworthy\u2014think about such things.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, in our Connection Time, we studied Philippians 4:4-8.<\/p>\n
Today, I want to recap some of the things I said, so you will have them in writing to meditate on.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s think about what worry cannot do:
\na. It cannot solve the problem
\nb. It cannot add a single day to your life
\nc. It cannot add an inch to your height.
\nd. It cannot make you good looking
\ne. It cannot give you health
\nf.\u00a0 It cannot give you hope
\ng. It cannot provide for your necessities
\nh. It cannot give you peace
\ni. It cannot heal broken relationships<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s think about what worry can do:
\na. It can keep you paralyzed in fear
\nb. It can take away your hope
\nc. It can keep you from trusting God.
\nd. It can lead you to not eat, or over eat, or to depend on drugs
\n(legal and illegal, alcohol and other mind-altering substances.)
\ne. It can keep you from experiencing the blessing of God<\/p>\n
Some years ago, a professor at a leading American university studied the things people worry about.
\nHis research discovered that:
\n40% never happens
\n30% concerns the past
\n12% are needless worries about health
\n10% are about petty issues
\n8% are legitimate concerns<\/p>\n
That means that 92% of our \u201cworry time\u201d is wasted energy as we exert mental and emotional energy on things outside our control.\u00a0 Actually, we\u2019re not to worry even about the 8%.
\nPhil 4: 6 \u201cDo not be anxious about anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
When we worry, we\u2019re really saying that God can\u2019t take care of us; that our problems are bigger than His promises. We may even be saying that we are not trusting in God\u2019s divine plan for how he wants to get glory out of our lives.<\/p>\n
What is the most troubling thing in your life right now?<\/p>\n
You may want to write pray, \u201cLord, I\u2019m putting my trust in you.\u00a0 I leave my __________ in your hands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Philippians 4:4\u20138 (NIV) 4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 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, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3302"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3302"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3327,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3302\/revisions\/3327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}