"If You Pray Don't Worry... If You Worry Why Pray”

☞ Concern drives us to tackle and conquer all that we can handle.

Anxiety and worry cause all kinds of problems......

☞ fear to act... depression... discouragement...

distrust and unbelief..unwise and harmful decisions .... physical sickness and infirmities .... emotional problems..... spiritual backsliding

Just take a moment and think about a few of the problems that we worry about..... and how anxiety and worry cause a person to act and suffer.

We all know people who suffer greatly because of anxiety and worry; they simply lack the peace of God.

Yet, the Scripture declares...... to be anxious for nothing..... not even for a single thing.

✞“Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles [unbelievers] seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:31-33).

✞“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6-7).

✞“Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5).

✞“Casting all your care upon the Lord for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

“If You Pray Don’t Worry......... The remedy for Anxiety and Worry is Prayer.

The four words used for prayer show exactly how prayer is the answer to Anxiety andWworry.

☞ The word “prayer” (proseuche) refers to the special times of prayer that we share in periods of devotion and worship.

➾We are to have set times for prayer, times that we especially set aside for devotion and worship.

☞ The word “supplication” (deesis) refers to the prayers that focus upon special needs.

➾ We feel a deep, intense need, therefore, we go before God and supplicate, that is, pour out our soul to God.

➾ Need—great need—confronts us, and the only possible help and deliverance is God.

➾ Therefore, we come and lay our need before Him as a child: crying, pleading and begging for His help, comfort, deliverance, and peace.

☞ The word “thanksgiving” (eucharistia) means that we thank and praise God for all that He is and for all that He has done for us.

☞ The word “requests” (aitemata) means specific and definite requests.

➾Our praying is not to be general, but specific.

➾ We are to lay before God exactly what is needed and we are not to fear that we are being too detailed with God or bothering God.

➾ Neither are we to hold back from asking because we fear He will not answer something so specific. Too often believers fear not receiving the answer to a specific request, fear that it will show how weak they are spiritually if the request is not granted.