Choosing Freedom and Peace (by Stephanie)

This Sunday, Pastor Vickylextar gave us a teaching on the importance of not worrying. For someone like me who had made it a habit to worry about everything and anything, this is a word that hit home!

I used to worry about almost every situation in my life:
“Am I doing the right thing? Should I even be doing anything? Is anyone going to disapprove of what I am doing? What do I need to do to make sure that everything around me is OK?” … And thus continued the endless list of questions I would ask myself 50 times a day for almost everything I would do in life. This obviously came with consequences.

Pastor Vickylextar touched on the physical ramifications that stress caused by worrying and having anxiety can bring. At times where I should quiet my mind, I would allow myself to bask in the pool of worries I had created and would later suffer from various health issues. A common example I found people could relate to was this: I would worry about something so much that it would make me sad; then I would eat my emotions and worry that all this eating would make me gain weight. Of course, after I gained the weight, I would start worrying about how I was going to lose the weight… You get the point. I was a worrier!

Freedom

Pastor Vickylextar said in the service a sentence she has said before which has marked me:

I have never met someone who told me that worrying about something helped their situation.

In the passage we read, Philippians 4:4 – 9, it reads in verse 7:

⁷ And the peace of God [that peace which reassures the heart, that peace] which transcends all understanding, [that peace which] stands guard over your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus [is yours].

To me, this is incredibly freeing. When I would worry or be anxious, I would always feel trapped in my thoughts. Knowing that casting my cares on God could set me free was an incredible motivation to stop worrying. The bible says we should be submitting our requests to God through prayer and petition with thanksgiving. This means that we should humble ourselves to realize that we do not control what tomorrow brings, and we cannot do anything about it. However, we can be grateful for what God has done for us today, submit to Him the desires of our heart and walk in His word. And as we continuously do that and focus on all things that are worthy of His praise, we can continue to experience that freeing peace of God. Isn’t that wonderful?

So, I will keep on rejoicing in what God is continuously doing in my life and let go of my worries, day by day!