Read Online 21 Ways to Finding Peace and Happiness by Joyce Meyer - Free Book Online
Authors: Joyce Meyer
Tags: REL012000
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get married, but Paul’s point was that we should keep life as simple as possible so we are free to serve the Lord. Married or single, we should seek simplicity in our daily lives.
L ET G OD T AKE C ARE OF Y OU
God wants to take care of His children, and He has promised to do so: “Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully” (1 Peter 5:7).
We can either try to take care of ourselves, or we can trust God and He will do it for us. Psalm 55:22 says to cast our care on Him, and He will sustain us. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman, and He will not force His help on us. We must ask for it.
We can say that we trust the Lord, but He also wants to see the fruit of it. One of the ways we show our trust in God is by refusing to worry and be anxious.
Because of being abused in my childhood, I learned at an early age to take care of myself. Those I turned to for help had let me down; they disappointed me, so I vowed not to trust people. It took me a while to learn that God is definitely not like people; if He says He will do something, He never fails to do it.
I was thrilled to learn that God wanted to take care of me, but learning how to cast my care so He could do His job was a long lesson. It seemed so foreign to me not to worry about situations. I still need more growth in this area, but at least I’m not where I once was.
I admit that worry has been a problem in my life. I had many burdens at a young age and didn’t know anything else to do except worry. I formed bad habits, and they have not been easily broken. It seemed I was literally addicted to worry and reasoning. I could not settle down and feel peaceful until I thought I had an answer to my situation. The main problem was that I always had some sort of situation; therefore, I rarely had the pleasure of being at peace.
If you are one of those people who seem to worry about everything, I want you to know that I know how you feel. I do believe the Lord can and will deliver you. There are biblical principles you can learn that will bring freedom from the bondage of worry. Retire from self-care! Make a decision to let God take care of you.
First Peter 5:6 says we are to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, so in due time He might exalt us. It says in verse 7, as we’ve seen, to cast all our care on Him, for He cares about us. These two verses together are saying that humility leads us into freedom from worry. We will worry as long as we think we can solve our problems, but humility says, “I need God, I need help.”
Proud people are independent, but God requires us to be totally dependent upon Him. Habakkuk 2:4 teaches us that the soul of the proud person is not right within him. Part of the soul is the mind, and God does not consider our minds to be “right” when we are worrying. The just and righteous man lives by faith; he leans on God for everything.
First Peter 5:5 states that God resists the proud but gives grace (help) to the humble. Humble people know they are nothing without God, that they can do nothing of any real value without Him. I did not even begin to enjoy any measure of freedom from worry until I faced the fact that I was not able to solve my own problems.
If we know what to do, we should do it; if we don’t, we should admit it.
M EDITATE ON THE W ORD
If you know how to worry, you know how to meditate. It means to think of something over and over. Meditation on God’s Word is one of the major ways you can find deliverance from worrying. Just as we once formed a habit of worrying (meditating on the problem), we can form a new habit of meditating on God’s Word. Take portions of Scripture that comfort you, and roll them over and over in your mind. Do it on purpose!
As soon as you are facing a difficult situation that tempts you to worry, begin to confess and meditate on Scripture. In this
L ET G OD T AKE C ARE OF Y OU
God wants to take care of His children, and He has promised to do so: “Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully” (1 Peter 5:7).
We can either try to take care of ourselves, or we can trust God and He will do it for us. Psalm 55:22 says to cast our care on Him, and He will sustain us. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman, and He will not force His help on us. We must ask for it.
We can say that we trust the Lord, but He also wants to see the fruit of it. One of the ways we show our trust in God is by refusing to worry and be anxious.
Because of being abused in my childhood, I learned at an early age to take care of myself. Those I turned to for help had let me down; they disappointed me, so I vowed not to trust people. It took me a while to learn that God is definitely not like people; if He says He will do something, He never fails to do it.
I was thrilled to learn that God wanted to take care of me, but learning how to cast my care so He could do His job was a long lesson. It seemed so foreign to me not to worry about situations. I still need more growth in this area, but at least I’m not where I once was.
I admit that worry has been a problem in my life. I had many burdens at a young age and didn’t know anything else to do except worry. I formed bad habits, and they have not been easily broken. It seemed I was literally addicted to worry and reasoning. I could not settle down and feel peaceful until I thought I had an answer to my situation. The main problem was that I always had some sort of situation; therefore, I rarely had the pleasure of being at peace.
If you are one of those people who seem to worry about everything, I want you to know that I know how you feel. I do believe the Lord can and will deliver you. There are biblical principles you can learn that will bring freedom from the bondage of worry. Retire from self-care! Make a decision to let God take care of you.
First Peter 5:6 says we are to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, so in due time He might exalt us. It says in verse 7, as we’ve seen, to cast all our care on Him, for He cares about us. These two verses together are saying that humility leads us into freedom from worry. We will worry as long as we think we can solve our problems, but humility says, “I need God, I need help.”
Proud people are independent, but God requires us to be totally dependent upon Him. Habakkuk 2:4 teaches us that the soul of the proud person is not right within him. Part of the soul is the mind, and God does not consider our minds to be “right” when we are worrying. The just and righteous man lives by faith; he leans on God for everything.
First Peter 5:5 states that God resists the proud but gives grace (help) to the humble. Humble people know they are nothing without God, that they can do nothing of any real value without Him. I did not even begin to enjoy any measure of freedom from worry until I faced the fact that I was not able to solve my own problems.
If we know what to do, we should do it; if we don’t, we should admit it.
M EDITATE ON THE W ORD
If you know how to worry, you know how to meditate. It means to think of something over and over. Meditation on God’s Word is one of the major ways you can find deliverance from worrying. Just as we once formed a habit of worrying (meditating on the problem), we can form a new habit of meditating on God’s Word. Take portions of Scripture that comfort you, and roll them over and over in your mind. Do it on purpose!
As soon as you are facing a difficult situation that tempts you to worry, begin to confess and meditate on Scripture. In this
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