Worry, Anxiety and Over-Concern
Series: The Sermon on the Mount
August 8, 2021 - David Stockton
If you want to grab a Bible and turn to Matthew Chapter six. That's what we're going to be today. Jesus has been talking to us for a little while. We've been on the Sermon in the Mount for the last four months. Basically, it's been all red letters. Everything that we've been studying and reading — our culture today is trying to tell us what is righteousness, what is justice — and we want to be about righteousness and justice, but we just really want to hear what God has to say, more so than our pundits and and all of those things.
So we've been really focusing on that all year of vision for the righteousness of God. We want to look to the Bible to teach us that, because the Bible has been there, done that through many generations, through many cultures, through many ideologies. The Bible has proven itself time and time again to be trustworthy and true and a good guide for the human soul, even the hard things.
And so that's that's what we've been doing. And it is we're in Matthew Chapter six. We're in our 15th teaching on the Sermon on the Mount. We've only got a few more. But if you want to read with me in Matthew, chapter six, verse twenty five, the words of Jesus:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life…
Everybody good there?
what you will eat or drink or about your body. What you will wear is not life more than food and the body more than clothes.…
And as my favorite song writer, John Forman says, when he was younger and what married lives more than girls.
…Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? …
Weak faith. Blurry faith.
…So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well…
What things? The food and drink and the clothes.
…Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
So this is the word of the Lord. And more specifically, this is the words of Jesus when he was incarnate as God in the flesh, walking around this planet in a place called Israel.
And it's interesting because Jesus is doing this thing that we call the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew gives it to us in Matthew chapters five, six and seven. Also this this is similar sermon. It's called the Sermon on the Plain when when Luke writes it. It's basically all the same material. Matthew has more than Luke does, but a lot of the same material in these two different gospel accounts, which makes us think that this is probably Jesus’ “stump speech” in some ways. This is what Jesus, when he would go from town to town to town around Galilee and then kind of made broader concentric circles as he was doing his ministry, he would go around preaching about the kingdom of heaven. And this is basically what he would say almost every time to the people that he would gather as he would heal them, and he would meet their needs and that type of stuff.
And so, Matthew records it a little differently than Luke. And we haven't really got much into that. But you can check that out if you want. Luke was a doctor, and so he's recording some of those things. He actually talks a little bit more about the healings that Jesus did in those times. Interestingly enough, he was a doctor, whereas Matthew was not a doctor.
What was Matthew? He was a tax collector. He's the money man. And what he does is he talks a lot about what Jesus taught on money in his sermons. So, interestingly enough, that's kind of what was brought out in all of this. And so when Matthew was writing this — and this was just kind of really important as we were going to jump in and Jesus is talking about not worrying about some of these practical needs — Matthew was someone that was intricately aware of what was going on in the socio economic climate of that day. As a tax collector, he was he was Jewish, but he worked for the Romans, and the Romans were the oppressors.
And what his job was to do was to go and get the taxes from the people, the Jewish people, and give it to the Romans. And in the process, what was very common in that day was the Romans would have a set tax, but then they would always ask for a little bit more. They'd kind of extort the people and get a little extra. But then they gave the Jewish employee of theirs the right to extort whatever he wanted or whatever he could get, as well.
So it was basically, “Here's the tax plus what I'm stealing from you, plus what Rome’s stealing from you.” And ultimately, it all feels like stealing because Rome is a foreign empire that's ruling us.
But as they would come to him, Matthew would be intricately involved with people's stories. “Matthew, I can't pay taxes because I've got no food for my family.” “Matthew, I can't pay taxes because I can't even get clothes for my family.” “Matthew…” so Matthew was aware of all of the challenge for all of the poor people and their taxes. He was aware of all of the rich people and maybe how they were getting out of taxes, I don't know.
But had a very specific, intricate look into all of that challenge that people were going through. And so when Jesus said, “Don't worry about those things,” for Matthew, that stuck out as something extremely significant and maybe even something that was very, very hard to grasp. And maybe even he felt wasn't safe. “Jesus, you don't know. You don't know what I know. Jesus, how can you say this? Because there are some people out there that I mean, they need to worry."
And yet he records this for us, not just when Jesus said it first time. Remember Jesus said it over and over and over again as they walked with him. But he records this for us years after Jesus has died on a cross, risen from the dead. When this actually began to really get circulated was probably about 60 or 70 A.D. So Jesus was gone around 33-ish, you know, so we've got about a 30 years before this really is kind of a preserved teaching. But Matthew made sure that this was part that really made it in there. Because what happened in Matthew's life, as he heard Jesus teach this — and it was very hard to receive — but as he watched Jesus live, he saw the father provide. Not just for Jesus and them, but but the people that Jesus was working with, as well. He saw what Jesus was saying was true. “You don't need to worry because God will add what you need when you need it.”
And he not only saw all of that, but he also saw it in his own life after Jesus left. He began to not worry and see God show up in his life. And so he teaches us, he preserves this part of this teaching of Jesus for us to know. Because he saw it realized and he knew it was the truth, not just a shocking, hard teaching.
And so we're going to unpack this a little bit as we go into this. It's all kind of connected in the sermon. It's not just a random thought, but it actually is connected to what's before here. I want to talk a little bit about what worry is. I mean, obviously, most of us are probably pretty clear on what worry is. We have this word today that is used a lot: anxiety. Anxiety. We’re a very anxious society. Some of you, when I say the word anxiety, you get anxiety. Or some of you, when I say the word anxiety, you’re, like, already there.
And so we are trying to understand a little bit of what worry is. To start out and we’ve got to, you know, always look at the translations here. And so in the original language, Timothy Lane brings this out. But do not worry — the Greek word is merimnaó. I said that exactly the way it's supposed to be said, just so you know. No, I don't know how to say it, but merimnaó. It literally means a distracted mind or a double mind.
Track with me here for just a second and we'll visit this again. But every once in a while, I go with one of my daughters, to go see Dr. Michael Johnson. Dr. Michael Johnson's a friend of mine, a super cool guy, but he's also an eye doctor. And so we go to his office and we go in there and and he, you know, puts my daughter in this thing and was like flipping through things. And he’s like, “Does it look good, does that look good?” And he's telling us all kinds of cool stories while he's doing it, too. And the last time I went, he was like, “Hey, do you want to see what your daughter sees without glasses?”
And I was like, “Yeah, that sounds cool.” And so he put the thing on me and he totally jacked up my vision — which was not a great doctor thing, but he was just showing you what she sees. And I was like, “Wow, like, there it is. This is what she sees without glasses.” And it was blurry. Everything is just blurry.
But she goes without her glasses all the time because it's good enough for her. She's like, “I can see what’s happening." We’re watching shows and I'm just like, “I know what you see now and it's not that great.” But she she's just like, “Whatever.” She gets it, you know, and she's more about the words and the story and the character. I don't know. Something,
But it was just kind of fascinating to see that. And and and I think this is a little bit of the connotation of what this word is getting at. Because when things get blurry, you get more disconcerted. Right? Let's say, not just in your vision, but let's say in your life things get blurry. Something happens and now you can't really see why or how. It could be something small like, you know, needs and practical needs. How is this going to work out? I don't know how this is going to work out. Everything seems blurry and confused. Or it could be something massive, like a loved one who dies in a freak accident. There's lots of different things that can all of a sudden cause us and our worlds to become blurry. And it's in those situations that we can become disconcerted.
And that's exactly what this word is connotating. It's like, hey, do not worry when things get blurry in some ways. Sorry. I t rhymes. I don't want it to. It sounds horrible when you say it that way. But that's a little bit of what this word is connotating. The blurring, the disconcertion that comes from things all of a sudden not looking right.
I think of some of those movies where it's like these people are in a vulnerable situation and they got good guys and they got bad guys — and think Star Wars or something — and yet way off in the horizon, there's something like coming towards them and they're not sure, “Is this going to be somebody who's for us or somebody who's the enemy?”
And it just gets clearer and clearer as it comes what the situation is. And that's that sense of anxiety. That's that sense of worry that that can happen. And in a Psychology Today article, they were talking about trying to understand worry against anxiety. Worry, they said, tends to be experienced more in our heads. And anxiety is a little bit more like everywhere else. It's more of a feeling. It's more of a gut, like you can have worry in your thoughts, but then at some point, it just kind of settles in and you just feel worried or anxious.
Worry tends to be a temporary state, but anxiety is more persistent and lingering. Again, some of you I'm describing you right now in a big way, and I understand that. Worry tends to be more specific while anxiety is more general. To differentiate, worry would be like, “I'm worried we're going to be late for my flight.” Anxiety would be more like, “I'm worried about travel.” Like, “I am worried that I'm going to miss my flight. But there's about forty seven thousand things leading up to that and then a hundred thousand things after that that I'm worried about.” That's that sense of anxiety. It's more general in that regard.
Johnny Cash. This is what he says about worry. The songwriter. He's not a theologian. He says:
The place I go to draw my pay,
close the door on me today,
told me just to stay away
and then don't come back again.
I told my mama,
‘Baby, you don't cry.
I'll get a job before the day go by.’
I don't know where.
And that is why
I'm a worried man.
Worried man, worried man.
I'm a very worried man.
Hungry babies don't understand.
Papa is a worried man.
I sing that to my kids all the time, that chorus. They don't understand at all. And I don't know if I do either, but it makes me feel better.
All right. How about Olivia, Roderigo? I was on a road trip with my family. Everybody gets a turn. But I think she does understand worry or anxieties. She says:
I see everyone getting all the things I want
and I'm happy for them. But then again, I'm not
Just cool vintage clothes and vacation photos.
I can't stand it. Oh, I sound crazy.
Their win is not my loss.
I know it's true, but I can't help get caught up in it all.
Comparison is killing me slowly.
I think I think too much about kids who don't know me.
I'm so sick of myself.
I'd rather be rather be anyone, anyone else.
Jealousy. Another source of anxiety these days is basically online. Well, what we're projecting ourselves online and we're having to manage whether or not our projection online is acceptable or not. It's hard enough to manage this, let alone trying to project something that I have to manage. It's a challenging world. And some of you older people are like, “Oh, yeah, those stupid kids over there.” That's fine, you know, except for some of you I know are trying to be cool and hip. And I see you on there sometimes. But but for everybody, let's say 30 and under, I mean, this is true. This is a reality. This is a source of anxiety. And I like what she says that, “I think I think too much about people who don't even know me.”And that's really a true source of anxiety and worry.
Rich Mullins, who's somebody I would recommend a lot more than these other two. I think it says a lot. This is basically like if I was going to do a movie on the Sermon on the Mount, which I'm not, by the way. Oh and I know like the Chosen did it all over that, so. But this would be like a good soundtrack, because I feel like he just captures so many different nuggets of the Sermon on the Mount in this poetic song that he writes. He says:
There’s more that dances on the prairie
than the wind,
more that pulses in the ocean
than the tide.
There's a love that is fiercer
than the love between friends.
More gentle than a mother’s
when her baby's at her side.
And there's a loyalty that's deeper
than mere sentiments
And a music higher than the songs
that I can sing,
the stuff of Earth competes
for the allegiance
I owe only to the Giver
of all good things.
So if I stand, let me stand on the promise
that you will pull me through.
And if I can't, let me fall on the grace
that first brought me to you,
and if I sing, let me sing for the joy
that has borne in me these songs
And if I weep, let it be as a man
who's longing for his home.
Sermon on the Mount. Right there. Heaven over earth. Right there. Do not worry. There is more than what you can see right now. It's blurry for you, but it's not for Jesus. And you can stand on the promises that he gives here in this passage.
A couple of other things about worry real quick. This guy, Colin Hanson, who's actually Vice President of the Gospel Coalition, which is basically an online resource for people who want to know more about what the Bible says about anything. I highly recommend it. It's not perfect. It's helpful. It can be helpful.
But he says:
We have to understand that the goal of Twitter is to worry us to death.
So much of life is solved in that statement.
We spend a lot of time worrying about things we can't control, like a tanker stuck in the Suez Canal and spreading that anxiety through means guaranteed to make no difference. During this past year, I'm convinced that we flipped our primary orientation from physical to digital.
That might not be true of you, but that is true of society.
Now we are first. What we project ourselves to be online and pixels, and only second who we are in flesh and blood. We constantly are worried about how we're portrayed and regarded online.
Here's the biggest challenge, all of that. God did not does not care about, Jesus did not die for the online version of you. He will not meet you there. He will only meet with you and who he knows you to be. He loves to meet you there. Don't lose yourself.
Not only that, but he said:
Today, worrying seems to be the universal sign that we care about the world.
Let that sink in for a second, the more worried you are about things, the more woke you are — is kind of the way things are. The more worried you are about things, the more you care about justice.
Now I'm not saying there aren't things that we need to wake up to, there aren't things that we should get involved in, and we should be caring about in all of those things. But I am trying to teach you what Jesus said to his followers who are living in very challenging times as well. “Do not worry about yourself and your life.”
And then, lastly, just to throw this in there, because I'm on a little bit of a rant here. A few years ago, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said of Netflix that their greatest competition is sleep. Are you scared? The greatest competition is sleep. And the lack of sleep can definitely cause us to be more anxious. So whatever there.
All right, so now let's jump into what the Bible says about worry and what Jesus is trying to teach his disciples. I think this is a cohesive argument that Jesus is laying out. And what we're going to do is basically look at this word therefore. Twenty-five starts with the word therefore. In biblical studies, it's real good whenever you see the word therefore, you've got to look and see what it's there for, you know.
So what led up to that moment? Because it's almost like, “Now I'm making my closing argument. All of this evidence presenting, all of these arguments that I've said is all leading up to this closing statement argument,” whatever it is. So I want to look at what Jesus teaches us, where anxiety comes from, because ultimately then we know we can do the opposite.
So first, before the therefore, anxiety happens when we don't understand the blessing of the low and cross like life. If you don't know what I'm talking, we're harkening back to our first teaching on this sermon where Jesus is unpacking the Beatitudes. “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Come again? “Blessed are those who are persecuted.” Huh?
There is a blurriness to our understanding of those things. But if we will be the ones who continue to walk with Jesus, even into those spaces, we will eventually find that there is a blessing in the low and Christlike life that Jesus himself walked and calls us to follow in his footsteps. If we can't understand that, we will be anxious. No doubt about it.
Anxiety happens when we try to create external forms of righteousness with our hearts, far from God. Sum this up: hypocrisy, hypocrisy. If you are being hypocritical, if you are living two different lives, you are going to be anxious — not because God's mad at you. Because you're creating that, and this is so true. This is so true. You think you might be fooling people. You're not fooling anybody. Definitely not fooling God.
Most of the time, the people who have a little too much of Jesus in them to enjoy the world are miserable and miserable to be with. And then you have the people who have too much world in them to really enjoy Jesus — miserable, miserable to be with. So you're miserable. Everyone knows you're miserable. It's not fun to be around you. It's miserable. So please stop. It's not it's not working.
So that's what causes anxiety. When you're trying to live out external forms of righteousness, when your heart is far from God.
Anxiety happens when we diminish the fact that God is our heavenly Father. And we talked about this last week. Transcendent Abba, the one who holds all of the cosmos together and yet wants you to call him Daddy when you talk to him. That's what Jesus taught. And whenever we get that focus, whenever we start to forget that Jesus wants us to call God ‘Daddy,’ we're going to get more anxious. Did anybody call Jesus Daddy when they prayed last week? That was our assignment, America. Like America's Funniest Home Videos. One person? I'm not raising my hand either, by the way. I forgot to do it too, thought about it one time, but yeah, that's what we're supposed to do.
Anxiety happens when we store up treasures in this life. This is just super hard teaching. Because Jesus said, if you store up treasures in this life, then you got to worry about them because moths and thieves can take them and destroy them. And rust. And so basically, I mean, you think about your bank account right now and if you've got a lot of stored up treasure, however it is or whatever it is, you have to have a conversation with God about this.
I'm not necessarily saying it's wrong to have those things, but Jesus said don't store up treasure in this life. And so you just got to kind of walk that out with him. And maybe you are using it in the right way, maybe or not. I do know that when Jesus met a rich young ruler who was saying, “OK, what should I do?” Jesus told him, “I want you to go sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and come follow me.”
And I think there are those times in our life where Jesus wants us to sell out and know what it feels like to have only him as our security. And if you have never done that, have a conversation with Jesus. And if you need to get rid of all of your massive wealth and possessions, we can take it here, you know? Well, we'll use it in a good way, you know. But if says give it to the poor, then you can just do that too. Just do what he says.
Anxiety will happen when we seek more than one thing. This is the part where Jesus talks about if you have a healthy eye, you'll be full of light. If you have an unhealthy eye, you'll be full of darkness.
The healthy eye is so confusing, but I finally feel like I'm getting it. The word healthy there is singular. You have to have a singular eye. And I think this whole blurry vision thing is really what Jesus is getting at. If you are seeing the kingdom of of of Earth overlaid and prioritized over the kingdom of heaven, everything is going to be blurry and you will be filled with darkness and not know what to do. But if you can get to a place where the kingdom of heaven becomes the priority and overlays the kingdom of this earth, you will have light — a healthy eye. You will have singular vision. You won't be double-minded, like James says, and unstable in all your ways.
Kierkegaard said it this way:
Purity of heart is to will one thing.
And to finally always come back to that place where the whole reason that you have a beat in your heart and breath in your lungs, is so that you could know God and glorify him. If anything else becomes more important to you, here comes the anxiety train. Choo Choo. It doesn't sound like that. It’s like CHOO CHOO! You know, it's much more intense than that or some sort of like grading and chalkboard noise or something.
Anxiety happens when we try and serve something other than God. This is what Jesus said. You cannot serve God and mammon. Again, mammon is money. You know this. And again, Matthew is using all of these illustrations because it's important to him. But mamman is anything you treasure in this life, basically. And the way that that is saying is “You will hate the one and you'll love the other.” So if you think you're pulling it off, you're wrong. If there is anything else that you are seeking above God, you are despising and hating God. You can only serve one master. And if you try and serve anything other than God, anxiety, anxiety, anxiety. So that's all what happens before the “therefore.”
Now, after the “therefore,” closing arguments. Jesus says anxiety happens when we care about temporal things more than eternal things. This is where he talks about what you eat, what you drink, what you wear. Those are things that that God knows we have need of, like a father knows you have need of that. But he also knows that some of the things you want aren't in your best interest. And he has the wisdom to withhold those things. It's very frustrating sometimes.
Anxiety also happens when we forget to see how much God cares for us and knows our needs. This is what Jesus says. Look at the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. And he's basically saying, “Look, God cares for them and God doesn't care about them nearly as much as he cares about you.” There is a truth to that. We are the Imago Dei. Made in the image of God. God put his breath in our lungs, not in any other aspect of creation. And he cares deeply for our needs.
He knows exactly what you need today and tomorrow. And he taught us to pray, “Give us today our daily bread.” Don't worry about tomorrow. He knows and he cares
Anxiety happens when we forget that if we take care of God's business, he will take care of ours. And this is the great summation of this whole passage. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things will be added unto you.”
Actually, there's one more. Anxiety happens when we start to worry about tomorrow and not stay present in today.
But that whole summation to “seek first God's righteousness and and his kingdom and all these things will be added to you," — that right there, I mean, it’s everything. And there's a phrase that came out of that that continues to like just stick with me through all my years of walking with Jesus, that if you take care of his business, he'll take care of your business. Who do you want taking care of your business, right? You want the God of the universe taking care of your business. And it's true. This is a promise that Jesus has given: if you will, take care of his business, he will take care of your business.
And basically, the way that came to me as a 17-year-old young man, when I was first deciding what to do with my life, I felt like the Spirit of God visited me and said, “Hey, you want to do life your way? Or do you want to see what I have in store?”
And what was interesting is, I remember in that moment, it wasn't like God was saying like, orthe preacher saying, “If you if you go your way, you will kill everyone and be a murderer or something.” It was basically like, “If you go your way and do things your way, it'll be fine. But do you want to see what I have in store?”
And at that point that's really why I decided I was going to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. I was going to do my best to see what he had in store. And let him take care of everything else. And I can tell you, no doubt about it, in my life, 17 years old, basically like I was aiming at the North Pole, and where I am today, sitting in front of you as a preacher is South Pole. Like I am as far away from where I wanted to b,e thought I should be.
I remember in my senior class having to give a five-minute presentation in front of 12 people. And I, I literally thought I was going to die. And I gave them everything I had and it was like three minutes long. And I thought it was seven hours. Nothing like this, this sounded horrible. Still today. It was funny. I was saying this in first service. I don't know when I first started really being excited about being a pastor because I don't think it's ever happened. I still, when people call me pastor, I'm like, “eww.” Something just like in the back of my neck just squishes. But I can tell you that this is the direction that God was leading me and has led me.
I've literally worked at a church ever since I was 17 years old and never wanted to. I think I can honestly say that. But this is the direction. But when I think of what has been added to me because of the direction that the Lord has led me, I wouldn't trade anything for the world. The places that the Lord has allowed me to go, the people I've met, the seasons. I hate that the good ones end, but they give way to other good ones.
And I'm so thankful to my my daddy in heaven who has allowed me to pretend I'm really taking care of his business. And all the while, he's been taking care of my business. And it doesn't mean everything's been rosy. There's been times where it's been real blurry and I've been mad at my daddy. But if I keep going, eventually clarity comes. And I say, “Oh. I like that. I'm glad you gave me what you wanted, not what I wanted.”
And with all of that together, Jesus comes to us and says, “Hey, little children. Hey, friends, don't worry. Don't be anxious when that stuff comes. Remember all these other things? Remember how close your daddy is? How badly he knows everything you want? How badly he wants to give it to you?”
The way that Romans 8:32, Paul says it:
If he is willing to sacrifice his only son for you, how much more would he will he not freely give you all good things?
That's the kind of love we're dealing with. That he was willing to sacrifice his own son to give you what you needed, that you didn't even know you needed. How will he not give you every good thing? In time, in the right way, in the right form. But he'll give you every good thing.
I'm being haunted by this other phrase by William Carey, who was a missionary who did some crazy things. And he says:
Expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.
And I am one of the people who, I've had enough pain in my life that it is really scary for me to have expectations. Like I'm scared of hope these days. But I love that William Carey was saying, “No, we need to expect great things from God.” And this is not some prosperity gospel: you’re going to get whatever you want. But you can, based on what Jesus taught us here, you can expect great things from God. You might have to hang on for a long time, but you can absolutely, without a doubt, have full assurance of common good if you're following Christ. I dare you to hope.
And lastly, just practically, if you're feeling anxious, if you're feeling worried, this is what Philippians 4:6-7 says:
Don't be anxious about anything…
Echoing Jesus's words.
…but in every situation…
where you feel the worry or the anxiety coming
…through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
That's our part. Through prayer, petition. Remember, prayer is a lot of listening, not just talking. But petition. Tell him what you're going through. But also thanksgiving for all that he's done. If you go through that process, then what the promise is is that the peace of God, which transcends understanding, will come and it will guard your hearts and minds in Christ.
I love that promise — that if we will walk in these steps, if we’ll cast our cares on him, if we’ll through thanksgiving and through petition and through listening, will present this anxiety and worry to the Lord, then what he's going to do is he's going to send his peace to transcend. It's not even going to stop here. It's just going to go straight past our understanding and set up a defense for our hearts and for our minds, so that the anxious world around us can't get in, and we can become like Jesus, these non-anxious presences.
Every single where we go in our own homes, in our workplaces, and it will be such a bizarre, foreign thing to the people around you when you're able to pass on to them something besides worry and anxiety as a believer in Christ, who holds to his promises.
Let's pray. And just so you know, you don't have to wait for me to say anything after I say, “Let's pray.” That's full freedom for you to begin to listen to your Father in heaven — your daddy — to call him Daddy, to present your petitions. But also remember to thank him.
And Lord, as we present our petitions and needs and couple it with thanksgiving, I do pray that, supernaturally, your Spirit right now would impart peace — your perfect peace, your powerful peace to come right now and chase away any anxiousness or any worry and to set up a beautiful defense over our hearts and minds. I pray for those who've been anxious every day of their life, that right now, Lord, your Spirit would do a work, that they would wake up tomorrow and they would live their first day anxiety-free.
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