Is your worship replaced by worry?
According to Scripture, our day begins at night so if you are worried as you go to bed, your next day will often be challenging. As we set our affection on Christ when we go to bed, our sleep will be blessed. If I wake up in the middle of the night, I will focus my affection on Christ and return to sleep. Let us not succumb to fear, worry, anxiety, or doubt.
Being a worshipper is what positions me to pray effectively.
Complaining is prayer in reverse. Complaining actually reveals that I’m losing the battle over my thoughts. Complaining, criticism, or resentment all reveal losing the battle over my thought life. Did Jesus ever complain?
Paul wrote by The Holy Spirit in Philippians chapter 4:
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!
5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
If you are gripped in worry, rejoice in THE LORD. As you worship THE LORD, your anxiety will diminish.
8 Keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and Holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising Him always.
Paul also wrote by The Holy Spirit in 1st Thessalonians chapter 5:
16 Rejoice always,
17 pray without ceasing,
18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
19 Never restrain or put out the fire of the Holy Spirit.
In other Words, let joy be your continual feast. Make your life a prayer. And in the midst of everything be always giving thanks, for this is God’s perfect plan for you in Christ Jesus.
Any situation I cannot rejoice in or give thanks in; I am losing the battle over my thoughts.
The devil masquerades himself as an angel of light (2nd Corinthians 11:14). An offense will come into a person’s life because they think they’re functioning in discernment. The enemy attempts to sneak something into our heart that actually works opposite of what The Holy Spirit is saying. This angel of light promotes complaining, criticism, resentment, worry, thus removing the peace of GOD in our hearts.
What rejoicing and thanksgiving do is that they completely dismantle that mindset. They expose the root system that the enemy has used to persuade to buy into a lie. Worrying is a symptom of the issue.
Jesus addressed worry as He spoke in Matthew chapter 6:
25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;
29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33 But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Rejoicing and thankfulness are absolute pure expressions of faith!