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Skip Heitzig: King David in Psalm 6 said that he turned to God and said, "I am weary with my groaning. All night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with tears." That's depression and anxiety. Then there's Moses in Numbers 11, so stressed out about Israel that he complained. Listen to Moses' prayer: "My burden is too heavy for me. Please kill me here and now." That's anxiety when you're praying like that.

It's unhealthy. Harvard Medical School says those who are gripped by anxiety have a greater risk for developing a number of chronic medical conditions. It will affect your GI system, respiratory system, and has been linked to heart disease. So it's unhealthy.

Second reason Jesus gives: it's unbecoming. It's unbecoming of a child of God. For a child of God to be always anxious and always worried is in effect saying, "I don't trust You, God. You said some pretty cool things that make me feel good for a little while when I read them, but then I go out and live my real life and I don't expect that You're really going to make good on any of these things." To be consumed with worry and anxiety betrays a lack of trust in God caring for you.

So Jesus says, and here's why it's unbecoming, "Look at the birds of the air, they don't reap, they don't sow, gather into barns; but your heavenly Father feeds them." Mark the language. He didn't say *their* heavenly Father feeds them because He's not their heavenly Father. They don't have a personal relationship with God. But He's your heavenly Father. You have a personal relationship with the Father. Your Father feeds birds with birdbrains. If your Father feeds birds, then your Father's going to feed His children and take care of His children.

There's a relationship there. When my son was growing up, I never remembered him as a little boy being stressed about where the next meal was going to come from. My grandkids don't worry about where they're going to eat today. They're just like, "Whatever." They always eat. The parent delights in caring for children. So it's unhealthy, it's unbecoming of a child of God.

The third reason Jesus would give: it's unproductive. For He says, "Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?" What good has worry ever done for you? All of that anxiety, how's that working out? Is it productive? It's not productive at all. Worry is like a rocking chair; it makes a lot of movement, but you don't go anywhere.

I found this article in the *Huffington Post* this week. A study they cited by Dr. Joseph Gawway, who did study on this and research, and he said 85% of the things we worry about never happen. He said of the 15% that did happen, 79% of the people found they could handle the difficulty better than they thought they could, and/or the difficulty taught them lessons worth learning. So he concluded 97% of what you worry about is just a fearful mind punishing you with exaggerations and misconceptions.

Paul says, "Be anxious for nothing." We've seen the problem and the prescription. Let me move you to the third, and that is the prayer. Now we get the solution. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Forgive me, but I'm drilling down. Look at the word "but" in verse 6. "Be anxious for nothing, but..." That's a word of contrast, so he's pivoting. He's saying don't do this, but do that. In that contrast, we find the solution to the problem. If the problem is anxiety, then the solution is replacement. It's like God's replacement therapy. Don't do this, but do that. The cure for worry is to redirect your energy and replace your anxiety.

The Bible gives us a name. It's called casting. You're familiar with the verse, First Peter chapter 5 verse 7: "Casting all your care..." Same word, by the way, *merimna*. Same word, the thoughts that divide the mind. "Casting all your care upon Him because He cares for you." Don't carry your cares; cast your cares.

A lot of us have backpacks or briefcases, or some of us have duffel bags depending on how much work you take to and from work. I'll carry like books, papers, a computer. It's like a backpack. When I come home and that's on my back, I take it in from the car, it's on my back. I'm like this with my backpack. I don't wear that thing all night. I don't sit down at the supper table with a backpack, hunched over, eating my meal. I cast it as quickly as I enter the door. I get rid of it.

Casting all your care upon Him. The thought here is to redirect your energy and replace your anxiety. With what? With prayer. "In everything by prayer, supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." Why is it that the very first thing we should do ends up being the very last thing we even try? Prayer. We just let this thing go and we wrestle with it and it gets worse and worse and then finally we go, "Man, there's nothing left to do but pray." Yeah, we should have thought of that two days ago when this whole thing first started. We should have immediately let that go and cast that and kept doing that as a process along the way.

Jesus said to His disciples, "Men ought always to pray and not to faint." Look back at the verse and you will notice he doesn't just say, "Hey, pray about it." Notice what Paul does. There are four words: prayer, supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests... There are four different things he notices, and I want to just sort of break that apart.

First of all, prayer. This word "prayer" is the general word the New Testament uses for prayer, *proseuche*, but it is often translated "worship" or "devotion." Think of it this way: when you're tempted to worry, worship. When you're burdened, bow. Because when you do that, you are focusing now on God's greatness. Your thought gets off of the concern, the care, you, and it gets onto God and His greatness.

Often we rush to the throne room and we just start casting. There's a time to cast the care upon God and tell Him and cry out to Him. There's a time for that, but not at first. When you enter His throne room... If you were to go to the Queen of England, you couldn't just go to the Queen of England and just spew all your personal garbage. In fact, when you go to the Queen of England, you can't even get to see her unless you go through protocol training of how to stand, what to do, what gestures to make, what side of yourself she is allowed to look at. All of that is protocol to respect this earthly ruler's authority.

You're coming to talk to the God of the universe, your heavenly Father, but you're going to cast your cares upon Him, but not right away. Jesus taught us to pray. He didn't say, "And when you pray, say 'Give us this day our daily bread'." He didn't say that's how you start. He said this is how you start: "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." All that's worship. All that is honoring Him. And then, "Give us this day our daily bread," the casting of the care.

So prayer, worship. And here's why it's important: worship and worry cannot coexist in the same heart. They are mutually exclusive. If you start worshipping, you're going to find your worries diminishing. If you start worrying, you're going to find your worshipping diminish. That's first: prayer, *proseuche*, worship, devotion.

The second word, notice that: supplication. This is familiar territory. It means strong crying, begging. "Oh, God!" It's more emotional. I like that because there's room for that. I love one young mother. She would always have devotions in the morning, and she told her three-year-old, "Honey, I just need a little bit of time alone with God. This is mommy's time; I'm having my devotions." A phone call came in, the three-year-old picked it up and said, "Mommy's busy; she's having her emotions."

She meant devotions, but I like her choice of word. There's a time to engage your emotion, your heartfelt cries. That's the idea of supplication. Jesus intimated this when He spoke of a friend who came to see a friend at midnight and said, "Lend me three loaves of bread." Jesus said his friend will not rise to give to him because he is his friend, but because of his persistence. The idea is supplication.

Prayer, supplication, but don't stop there. Notice what else it says: with thanksgiving. Don't forget to thank God. Now I know you might be going, "Thank God when I'm so stressed out and filled with anxiety and worry? What am I going to thank God for?" First of all, thank God that He cares enough to give you promises like this to get you out of it. So you bring thanksgiving as part of the equation.

Guest (Male): This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. When you give to this ministry, you help reach thousands of people every day with God's life-changing truth, encouraging them to know Him and grow in His word. To thank you for your support this month, we'll send you *Reload Love: Transforming Bullets to Beauty and Battlegrounds to Playgrounds*, a powerful book by Skip's wife, Lenya Heitzig. It's a gripping, hope-filled story of how God transformed weapons of war into tools of joy and how playgrounds rose from battlegrounds because one person chose compassion over despair. Your gift today helps bring the life-changing message of hope in Jesus to people around the world through Connect with Skip. Request your copy when you give $50 or more at connectwithskip.com/offer or by calling 800-922-1888. Now, here's more from Pastor Skip.

Skip Heitzig: It's easy to thank God for obvious blessings. God blesses you, thank You, Lord. You get a promotion, thank You, Lord. You get a big bonus this time of year, it's Christmastime, oh God, I love You, I trust You, thank You. Easy. Now try that when the cupboards are bare. It's not so easy.

But it says, "In everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving." Those trials are tools God is using to mature you and me. So think and thank. Think about what God has done for you in the past, and now thank Him for His promise for the future and His provision.

In the New Testament, there were 10 lepers that Jesus healed. We know the story, but think about that. Incurable disease, no hope ever. People with leprosy in those days died of leprosy. Very slow, painful, excruciatingly painful death. 10 men had leprosy; Jesus healed 10 of them. Healed, cured, completely whole. How many came back to thank Him? One. 10%.

I wonder if that ratio has changed any since 2,000 years ago. Probably it's about the same. About 10% of people who are blessed and given things by God tell him, "Thank You, thank You." I wonder if that leper didn't even include, "Jesus, I want to thank You for healing me of this incurable disease, but I also want to thank You for the lessons I learned during the years that I had that disease," which makes the healing even more appreciated.

Prayer, supplication, with thanksgiving. And then notice this: let your requests be made known to God. Did you hear the word "requests"? Paul doesn't say let your demands be made known to God. Let your ultimatum be known to God. Let your temper tantrum be known to God. Let your "I claim it by faith" be known to God. You just come with an ask, you come with the request, you lay down the requests. Because God might say yes, He might say no, He might say maybe, He might say wait. Either way, I'm requesting and I'm asking.

But it says, "Let your request be made known to God." So you articulate what it is exactly you want from Him. None of this "Oh God, bless my life." How? What specifically are you asking God to do? Let your request be made known to God.

Which brings up a question: why do I need to inform God? You don't. You can't. You're not informing God of anything. God doesn't sit up there when you articulate your request and go, "Oh, huh, I didn't know that till now." Because He knows what you need, the Bible says, before you ask it. So why do you inform Him? You don't inform God when you pray; you are conformed to God when you pray.

It's a huge difference. You're being changed and conformed. You are in a sense voicing your weakness and voicing your dependence. Every parent loves when a child says, "Daddy, I can't do this; would you help me?" Absolutely. You're voicing your weakness, you're voicing your dependence. I want to help you do this.

One of the great plays of all time was a play that became a movie, but it was a play called *The Barretts of Wimpole Street*. It became a movie in the 1930s or '40s. But it's about an aspiring poet named Elizabeth Barrett who meets the esteemed, known poet Robert Browning. A relationship develops between them. But here's the line in this play. Elizabeth says, "Oh, Robert, how can you love me when you are so strong and I am so weak?" And Robert says, "Elizabeth, my strength needs your weakness as much as your weakness needs my strength."

I love that compatibility of strength and weakness. You're weak, He is strong. When you let your requests be made known to God, you are articulating, "I'm weak, You're strong," and God says, "I'm strong, you're weak; it's a perfect match." A perfect get-together.

To sum it all up so far: be anxious for nothing, be prayerful in everything, be thankful for anything. Let's close with the promise. We've seen the problem and the prescription and the prayer. Here's the promise, verse 7: "And the peace of God..." I'm already just relaxing with that verse. "The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

Did you notice the phrase "the peace of God"? Not every believer has that. Every believer, when they come to faith in Christ, has peace *with* God, not necessarily the peace *of* God yet. Peace *with* God is when you surrender. You put up the white flag and you say, "I'm done fighting You, God. I give my life to You, Jesus." And now you have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, it says.

The war is over. You and God have become one; you've surrendered your life to Christ. At that moment in time, you may not be feeling the experience of peace. That is what this verse calls the peace *of* God. The first is a fact: peace *with* God. The second is a feeling: the peace *of* God.

To sum it up, I would look at it this way: Jesus as Savior brings peace *with* God, but Jesus as Lord brings the peace *of* God. Makes sense? It's like that tranquil feeling of confidence, "Ah, it's going to be okay. God is in control; He's still the Master of the universe."

The peace of God, which, look at the description, it surpasses all understanding. It transcends human intellect, human analysis. You can try to explain it, but you can't adequately explain it. It's a peace of God that transcends your ability to explain. One of my favorite verses is Isaiah 26. I often say it to myself in times of stress. It says, "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You."

The peace of God, surpassing all understanding, it will, now picture this, guard your hearts and minds, *nous*, your mind that gets divided. It will guard your heart and mind through Jesus Christ. Picture a guard, a sentry. He's got a spear, got a shield, got the stern look on his face. He's standing at the gate. He's the garrison that is posted when the thoughts come into your mind that could divide it. He says, "What? You're not going anywhere. You're not getting in there. I'm the peace of God. I'm standing at this gate and not letting you in to disrupt this person who lives in this." The peace of God, which surpasses understanding, will stand garrison or play umpire, however you want to translate it, your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.

If there was one person in all of Scripture that lived these two verses, I would say it would be Daniel. You know Daniel was a prophet in the Old Testament. Daniel lived in Babylon, a foreign country, a hostile government that made it against the law for him or anyone else to pray to the one true God of heaven. For 30 days, King Darius signed a decree that nobody could worship or pray or make requests of any god besides the Babylonian system.

So it says this, Daniel chapter 6 verse 10: "So Daniel went home..." Now listen to the language. "...and prayed and gave thanks before his God." Next verse, verse 11: "The men found Daniel praying and making supplication to his God." Did you hear all three of those words? Prayer, supplication, thanksgiving. Same exact words that are in our text: prayer, supplication, thanksgiving. And what was the result? Peace.

Daniel experienced peace. You say, "Wait a minute, Daniel got thrown into a lions' den." Exactly. And he didn't seem to stress, right? In fact, he got a good night's sleep. The guy who didn't get sleep is the guy who's living in the palace, the king who signed the decree. He can't sleep, he can't eat, he's stressed out. Daniel's going to sleep with the lions, wakes in the morning, "Hey, King! God bless you. Live forever. Here I am."

Now I'll say, I don't want this to sound like it's going to just be a snap and very, very easy when you leave here. It is a process, but it can be done. It can be done at a funeral, it can be done in a hospital, it can be done at an accident, it can be done when there's a relational disagreement. Because here's what I want you to see in putting it all back together: we enter the passage in anxiety, we exit the passage in peace. And between anxiety and peace is what? Prayer. Anxiety, prayer, supplication, thanksgiving, requests, and peace. That's the process. You begin here, you end here, and here's the process you go through.

It reminds me of a guy who was always a worrywart. Everybody knew, they'd see him, he always kind of had that down look, carried the world on his shoulders, very negative about everything, worried about absolutely everything. Came to work one day singing and whistling and smiling, and everybody wanted to know what happened to this guy.

He said, "You know guys, I'm a worrywart. You've known that about me, right? So I gave it some thought and I thought it's just not worth it anymore. I need to hire somebody to worry for me. So this weekend I found just the perfect person, seems very qualified, and I'm hiring him to do all of my worrying. And I'm paying him $200,000, which might sound like a steep price, but $200,000 a year is worth it if he can take all my worries."

They looked at him and said, "Are you an idiot? I mean, you don't even make a third of that. How are you going to pay him?" He goes, "I don't know; that's his worry." But I like the thought that your concern is His concern. It's His worry, and He's not worried. It's His concern. So hands up, worries down. Or in the words of the hymnist: "What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit, oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer."

Guest (Male): We're so glad you joined us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before you go, remember that as our thanks for your gift today, we'll send you Lenya Heitzig's book *Reload Love*, a gripping, hope-filled story of God transforming battlegrounds into playgrounds. When you give, you help keep this Bible teaching ministry on the air, connecting more people with the truth of God's word and the hope found in Jesus. Give today at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy of *Reload Love: Transforming Bullets to Beauty and Battlegrounds to Playgrounds* when you do. See you next time.

Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.