70 Sermon Illustrations on Anxiety

Bonhoeffer's meditation on Jesus' teaching on anxiety. Anxiety pushes God of the picture of life, and is the result of a life that sees bread as a

reward, not a gift.

Calvin Coolidge, who never seemed to worry:

"Life is like standing on a road with 10 driver-less cars coming at you. If you wait long enough, 9 of them will end up in the ditch before they ever get to you. That still leaves one car, but I'd rather face one than 10."

#943

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"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows; it empties today of its strength."

-- Corrie Ten Boom, cited in The Best of BITS & PIECES

"The reason worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work."

-- Robert Frost, quoted by Rev. Brett Blair, July 22, 2001

"I have had many problems in my life ... many of which never came to pass."

-- Mark Twain

"Worry is the interest we pay on tomorrow's troubles."

-- E. Stanley Jones

"Worry is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. In encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained."

-- Arthur Somers Roche

"Ain't no sense worrying about things you got control over, because if you got control over them, ain't no sense worrying. And their ain't no sense worrying about things you got NO control over either, because if you got no control over them, ain't no sense worrying."

-- Mickey Rivers, former outfielder for Texas Rangers;

Dallas Morning News, May 20, 1984

"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia."

-- Charles Schultz

"Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it."

-- Lily Tomlin, comedian, B&P 11/15/02

"The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith; and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety."

-- George Muller, SermonCentral 1/6/03

"Burnout is not the result of too much activity. It is the result of the wrong kind of activity."

-- John A. Stroman, God's Downward Mobility, CSS Publishing, 1996

"Let us not bankrupt our todays by paying interest on the regrets of yesterday and by borrowing in advance the troubles of tomorrow."

-- Ralph W. Sockman (1889-1970), minister, B&P 8/22/03

"Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit."

-- Henry Brooks Adams (1838-1918), historian, B&P 9/4/03

"We have a lot of anxieties, and one cancels out another very often."

-- Winston Churchill

"Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight."

-- Benjamin Franklin

"The misfortunes hardest to bear are these which never came."

-- James Russell Lowell

"God never built a Christian strong enough to carry today's duties and tomorrow's anxieties piled on the top of them."

-- Theodore Ledyard Cuyler

"The natural role of twentieth-century man is anxiety."

-- Norman Mailer

"Borrow trouble for yourself, if that's your nature, but don't lend it to your neighbors."

-- Rudyard Kipling

"Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you."

-- Anonymous

"Where everything is bad it must be good to know the worst."

-- Francis H. Bradley

"How much have cost us the evils that never happened!

--Thomas Jefferson

"The thinner the ice, the more anxious is everyone to see whether it will bear."

-- Josh Billings

"The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith; and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety."

-- George Muller, SermonCentral 7/27/04

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“When you're as frightened as I was, you reach out for help and comfort in any direction you can. I prayed what seemed like all the time, more than I ever had before. I talked with religious leaders such as Billy Graham and Don Moomaw. ... (Merv Griffin referred her to Joan Quigley, a San Francisco astrologer.) “Oh my God,” she remembers telling Merv, “I could have stopped it!” Quigley told her of good and bad days. Nancy had to pay steep prices on monthly statements, but through other friends.

“My relationship with Joan Quigley began as a crutch, one of several ways I tried to alleviate my anxiety about Ronnie. Within a year or two, it had become a habit, something I relied on a little less but didn't see the need to change. Because while I was never certain that Joan's astrological advice was helping to protect Ronnie, the fact is that nothing like March 30 ever happened again.”

Sermon in Lord's Prayer series. Daily bread. Matthew 6:11,31-34

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OUR DAILY BREAD

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I. We have everything we need.

A. Do you worry about food?

B. The basic issue remains relevant.

II. Lay some bread on me.

A. Bread has a variety of meanings in Bible. Matt 6:11

B. Spiritual bread. John 6:31-34

C. Millennium bread. Luke 14:15; Isa 55:1-2

D. Bread bread. Mark 14:22

III. The God of all of life.

A. We have needs and limitations.

B. God is active in every area of our daily activities.

C. What do we really need in life?

IV. One day at a time.

A. Daily survival vs. long term security.

B. Planning for the future is wise. Exodus 16:16-21

C. Trust God to provide.

#3855

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Do we really trust God for our daily provisions?

I. Most Americans don't need God. [expanded: #3854]

A. Why do believers in a land of plenty need to ask for daily

bread?

B. Haiti missionary.

II. The God of all of life.

A. Bread represents what which is essential to sustain life.

1) Food, clothing, shelter.

B. God is active in every area of our daily activities.

C. Jesus sweat the details of human existence.

III. The source of all good gifts.

A. Food cannot be stored for centuries like oil.

B. Security is transient.

IV. My bread, your bread, our bread.

A. Communal needs in view here - "our" bread.

B. As we eat we should think of less fortunate.

1) Man who hired shelter people to renovate house.

V. One day at a time.

A. Daily survival vs. long term security.

1) Our inclination is to pray for a year's bread.

2) We want control.

B. Let faith be faith. Heb 11:1

1) Everything good comes from God's hand.

C. Planning for the future is wise.

1) Anxious preoccupation is not.

2) When manna was hoarded, it spoiled.

VI. Back to the basics.

A. God doesn't want us to live with abundant wealth.

B. Be satisfied with what you have.

C. Seek God's kingdom first.

#3853

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Deep-seated worry can even be harmful to your emotional and physical health. Dr. Charles Mayo, the founder of the Mayo Clinic, wrote this about worry: “Worry affects the circulation, the heart, the digestive system, and the entire nervous system. I’ve never known a person to die of overwork, but many who died from worry.” Our English word “worry” is derived from the old German word wurgen, meaning “to choke.” The term has come to be used to denote “mental strangulation” to describe the harmful effects of worry.

We must also remember that worry is a sin. The Bible says, “Everything that does not come from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23 NIV). The opposite of worry is faith. Whenever we approach a situation, we can grab it by the handle of faith or the handle of worry. Faith is the end of anxiety, and anxiety is the end of faith. Faith and worry are mutually exclusive. You can experience one or the other but not both at the same time.

Worry is a sin because it basically infers that God is a liar. God has promised to love us and to take care of us. He has promised that all things will work together for our good (Romans 8:28). He has invited us to cast our burdens upon Him because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). Whenever we worry we are suggesting that God cannot be trusted, that He cant fulfill His promise.

Many evangelical Christians would never commit adultery, steal, or commit gross sins of the flesh, but at the same time, they are chronic worriers. You will not have victory over your worry until you admit that worry is a sin.

Did you hear about the clock that had a nervous breakdown? One day it began thinking about how often it would have to tick in a year. Figuring two ticks a second, 120 a minute, 7,200 an hour, 172,800 a day, and 1,209,600 ticks every week, the clock suddenly realized that it would have to tick nearly 63 million times during the next twelve months. The more it thought about this, the more anxious it became. Finally the clock became so distraught that it suffered a nervous collapse.

Confiding in a clock psychiatrist (a “clock doc”), the clock complained that it didn’t have the strength to tick that often. The doctor responded, “But how many ticks must you tick at a time?”

The clock answered, “Only one.”

“Well, simply tick one tick at a time and don’t worry about the next one”, advised the doctor. “You will get along fine, Im sure.”

That’s exactly what the clock did, and as is true of all good stories, it ticked happily ever after.

Even a 42.8 millisecond flash of the word “death” across a computer screen is enough to make us act differently – and not always for the better.

________

You and everyone you’ve ever known will someday die. According to some psychologists, this uncomfortable truth constantly lurks in the back of our minds and ultimately drives everything we do, from choosing to attend church, eat vegetables and go to the gym to motivating us to have children, write books and create companies.

For healthy people, death usually lurks in the back of our minds, exerting its influence on a subconscious level. “Most of the time, we go through our days unaware, not thinking of our mortality,” says Chris Feudtner, a pediatrician and ethicist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania. “We cope by focusing on the things more directly in front of us.”

What would happen, though, if the ambiguity surrounding our own demise were taken away? What if we all suddenly were told the exact date and means of our deaths? While this is, of course, impossible, careful consideration of this hypothetical scenario can shed light on our motivations as individuals and societies – and hint at how to best spend our limited time on this Earth.

First, let’s establish what we know about how death shapes behaviour in the real world. In the 1980s, psychologists became interested in how we deal with the potentially overwhelming anxiety and dread that come with the realisation that we are nothing more than “breathing, defecating, self-conscious pieces of meat that can die at any time”, as Sheldon Solomon, a psychology professor at New York’s Skidmore College, puts it.

Terror management theory, the term Solomon and his colleagues coined for their findings, posits that humans embrace culturally constructed beliefs – that the world has meaning, for example, and that our lives have value – in order to fend off what would otherwise be paralysing existential terror.

In more than 1,000 peer-reviewed experiments, researchers have found that, when reminded that we are going to die, we cling harder to foundational cultural beliefs and strive to boost our sense of self-worth. We also become more defensive of our beliefs and react with hostility to anything that threatens them.

Even very subtle nods at mortality – a 42.8 millisecond flash of the word “death” across a computer screen, a conversation that takes place within sight of a funeral home – are enough to trigger behavioural changes.

What do some of those changes look like? When reminded of death, we treat those who are similar to us in looks, political slant, geographic origin and religious beliefs more favourably. We become more contemptuous and violent towards people who do not share those similarities. We profess a deeper commitment to romantic partners who validate our worldviews. And we are more inclined to vote for heavy-handed charismatic leaders who incite fear of outsiders.

We also become more nihilistic, drinking, smoking, shopping and eating in excess – and we are less concerned about caring for the environment.

Should everyone suddenly learn the date and means of their demise, society could – and likely would – become more racist, xenophobic, violent, war-mongering, self-harming and environmentally destructive than it already is.

This isn’t pre-ordained, however. Researchers like Solomon ultimately hope that, by becoming aware of the expansive negative effects that death anxiety triggers, we might be able to counteract them.

In fact, scientists have already recorded a few examples of people bucking these general trends. Buddhist monks in South Korea, for example, do not respond this way to reminders of death.

Researchers looking into a style of thinking called “death reflection” also have found that asking people to think not just about death in a general, abstract way, but to think about exactly how they will die and what impact their death will have on their families, elicits very different reactions.

In that case, people become more altruistic – willing, for example, to donate blood regardless of whether there is a high societal need for it. They are also more open to reflecting on the roles of both positive and negative events in shaping their lives.

Given these findings, learning our death date may lead us to focus more on life goals and social bonds rather than responding with knee-jerk insularity.

This would especially be true “if we promote strategies that help us to accept death as part of life and integrate this knowledge into our daily choices and behavior,” says Eva Jonas, a psychology professor at the University of Salzburg. “Knowing about the scarcity of life may increase the perception of life’s value and develop the sense that ‘we’re all in the same boat’, promoting tolerance and compassion and minimising defensive responses.”

Morbid personalities

Regardless of whether society as a whole takes a nasty or nice turn, how we would react on an individual level to knowledge about our death would vary depending on personality and the specifics of the big event.

“The more neurotic and anxious you are, the more preoccupied you’ll be with death and unable to focus on meaningful life changes,” says Laura Blackie, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Nottingham. “But on the other hand, if you’re told you’ll die peacefully at 90 in your sleep, then you might not be that motivated to engage with it, either – like, ‘Oh, that’s fine, carry on.’”

Whether life ends at 13 or 113, though, studies of terminally ill individuals can shed light on typical responses to death.

Palliative care patients, Feudtner says, often experience two phases of thinking. First, they question the very premise of their diagnosis, asking if death is definitely imminently inescapable or whether it is something they can fight.

After that, they contemplate how to make the most of the time they have left. Most fall into one of two categories. They either decide to put their whole energy and focus into doing everything they can to beat the illness, or they opt to reflect on their lives and spend as much time as possible with loved ones doing things that bring them happiness.

The same processes would likely play out under the hypothetical death date scenario. “Even if you know you have 60 more years, eventually that lifespan is going to be measured in just a couple years, months and days,” Feudtner says. “Once that clock winding down becomes too close for comfort, I think we’d see people moving in these two different directions.”

Those who opt to try to thwart their deaths may become obsessed with avoiding it, especially as time runs out. Someone who knows they are destined to drown might incessantly practice swimming so they can have a fighting chance at survival, for example, while someone who knows they will die in a traffic accident may choose to avoid vehicles at all costs.

Others, however, may go the opposite route – trying to cheat their predicted death by attempting to end their lives on their own terms. This would allow them, in a way, to gain control over the process. Jonas and her colleagues found, for example, that when they asked people to imagine that they will suffer a painful, slow death from an illness, those who were given the choice of a self-determined death – to end their life in a way of their choosing – felt more in control and exhibited fewer defensive biases related to death anxiety.

Those who go the route of accepting their death sentences may likewise react in a variety of ways. Some would be energised to make the most of the time they have, rising to greater heights of creative, social, scientific and entrepreneurial achievement than otherwise would have been possible. “What I’d like to think is that knowing our death date would bring out the best in us, that it would give us the psychological latitude to be able to do more for ourselves and for our families and communities,” Solomon says.

Indeed, there is promising evidence from trauma survivors that having a sense of the limited time we have left can motivate self-improvement. While difficult to collect baseline data for such people, many insist that they have changed in profound, positive ways. “They say they are stronger, more spiritual, recognise more positive possibilities and appreciate life more,” Blackie says. “They come to the realisation that, ‘Wow, life is short, I’m going to die one day, I should make the most of it.’”

Not everyone would become their best selves, however. Instead, many people probably would choose to check out of life and cease to contribute meaningfully to society – not necessarily because they are lazy, but because they are overtaken by a feeling of pointlessness. As Caitlin Doughty, a mortician, author and founder of the Order of the Good Death, a death acceptance collective, puts it, “Would you be writing this column if you knew you were going to die next June?” (Probably not).

Feelings of pointlessness may also cause many people to give up any semblance of a healthy lifestyle. If death is pre-ordained at a certain time no matter what, “I’m not going to bother to eat organic food anymore, I’m going to drink regular Coke instead of Diet Coke, and maybe I’ll try some drugs and shove Twinkies in my face all day,” Doughty says. “So much of our culture is designed around staving off death and maintaining law and order to keep death away.”

Most likely, though, the majority of individuals would toggle between being hyper-motivated and nihilistic, opting one week to “sit at home and spray Cheez Whiz on crackers with a 30-pack and watch another Law and Order on Netflix” and the next “to go volunteer at the soup kitchen”, Solomon says. But regardless of where we fall on that spectrum, even the most enlightened among us – especially as we approached our death date – would occasionally become “a quivering ruin.”

“Changes are stressful,” Feudtner agrees. “Here we’re talking about the biggest change that happens to an individual – from being to no longer being alive.”

Religious disruption

Practically speaking, no matter where we lived in the world, our day-to-day life would fundamentally change as a result of learning when and how we were due to die.

Many more people might attend therapy, which would develop specialised death-related sub-fields. New social rituals and routines might emerge, with death dates perhaps celebrated like birthdays, but counted down instead of up.

And existing religions would be shaken to the core. Cults could spring up in the spiritual wake left behind. “Do we start worshipping this system that tells us when we’re going to die? Make offerings to the system? Give away our virginal daughters?” Doughty says. “It would absolutely disrupt religious beliefs.”

Relationships would almost certainly be affected as well. Finding someone whose death date was close to one’s own would become a mandatory requirement for many, and dating apps designed to filter for those in one’s cohort would make that task easier. “One of the things that often makes people fear death the most – often more than their own death – is loss of those they love,” Doughty says. “Why would I want to stay with someone who is going to die at 40 if I’m going to die at 89?”

Similarly, if it were possible to determine a death date from a biological sample, some parents may decide to abort fetuses doomed to die young to avoid the pain of losing their child. Others – knowing that they themselves will not survive past a certain age – may opt to not have children at all, or else do the opposite, having as many children as quickly as possible.

We would also have to grapple with new laws and norms. According to Rose Eveleth, creator and producer of the podcast Flash Forward (an episode of which explored a similar hypothetical death date scenario), legislation may be drafted around death date privacy to avoid employer and service-provider discrimination. Public figures, on the other hand, may be compelled to share their dates before running for office (or may cause a furor by refusing to do so). “If a presidential candidate is going to die three days into the presidency, that matters,” Eveleth points out.

And even if not legally required, some individuals may choose to get their death dates tattooed on their arm, or wear them on a military dog tag, so that – in the case of an accident – emergency medical technicians will know whether or not to bother trying to revive them, Eveleth says.

The funeral industry would be profoundly impacted as well: it would cater to the still-living rather than to their bereaved families. “Funeral homes would no longer be able to prey on people in their time of grief to get as much money as possible,” Eveleth says. “It puts power in consumers’ hands in a way that is good.”

On the big day itself, some people might throw carefully curated parties, as those choosing to undergo humane euthanasia are beginning to do in real life. Others, especially those who will die in a manner that could put people in harm’s way, may feel ethically or emotionally compelled to isolate themselves. Still others, Eveleth says, may choose to use their death for a higher artistic or personal purpose, taking part in a play in which everyone actually dies in the end or staging a literal die-in for a cause they believe in.

Should we come to learn the time and manner of our individual demises, our ways of life would be profoundly changed.

“Human civilisation truly has developed around death and the idea of death,” Doughty says. “I think this would completely undermine our system of life.”

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #66319]

Michael is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, “If I were any better I would be twins!”

He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Michael was there telling the employee to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Michael and asked him, “I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?”

Michael replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.”

“Yeah, right, it not that easy,” I protested.

“Yes, it is,” Michael, said. “Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. Your bottom line; it’s your choice how you live life.”

I reflected on what Michael said. Soon thereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that Michael was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Michael was released from hospital with rods placed in his back. I saw Michael about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, “If I were any better I’d be twins. Wanna see my scars?”

I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place. “The first thing that went through my mind was the well being of my soon to be born daughter,” Michael replied. “Then as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices; I could choose to live or I could choose to die. I chose to live.”

“Weren’t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?” I asked.

Michael continued, “…The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes I read, “He’s a dead man. I knew I needed to take action.”

“What did you do?” I asked. “Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,” said Michael. “She asked if I was allergic to anything. “Yes I relied.” Said Michael. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, “Gravity.”

Over their laughter, I told them, “I am choosing to live. Operate on me as If I am alive, not dead.”

Michael lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34 After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

[original illustation at this number was added to HolwickID #16631]

The uncertain times we live in can cause us to experience the effects of stress and stress-related illnesses or complications. Stress is the wear and tear your body experiences due to the changes that occur as a part of living.

Whether the changes are global, work/ministry-related or personal, your body responds physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. You can reduce the wear and tear on your body by recognizing your body's response to stress and employing stress management techniques to ward off its harmful and long-term effects.

Stress management is a personal process to discover the techniques that work best for you. Here are a few proven strategies to help settle your mind, change your attitude, quiet your spirit and calm your body's response to stress:

1) Stop and listen! In times of stress, one natural response is to keep going and feverishly work into a panic, therefore increasing the stress response. Instead, try the opposite. When you feel pulled in many directions, stop everything. Find a quiet place without TV, people or activity. Do nothing for at least five minutes. Allow your mind and heart to open to the Holy Spirit. Remember when Elijah was stressed in 1 Kings 19? God told Elijah to go to the mountain and He would pass by. Elijah did not hear the voice of the Lord in the wind, earthquake or fire but in a still whisper. Elijah had to be still and quiet to hear from God.

2) Breathe deeply. Another common response to stressful times is shallow breathing. When we do not breathe deeply we deprive the body of adequate oxygen to think clearly and function properly. Instead of shallow breathing, actively take five to six long, full deep breaths. Inhale through your nose for a slow count to five and exhale through your mouth for a slow count of five. When you breathe deeply your body will respond with a lower blood pressure, slower heart rate and reduced tension in muscles, therefore reducing the pressure you feel from a tense situation.

3) Find the positive. When life gets out of hand, another typical response it to think of the worst. “Doom's Day” thinking leads to a higher stress level. When faced with stressful events immediately begin to speak the positive about the situation. Example: You are rear-ended by another car. The damage is relatively minor. Positives in this situation may be no one was seriously hurt, the damage is repairable, you have insurance to cover the cost of repairs, or it isn't raining. If you have challenges finding the positive in a situation, ask God to change your outlook so you can see things more clearly through His eyes.

4) Laugh. Proverbs 17:22a says, “A cheerful heart is good medicine.” Laughter reduces stress by releasing endorphins into your body that lower your blood pressure, release tight muscles, increase your oxygen intake, stimulate your brain, and change your emotional outlook and thinking. Take a “laugh break” when things are stressful. Keep comic strips, funny photographs of family or friends, comedy movies, a funny book, or a Christian comedian CD or video on hand to use during your laugh break. Laughter therapy is gaining in popularity for treating everything from stress to cancer.

5) Get out and move. During stressful times your body produces hormones that are ready to help you protect yourself or get away from a “predator”. This is called the “fight or flight” response. When these hormones are not used by your body to fight or flee, they hang around, keeping your heart rate elevated, muscles tight, blood pressure up and cholesterol levels high. Exercise safely uses these hormones and limits the damage they can cause to your body. When stress is at its peak, get out and move. Walk around the neighborhood. Jog or run through a park. Play an active sport like basketball or racquetball. Join a fitness class. Finding a physical activity will help you manage the harmful effects of stress.

1 Peter 5:7 says, “Cast all your anxiety on Him [Jesus] because He cares for you.” Ask God to show you the best process for managing the stresses that life brings your way.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #5167, and the next was added to HolwickID #5020]

Erma Bombeck: "I've always worried a lot and frankly, I'm good at it. I worry about introducing people

and going blank when I get to my mother. I worry about a shortage of ball bearings; a snake coming up through the kitchen drain. I worry about the world ending at midnight and getting stuck with three hours on a 24-hour cold capsule. I worry about getting into the Guiness World Book of Records under "Pregnancy: Oldest Recorded Birth." I worry what the dog thinks when he sees me coming out of the shower; that one of my children will marry an Eskimo who will set me adrift on an iceberg when I can no longer feed myself. I worry about sales ladies following me into the fitting room, oil slicks, and Carol Channing going bald. I worry about scientists discovering someday that lettuce has been fattening all along."

The “Coronary and Ulcer Club” lists the following rules for members...

1. Your job comes first. Forget everything else.

2. Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays are fine times to be working at the office. There will be nobody else there to bother you.

3. Always have your briefcase with you when not at your desk. This provides an opportunity to review completely all the troubles and worries of the day.

4. Never say “no” to a request. Always say “yes.”

5. Accept all invitations to meetings, banquets, committees, etc.

6. All forms of recreation are a waste of time.

7. Never delegate responsibility to others; carry the entire load yourself.

8. If your work calls for traveling, work all day and travel at night to keep that appointment you made for eight the next morning.

9. No matter how many jobs you already are doing, remember you always can take on more.

____________

Bits & Pieces, January 7, 1993, Page 9-10

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. In her

book, CELEBRATE JOY!, Velma Seawell Daniels gives a striking new

meaning to this familiar phrase. She tells of interviewing a

man who had made a trip to Alaska to visit people who live above

the Arctic Circle.

"Never ask an Eskimo how old he is," the man said. "If you do, he

will say, "I don't know and I don't care." And he doesn't. One of

them told me that, and I pressed him a bit further. When I asked him

the second time, he said, "Almost -- that's all." That still wasn't

good enough for me, so I asked him "Almost what?" and he said, "Almost

one day."

Mrs. Daniels asked him if he could figure out what the Eskimo

meant. He answered that he did but only after talking to another man

who had lived in the Arctic Circle for about twenty years. "He was a

newspaperman who had written a book about the Eskimos and their

customs and beliefs. He said the Eskimos believe that when they go to

sleep at night they die -- that they are dead to the world. Then,

when they wake up in the morning, they have been resurrected and are

living a new life. Therefore, no Eskimo is more than one day old. So,

that is what the Eskimo meant when he said he was `almost' a day old.

The day wasn't over yet."

"Life above the Arctic Circle is harsh and cruel, and mere survival

becomes a major accomplishment," he explained. "But, you never see an

Eskimo who seems worried or anxious. They have learned to face one

day at a time."

Have you learned how to put worry and anxiety aside and live one

day at a time? Yesterday has past. Tomorrow has not arrived, but

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

The news shocked me -- the remains of nearly 300 bodies had been discovered on the grounds of a northwest Georgia crematory, some languishing in a field for as long as 15 years. News reports said most of the bodies might never be identified.

I never expected to counsel anyone about this tragedy. I'm a financial consultant, not a pastor. Yet days after this sad story made American headlines I received a desperate e-mail from a longtime client.

In separate but sad situations, my client had sent the bodies of her adult son and her sister to the Tri-State Crematory in the mid-1990s.

Though a committed Christian, my client was despondent, nauseated and in severe emotional distress. She was aware that I had a deep relationship with God and she turned to me for words of comfort.

Knowing she was in difficult, grotesque pain, I spent time that night and early the next morning in prayer and study of God's Word before sending her this message:

"The tragic death of your son and sister were hard enough wounds to bear without those wounds being reopened by the greed of this insensitive crematorium. I cannot pretend to imagine the horror you must feel about the possibility that your loved ones were perhaps not cremated and their actual remains returned to you.

"First I would like to share that my thoughts on 'where the body is' are not just academic. As you know, my parents had severe mental and emotional problems. They abandoned me at age 3 and I lived the next 14 years of my life in an orphanage.

"I never saw my father again. He lived another 25 years and died in a mental hospital. His body is buried in Georgia. My mother was in and out of mental hospitals and died in a halfway house in Chicago when I was 23. Her body was 'handled' as a pauper's body by the city of Chicago. I don't know where it is.

"My wonderful, but poor and simple grandmother in Chicago died a pauper as well and had willed her body to a medical school. I don't know what they did with it after their medical studies. I don't know where my father and mother were spiritually; they were so confused mentally and emotionally. My grandmother loved Jesus.

"I share this so you understand I have reflected on some of the issues of how to feel about a body unaccounted for. That is what I am sharing with you now.

"Please read the Scriptures I am referencing but I will not type them here for brevity.

"My immediate thoughts for you were that you feel like a Psalms 102:1-11 and a Psalms 22:14-15 person right now, your heart like wax and your strength dried up.

"Yet a Psalms 22 person can also be a 23rd Psalms person. You have been suddenly, unexpectedly, and without warning or preparation tossed down again in the valley of the shadow of death of your son and sister. We naturally fear shadows for we know not what evil lies within. We naturally fear the darkness; we fear not knowing; we fear what may be in the shadow of the valley of death.

"Even so, a 23rd Psalms person also can claim that God is with them. God may not remove you quickly from these shadows, but he promises to be with you in these shadows.

"We do know that the physical body is not the 'person.' James 2:26 reminds us the body without the spirit is dead. The spirit has departed. Jesus reminds us in Matthew 6:25 that the body is more than clothing, which is also his way of saying that the physical body is not who we are.

"Jesus also warned us not to fear those that can kill the body but fear those that can kill the soul (Matthew 10:28). Jesus was clear: the body is not the soul, it is not the 'spirit' of your loved ones. 1 Corinthians 15:35-57 lets us know that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God but that the perishable body is raised an imperishable body, that the natural body is raised a spiritual body.

"Finally, and most importantly, please embrace, cling to and claim Romans 8:38-39. Nothing can separate you, your son or your sister from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

"Cast your anxieties on him, for he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7); lift up your eyes to the Lord from whom comes your help (Psalms 121), for he will not abandon you but promises that he will be there for you (John 14:18).

"I grieve for you, I cry for you, I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers in this difficult time. I hope God has led me in some way to help."

It's been several weeks since this news broke. While it has passed from the headlines, it remains all too fresh in the hearts of the thousands affected by it.

In addition, for me and every believer in Christ, I think the lesson of this scandal also applies far into the future. 1 Peter 3:15 tells us to be ready to give a defense for the hope that lives within us. By implication, that applies to every situation where people are struggling and searching for answers.

The next time tragedy strikes -- and it will, as sure as the sun rises in the east -- are you going to be ready to share the hope that lives within you? Through prayer and diligent Bible study, all Christians need to be ready to share our hope when the opportunity or need in another's life arises.

A doctor had to give a painful shot to a four-year-old girl. When

she learned what the doctor was about to do, her face showed her

anxiety and her body tensed. As the doctor picked up what looked to

the little girl to be a needle large enough to kill an elephant, she

turned her eyes to her father, who then took her hand and fixed his

eyes on hers. An expression of confidence and calmness came on her

face. She know she was not alone and found comfort, not in her

father's spoken answer, but in his presence with her in her time of

trial.

The following Principles are reprinted from Dale Carnegie's best-seller "HOW to STOP WORRYING and START LIVING" and are also available in the "Golden Book." His wisdom is as important today as it was when it was first published in 1948. The following summarizes many of his recommendations

for controlling worry.

1. Live in "day-tight compartments."

2. How to face trouble:

a. Ask yourself, "What is the worst that can possibly happen?"

b. Prepare to accept the worst.

c. Try to improve on the worst.

3. Remind yourself of the exorbitant price you can pay for worry in terms

of your health.

Basic Techniques in Analyzing Worry

1. Get all the facts.

2. Weigh all the facts ? then come to a decision.

3. Once a decision is reached, act!

4. Write out and answer the following questions:

a. What is the problem?

b. What are the causes of the problem?

c. What are the possible solutions?

d. What is the best possible solution?

Break the Worry Habit Before It Breaks You

1. Keep busy.

2. Don't fuss about trifles.

3. Use the law of averages to outlaw your worries.

4. Cooperate with the inevitable.

5. Decide just how much anxiety a thing may be worth and refuse to give

it more.

6. Don't worry about the past.

Cultivate a Mental Attitude that will Bring You Peace and Happiness

1. Fill your mind with thoughts of peace, courage, health and hope.

2. Never try to get even with your enemies.

3. Expect ingratitude.

4. Count your blessings ? not your troubles.

5. Do not imitate others.

6. Try to profit from your losses.

7. Create happiness for others.

The Perfect Way to Conquer Worry

1. Pray.

Don't Worry about Criticism

1. Remember that unjust criticism is often a disguised compliment.

2. Do the very best you can.

3. Analyze your own mistakes and criticize yourself.

Prevent Fatigue and Worry and Keep Your Energy and Spirits High

1. Rest before you get tired.

2. Learn to relax at your work.

3. Protect your health and appearance by relaxing at home.

4. Apply these four good working habits:

a. Clear your desk of all papers except those relating to the

immediate problem at hand.

b. Do things in the order of their importance.

c. When you face a problem, solve it then and there if you have the

facts necessary to make a decision.

d. Learn to organize, deputize and supervise.

5. Put enthusiasm into your work.

6. Don't worry about insomnia.

*

[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #4553]

"And He said to His disciples, "For this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing." (Luke 12:22-23, NASB)

All the water in the world

However hard it tried,

Could never, never sink a ship

Unless it got inside.

All the hardships of this world,

Might wear you pretty thin,

But they won’t hurt you, one least bit ...

Unless you let them in.

- Anonymous

Are you a worrier?

If you’re like a lot of people, worry just might be one of the things that makes life miserable. It’s not uncommon for people to lose sleep, drop weight, develop "nervous tics," suffer ulcers or other gastric disorders, or get pretty sick in other ways, all from worry. Worry just might be one of the elements that feeds a grand variety of mental and emotional disorders, and thought we don’t usually diagnose things this way, worry is the cause of countless spiritual maladies as well.

Not long after my wife and I married, we were talking about some events happening in our lives. I shared with her something I had dreamed up while a teenager to help me deal with worry. It goes something like this: "If you do, you will, but if you don’t, you won’t. If you’re not able, you don’t have to."

I suspect that won’t make a bit of sense to anyone but me, but it helps me with a framework for thinking things through and deciding which things are worth my deep concern. As I’ve thought about that little "ditty" in the years since it came to me as a teenager, I’ve decided it deserves some deeper thought and explanation. I really believe there are kernels of truth there that can help relieve worry.

First, IF YOU DO, YOU WILL. Now, perhaps that should be, "If you can, you should," or something like that. The point is simply this: things within your ability are the things you can do. If they are beyond your ability, you can choose either to extend your abilities (a real possibility in many cases), or accept the fact that whatever you’re dealing with is one of those things that you cannot change. But, it does encourage action when the capability is present. So, if you’re facing something you can effect, do so. If not, accept it. Whatever you do, don’t get mired down in a pity-party over things you can’t change.

Second, IF YOU DON’T YOU WON’T. Perhaps that one should be, "If you can’t, you shouldn’t." I think I just said this above, but it bears repeating. If something is not within your ability, either expand your ability, or accept reality.

Third, IF YOU’RE NOT ABLE, YOU DON’T HAVE TO. Is this getting repetitious yet? If you’re not able, you’re not able. Do you know how many people beat themselves up over things they are not able to change? Do you know how many people waste time worrying about things they really could change? Perhaps the point is this: if something is within your ability, do something about it. If it’s not, try changing yourself first, by developing new abilities, then attacking the problem.

Remember one thing above all else - worry doesn’t fix anything. In fact, worry will add an extra burden to any problem. It clouds the mind, wrecks the emotions, and kills the spirit. How does a befuddled, nervous, spiritually dead person accomplish anything worthwhile?

You’ve got to get a handle on worry. Some people seem more prone to worry than others, but it’s possible for anyone to reduce the extremes. Legitimate concern can serve as a powerful motivator. The fact that we care deeply about some issue is a positive. Worry, however, paralyzes us, and leaves us impotent.

Next time you’re tempted to worry, get a grip. Try to figure out if you can do something or not. If so, do. If not, don’t. Either way, worry isn’t the answer.

________________________________

© Copyright 2001, DR. BILL DENTON, CROSSTIES, All Rights Reserved. Articles may not be reprinted in any "for profit" publication without further permission by the author. Articles may be freely distributed via e-mail, reprinted in church bulletins or in other non-profit publications without further permission. Please keep this copyright and Web Site information intact with copied articles.

*

It was pretty scary for a four-year-old little girl. My wife's grandfather had somehow managed to drop his favorite pen down a cistern in his yard. Karen remembers it as being about 25 feet deep. And she remembers that because she was the one who had to retrieve Granddad's valuable pen. Her Daddy made this makeshift harness for her to sit in, tied a tope around her waist, and began to lower her down that hole. Karen had one hand on the rope, and one hand free to carry out her mission. Her mind was focused partly on the lost pen, and partly on what snakes might be down there in that damp hole in the ground. As she dangled in space in a scary place, she was counting on one thing - her big, strong Father was holding the rope.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Dangling In Space."

Dangling in space in a scary place - that may describe where you are in your life right now. It just feels as if you're holding onto nothing right now - you're moving through the dark - concerned about the dangers.

That must be some of what David was feeling when he wrote our word for today from the Word of God - it's in Psalm 34 (one of my favorite Psalms), beginning at verse 3. David is actually hiding out in caves - the king, the most powerful man in the country - is hunting him to kill him. He's got all the troops out looking for him. Talk about anxiety!

But David writes, "Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. This poor man called and the Lord heard him; He saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and He delivers them ... those who seek the Lord lack no good thing."

Notice - there's nothing in here about the "snakes" at the bottom - the king, the death threats, the danger, the uncertain future. As scary as David's situation is, he's living without fear - he's radiant - in a word, he's OK. Why? Because of who's holding the rope!

And that's why you're OK, too. Right now there may be far more questions than answers. The future is uncertain. You feel like you're dangling in space, and there's danger below. You can't see where the money could possibly come from - where an answer could come from - how that person could ever change - how you're going to find a way through this - or a way out of this.

But if you've given yourself to Jesus Christ, you are a child of the Most High God! And your security does not come from the environment you're in, the position you're in, or the resources you can see. Your security comes from who is holding the rope - your big, strong Heavenly Father. You may be in a situation where it seems as if God is all you've got - well, that's when you find out that God is all you need. And it has nothing to do with you ability to hang on - it's all about God's ability to hang on.

Yes, it looks scary ... yes, it feels like you're dangling in space. But you are safe - because your Father is holding the rope - and He will never let you fall!

________________

Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. 'Practical Answers to Real Life Issues'

*

You won’t have to worry because …

1. The Bible still has the answers.

2. Prayer still works.

3. The Spirit can still move.

4. God still inhabits praise.

5. There is still Anointed preaching.

6. There is still Anointed singing.

7. God still pours out blessings.

8. There is room at the cross.

9. Jesus loves you.

10. Jesus still saves.

(The Y2K reference is now dated! but … Jesus is Y2K compliant! You can and should say Y2K, meaning “Yes-to-the King”)

”Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Phil 4:6) — For reading & meditation: Philippians 4:1-13

We continue meditating on the principles we can use when our lives are threatened by stress: Recognize the symptoms of stress. No alarm bells ring in our homes or offices when we are suffering undue stress, but there are adequate warning signs.

People under stress generally become irritable and overreact to relatively trivial frustrations. They show a change in their sleep patterns, and become increasingly tired and restless. They derive less pleasure from life, experience no joy while praying or reading the Bible, laugh less, and become plagued with feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt. They sometimes develop psychosomatic complaints such as tension headaches, indigestion and other things. Some people have what is known as “target organs” — physical organs that are the first to suffer when they are under stress.

Harold Wilson confessed that whenever he had to fire a colleague, he suffered acute stomach pains. Henry Ford suffered cramps in his stomach whenever he had to make an important business decision. Trotsky, when under pressure, used to develop bouts of high temperature, and frequently had to spend time in the Crimea recuperating. One businessman I know always has a glass of milk on his desk from which he takes frequent sips in order to calm his nagging peptic ulcer.

Are you able to recognize your own particular patterns of stress? You owe it to God and yourself to find out. The waste that goes on in Christian circles through believers channeling their energies into coping with stress, rather than into extending the kingdom of God, is appalling.

PRAYER:

O God, sharpen my ability to recognize the things I do that contribute to stress in my life, so that all my energies can be channeled into spiritual activity, not self-activity. For Jesus’ sake. Amen

FURTHER STUDY:

• Luke 12:15-34; 2 Tim. 1:12; 2 Cor. 11:22-33; 12:7-10

1. What was the key to Paul’s trust under stress?

2. List six reasons Jesus gave for not worrying about tomorrow.

The Power of Worrying

Here’s a good inspirational message. Keep it in your hearts. Death was walking toward a city one morning and a man asked, “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to take 100 people,” Death replied.

“That’s horrible!” the man said.

“That’s the way it is,” Death said. “That’s what I do.”

The man hurried to warn everyone he could about Death’s plan. As evening fell, he met Death again. “You told me you were going to take 100 people,” the man said. “Why did 1,000 die?”

“I kept my word,” Death responded. “I only took 100 people. Worry took the others.”

This interesting tale portrays so well what the National Mental Health Committee reported a few years ago – half of all the people in America’s hospital beds are constant worriers. Mental distress can lead to migraine headaches, arthritis, heart trouble, cystitis, colitis, backaches, ulcers, depression, digestive disorders and yes, even death. Add to that list the mental fatigue of nights without sleep and days without peace, then we get a glimpse of the havoc worry plays in destroying the quality and quantity of life.

Worry is, and always will be, a fatal disease of the heart, for its beginning signals the end of faith. Release the regrets of yesterday, refuse the fears of tomorrow and receive instead, the peace of today. FREE YOUR MIND, YOU WILL BE GLAD YOU DID.

– Unknown

When you feel anxious in a task or a relationship, your anxiety may be signaling the uncertainty of a goal you have chosen. You are hoping something will happen, but you have no guarantee that it will. You can control some of the factors, but not all of them.

For example, a teenager may believe that her happiness at school depends on her parents allowing her to attend a school dance. Not knowing how they will respond, she is anxious. If they say no, she will be angry because her goal is blocked. But if she knows all along that there is no possible chance of them saying yes, she will be depressed because her goal will not be achieved.

When you base your future success on something that can never happen, you have an impossible, hopeless goal. Your depression is a signal that your goal, no matter how spiritual or noble, may never be reached. Some forms of depression can be caused by chemical imbalances. But if there is no physical cause for the depression, then that depression is the expression of hopelessness.

No God-given goal can be blocked, uncertain or impossible. With God all things are possible. If God issued a command that could not be obeyed, it would undermine His authority. If God wants it done, it can be done.

The real question is: What does God want done? The answer? He wants us to be what He has called us to be. And if that's what God wants done, no situations or circumstances of life can keep you from being the engineer, homemaker, parent, or leader God has called you to be.

Lord, help me keep my eyes on what You want done in my life, not on the seemingly impossible hindrances that keep me from growing in You.

It was a reasonable thing to do. After all, the people of Israel had not eaten for some time. When God sent bread from heaven, they not only ate it, they also saved enough to last them for a while. But what is reasonable is not always right, and hoarding manna was explicitly against the command of God. “I will rain down bread from heaven for you,” the Lord had said to Moses. “The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions” (Exodus 16:4).

Moses clearly related this command to the people: “No one is to keep any of it until morning” (Exodus 16:19). But some people don't like to take a chance. The manna had never been seen before; how did they know whether it would fall again the next day? These doubters hid some away and waited until morning. I wouldn't have liked to be in those tents when they opened their stash to eat the manna for breakfast. Overnight it became infested with worms and acquired a horrible stench.

God chose to make the people of Israel live in daily dependence upon him. It would have been less trouble for everyone if he had sent a week's supply of manna at a time, or even a year's. Instead, the desert sojourners went to bed six out of seven nights of the week without any food for the next day.

I don't like to go to sleep without having food in the house for breakfast. In fact, I don't really like to go to sleep without knowing how God is going to solve the problems of the next day. But just as God taught the people of Israel to live in daily dependence upon Him, He wants to teach us how to trust Him to provide what we need, when we need it... and not a moment before.

I have tried at times to live on God's past grace, subsisting on memories of his goodness and presence. Although reflecting on God's faithfulness in the past is a vital part of faith, we can't stockpile spiritual blessings so that we won't have to continue to seek them. I have alternately tried to taste what the future might bring, but this is not something God has yet given to me. We are not meant to live off the past or in the future. We are meant to trust God to meet the needs of today. Each morning, the Israelites awoke with the knowledge that God had sent manna the day before. He had promised to send it the next day as well. But the manna that they were to gather was only enough for today.

If we spend our energies worrying about tomorrow, we won't be nourished by what God has provided for us today. I hate to see believers fall prey to thinking that if they can just “get it together” they won't have to live in daily dependence upon God for their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. Even when the Israelites grew to expect manna, God didn't change his distribution schedule. “The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan” (Exodus 16:35).

Until we arrive in the settled land of our rest, God will provide us with daily bread. Let us savor it in faith, lying down at night in confidence that what we need will be provided and going out in the morning to gather the grace He has given for today.

________

Copyright © 2005 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

*

Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things … Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. — Matthew 6:32, 34.

The anxiety that dreads an evil thing on the morrow is nothing but unbelief. When tomorrow comes, the evil may not be there: if it comes, God will be there, too. He may allow us to taste what it is to indulge our own wills: but if our souls are subject to Him, how often the dreaded evil never appears. When the heart bows to the will of God about some sorrow that we dread, how often a sorrow is taken away, and the Lord meets us with unexpected kindness and goodness. He is able to make even the sorrow to be all blessing. Whatever be His will, it is good.

He always wins who sides with God, to him no chance is lost;

God’s will is sweetest to him, When it triumphs at his cost.

Ill that God blesses is our good, and unblest good is ill;

And all is right that seems most wrong, if it be His sweet will.