In today’s world the greatest problem people face in their daily life is worry. Worry can be defined as ‘to think about problems or unpleasant things that might happen in a way that makes you feel anxious’. In other words worry is not just to feel bad about what has happened or is happening before us, but also it is a disguised form of imaginary fear that makes people crippled and troubled about what might happen to them if something bad happens out of their control. Worry is the satanic weapon to strangle people from growing in faith. When people worry much, it shows their weak and little faith in what God can do for them. It also shows that they do not fully believe that God is in control of their lives and is able to supply all their needs (Luke 12:28-29).
Faith is the antidote to worry, anxiety and fear about the future. Many, who fear about the future, end up exactly in the mire of what they have feared about in their life. This is because as the Bible says, “The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD shall be safe.” (Pro 29:25). Fear brings a snare of the devil in one’s life. Snare is nothing but the bondage of living in a negative lifestyle that is unhealthy and barren. Feeling fearful in itself is not sin, but allowing fear to influence us is sin because as the Bible says in Rom 14:23”… whatever [is] not from faith is sin.” Any fear that we allow in our life except the healthy and holy fear of God is a snare that will make us get caught in the negative unproductive cycle of worry, anxiety, defeatist attitude and eventually destruction (Lam 3:47), which will sap out the God-life of faith, happiness, joyfulness, ecstasy of intimacy with God and the life of satisfaction for which we were created to enjoy in this planet earth. The great man of God Job himself agreed with this point when he said, “For the things which I greatly feared is come upon me.” (Job 3:25). In other words Job was having fear of unknown in certain areas of his life like in the case of his sons safety because of his love toward them and worried constantly about their youthful lifestyle before he started facing the trials that came upon him (Job 1:5). This gave Satan the audacity to challenge God about Job’s character (Job 1:8-12; 2:3-7). But at the end of all the fiery ordeal Job went through, he was full of faith and he confessed to God saying, “5 My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. 6 Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:5-6). In other words Job said, ‘Lord, because of the lack of experiential knowledge about your awesome power, I did not have faith enough to walk free of fear in life, but now that I have understood your awesome power, I change my wrong thinking of unbelief, worry and fear to faith, courage and peace in you.’
To allow fear and worry in your life is like saying to God indirectly, ‘I know all your promises but I do not believe that it is true in my life or will come to pass in my life’. When we have faith by believing in the promises of God, we will not be troubled by the circumstances we go through. Instead we will believe Jesus by holding on to His promise which says, “Peace is what I leave with you [inwardly]; it is my own peace that I give you, I do not give you as the world does [i.e. give peace outwardly when all the circumstances go right]. Do not be worried and upset [in your soul, instead speak positively to your soul (Psa 13:2; 42:11; 43:5)]; do not be afraid [i.e. by trusting the Lord and pouring out all your anxieties to the Lord and be filled with the peace of God which will guard your heart (Phil 4:6-7)].” (John 14:27). God know all your anxieties when your soul goes through the oppressions of the enemy of our souls (1 Peter 2:11). All the adversities, tough times and circumstances in life should be faced with the faith of God (Ps 31:7).
"Fear" is also the natural consequence of sin (Ge 3:10; 4:13,14; Pr 28:1); it comes as a punishment (De 28:25,28). When we sin, immediately we should approach the throne of grace boldly and confess our sin to the Lord with thanksgiving and praise for Having forgiven all our sins 2000 years ago itself on the cross and continue in faith life. As a result of continuing in the faith life of God, the mighty grace of God will continue to propel and carry us forward in to the destiny God has for us (Heb 10:19-23; 4:14-16). When we allow the spirit of fear to influence us continuously by our own bad choices, and then if we do not immediately approach the throne of grace to receive help by humbly acknowledging to God that we have sinned, then we will start to worry and will stray away from God. So renew your mind through His promises as fast as you can. As the Bible says, “Return to the stronghold [of God’s grace], You prisoners of hope. Even today I declare [that] I will restore double to you." (Zec 9:12). No matter what kind of sin we do (1 John 2:1), if we return to God in humbly acknowledging our failure to please Him, He is promising that not only He will give you back the lost grace, but double that level in restoration so that you will enjoy your relationship with Him. The fear of man and of evils are dangers to be avoided, from which the fear of God delivers (Nu 14:9; 21:34; Ps 23:4; 31:14, etc.). Fear of God will make you approach the throne of God to receive mercy and grace in time of need. This is true humbleness. Anything done other than this is pride which God resists. Rejection and self pity are a subtle form of pride which will isolate you because of selfishness (Prov 18:1). Such wrong attitudes will always make you get preoccupied with ‘I, Me, and Myself’ thoughts which will keep you entangled in the web of worries.
We can choose to break free from the worry habit if we cultivate faith life by practicing the following eight principles which has the potential to transform and change the quality of life we live on earth in to an abundant one,
1. Cultivate friendship with hopeful people
Surround yourself with friend’s who think positive, faith-producing thoughts and who contribute to a creative godly atmosphere. This will keep you re-stimulated with faith attitudes. The Book of Proverbs points to this truth by saying, "The righteous should choose his friends carefully, for the way of the wicked leads them astray." (Pro 12:26). Even the old adage says, ‘Tell me who your friends are, I will tell about yourself.’ What kind of friends we surround ourselves with will ultimately decide whether we will reach the destiny that God has set before us or not. I am not espousing you to disregard all those people who are of broken hearted and are hopeless. In fact we are here to mend the broken hearted and impart hope to the hopeless. But avoid those who always want to speak something negative no matter what good they receive or experience.
Many of the Israelites who were led by Moses in the wilderness had this kind of negative attitude towards God, life and others. These type of people will receive good things as long as it is given, the moment some hardships come they will forget all the goodness that has been done to them. They will lustily desire something that they do not have and will test God instead of trusting the Lord through the tough times. These people will become crabby, cranky, grouchy, grumpy and will become rebellious against those who are helping them (Deut 9:7). They will even get angry with God, whenever God doesn't give them what they desire. They will crab and gripe as though God is very much indebted to them. God Himself will send leanness in to the souls of such negative people operating in defeatist attitude. These people with negative attitudes will even start to envy the leaders who are operating with positive attitude of faith (Psalm 106:12-16). Learn to stay away from such people who will sap out the life within you like a leech. These people will speak like butter on the outside but will be very jealous and bitter on the inside when they see that we are blessed. They will not even have one good word to bless others (Prov 16:24), but will always without fail have a sarcastic comment like a piercing of a sword for all the things they will see (Prov 12:18). Most of these people will be flatterers and gossipers, never associate intimately with such people (Prov 20:19; 26:22). Such gossip will wound your spirit man and will paralyze you with unnecessary negativistic attitude in your life toward yourself, others and God.
Such negative people will not walk by faith rather they will walk by sight. They will always have a bad factual report rather than a faith filled destiny report. These people will be focused on fear rather than faith. They will have poor self-image about themselves because of focusing on their weakness and inabilities rather than focusing on their strength and abilities with the empowerment of God. They will contagiously like a highly infective virus will spread fear and negative things of discouragement easily (Num 13:25-33; 14:1-10). Beware stay away from such people! Instead develop friendship with faith filled positive, happy and destiny-driven purposeful people like Joshua and Caleb who reached their destiny and took all those who were with them to the place of their destinies in Canaan land. Be blessed by cultivating Godly friendship. Be positive, happy and rejoicing in God all the time!
2. Help as many people as you can to cure their own worry habit
In helping another to overcome worry, you get the power over it within yourself, because God’s power will manifest to you because of flowing through you. When a channel makes way to carry the water to another place, it first gets drenched in it before it reaches others. God always bless us to be a blessing. In fact when Abraham received the promise from God to be abundantly blessed, you can notice that at the end of the promise carried the potential to bless the entire families of the earth (Gen 12:1-3).
Whenever you meet someone, make sure that you speak hopefully by faith. When you do that you are making the world a better place where hope givers are rare to find because of the turbulences and distresses of this generation of the end time. When you help others get filled with hope, you will first be filled with it abundantly.
3. Speaking Faith When Hopeless
When you feel hopeless in any kind of circumstances, don’t start to fret and fume. When you do fret and fume, you will become more hopeless and full of worry even up to your throat that may even shoot up above your head. Worries will paralyze you and make you completely ineffective. When you speak worry, worries will multiply. Worrying will not make you grow even an inch positively towards your God-given destiny (Luke 12:25). Never forget, Unbelief in the mind will not get in to the heart [i.e. spirit man] if it does not pass through the mouth (Joshua 6:10, 16; Num 13:30, 32). Once it passes through your mouth and gets in to your spirit man, you will have no more hope left in you (Prov 18:14). Faith fuels positive destiny growth, Unbelief fuels negative fatal destruction. Hope builds you and worry destroys you. So calm yourself and zip your mouth. Don’t let your nerves rule over you to your own destruction. Instead, if you choose to speak faith, faith will get multiplied. When you really feel hopeless, say to the Lord, “[Oh My dear Lord] My hope is in you.” (Ps 39:7), “For you are my hope, O Lord God…” (Ps 71:5). Such faith filled confession will tremendously increase your faith in His ability to solve all your problems. Faith is the positive attitude of life which will make you more hopeful and energized to reach further toward your God-given destination. This contagious attitude and speech will definitely spread fast to not only change your atmosphere with a fragrance of heaven, but will begin to affect others around you with a more positive attitude. So only Apostle Paul said in 2 Cor 2:14, “Now thanks be to God who…though us diffuses [i.e. manifests] the fragrance of His knowledge [of faith, hope, love and destiny-consciousness] in every place.” By speaking faith and growing in hope you are eliminating worry.
4. Empty your mind of worry daily before going to sleep
The Bible says, “Empty your mind of all your worries to Him, because He cares about you.” (1 Peter 5:7). The one reason you can throw all of your worries, anxieties and your concerns to the Lord and empty your mind free of all worrisome trashes is because He affectionately cares for you more than a mother or a father in the natural cares and watches a toddler from getting hurt because of the lack of their understanding. Once you have given all of your worries to the Lord consciously, then you should not take all or any of it back and start to think of it again and again. If such thoughts come again say, ‘I rebuke you devilish worrisome thoughts in the name of Jesus.’ Such thoughts will leave you immediately because as the word of God says, “at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those in heaven [i.e. all of God’s angels], of those in earth [i.e. every being on earth which includes devils and demons] and of those under the earth [i.e. all the imprisoned demons and departed spirits in Hades].” (Phil 2:10).
All the recurring, tormenting and worrisome thoughts are without doubt demonically sowed in to our hearts. The demons expect us to be tempted and in turn conceive those bad thoughts that are subtly sowed in to our mind (James 1:14-15). Once we allow such negative thoughts to take root in us by dwelling continuously and consciously on it, after a while it becomes a stronghold of the devil to weaken us at their own will (2 Cor 10:4-5). In other words, we start to call these demonically induced things as weakness because of our inability to resist it and be victorious against it. The devil’s and demons are sadistic and hell bent to do nothing but destroy our lives by making us troubled, worried and depressed all the time (John 10:10). Take heart, as the Bible promises us, “…the weapons of our warfare… [of which one of the main weapon is the helmet of salvation used for the protection of our mind through the word of God spoken through our mouth in the name of Jesus (Eph 6:17)]… [is] mighty in God for pulling down strongholds…. [of negative] thoughts induced in to our mind and make it give up and obey Christ [by emptying it].” (2 Cor 10:4-5). In other words when you speak out and command your mind to line up with the positive nature of Christ using the power of the name of Jesus, immediately your mind will be renewed, because as the Bible says, “…We [already] have the mind of Christ [within us].” (1 Cor 2:16). Your decision to renew your mind constantly will transform and make you to continue in the positive attitude of Christ, thus eliminating all worries (Eph 4:23; Rom 12:2; Col 3:10).
Receive deliverance now by emptying your mind of all worries by confessing, ‘In Jesus name I am now emptying my mind of all anxiety, all fear, all negative thoughts and all sense of insecurity.’, then add, ‘I believe that my mind is now emptied of all anxiety, all fear, all negative thoughts and all sense of insecurity.’ Now start to thank God and then praise Him for thus freeing you from all worries, fear, negativity and insecurity. Then go to sleep. Sweet dreams! We must do these things in our daily life because as the Bible says, “For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are [delivered from devil’s oppression and are] saved.” (Rom 10:10)[NLT].
5. Fill your mind with positive thoughts and affirmations the moment you get up in the morning
First thoughts of the day are very important to set the pace positive for the rest of the day to be successful. Fill your mind with thoughts of faith, hope, courage and expectancy. Say aloud such affirmations as the following, ‘God is now filling my mind with courage, with peace and with calm assurance because I have decided not to worry about anything, but have chosen to ask God for everything I need with the voice of thanksgiving and I thank the Lord that His tranquil peace will safeguard my heart and mind from all negative worries’ (Phil 4:6-7). Good and peaceful thoughts are created when we intentionally start to think and speak based on the positive viewpoint of the word of God. What we think will make us who we are (Prov 23:7). What we speak will take us to the place where we should be (James 3:2). Either we will be able to stay perfectly serene and calm through good words spoken through our mouth and thus control our situations perfectly or stay troubled in our soul and mind by our foolish words of negativity. In other words, what we think and speak will release a positive emotion in us which will decide the kind of atmosphere that will stay around us. Once we have this ability of serenity, the decisions taken by us will be very sound and successful.
Our negative words have the power to influence our mind with negative thinking pattern which will keep us continually troubled with a unstable mindset (Prov 21:23). What we believe cannot be hidden inside us for a long time without making us express it through the words of our mouth (2 Cor 4:13; Matt 5:14-16; Rom 10:10). So only Jesus said in John 14:1, “Let not your heart be troubled… [but by believing God and His word stay calm by speaking the good treasure of His word which is inside you (Matt 12:34-37).]” This shows that we do have a choice either to keep ourselves calm by positive words of affirmation or let ourselves be troubled by our circumstances by speaking negative words of futility. If we really believe God, we will keep ourselves focused on God rather on the circumstances we go through in our life’s journey and thus God will acknowledge such trust in Him by keeping us in His perfect peace (Isaiah 26: 3). Having such perfect peace will embark us on a journey “on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt 6:10). Why not trust in the Lord now and confess, ‘God is now protecting me from all harm. God is now protecting my loved ones from all harm. God is now guiding me to right decisions because I have His peace and He will see me through this situation that I am going through in my life right now because the God who guards me never rests or sleeps (Ps 121:4)’. Praise the Lord!
6. Be a Practicer of Faith
The word of God says, “Faith comes by hearing [God’s voice], and hearing [God’s voice] by the word of God.” (Rom 10:17). We grow from “…faith to faith…” by the revelation of God’s word through what God has already done for us to enjoy in this earth. In other words, always faith increases proportionately equal to our level of intimacy in relationship with God (Rom 1:17). The more closely we are intimate with God by hearing His voice in our spirit man and believe it, the greater the power of God will work in our lives (Rom 1:16). As the Bible says we are not only saved by grace through faith (Eph 2:8), but also are to live daily by faith (Rom 1:17).
How do you practice faith? First thing every morning before you arise say out loud, ‘I believe’, three times. Learn to be practicers of faith daily until you become an expert in faith. Have ‘I believe attitude’ until it becomes a part of real you. Never lose focus on God by letting fear control you. When you let fear to control you, it will lead you to more fear and finally destruction. The great man of God Job realized this effect in his life and said, “For the things which I greatly feared is come upon me…” (Job 3:25). Attack fear with faith confession by trusting the ability of the Lord (Ps 56:3-4). Thus faith will overcome all fear, so that fear cannot live in you.
Fear is a spirit. Dealing with fear is a spiritual conflict. We can overcome fear only by the power of God. Fear comes from the devil whose only desire is to steal all the good things you have and then destroy you completely. Satan is a deceptive ruthless enemy whose only way of keeping people under his control and bondage is through fear (Heb 2:14-15). If you are a believer and have already invited Jesus in to your heart by faith in His sinless birth, death and resurrection as a substitute for your weaknesses, sins and imperfections, then say, ‘I will not confess or focus on fear because God has not given me personally a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a of a sound mind [of faith].’ (2 Tim 1:7).
According to the word of God, by dying for the believer’s sins, weaknesses and imperfections as a substitutionary perfect sacrifice, Jesus has already completely destroyed the devil’s power over our lives and has already freed us from all the bondages of the evil one (1 Cor 15:17; 1 John 3:8; Heb 2:14-15). This is why Jesus said in John 3:36, “[Because] the Son has set you free, you are truly free [from sin, sickness and death].” It is up to you to believe what Jesus has declared to be the truth. Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, whoever says to this mountain [of worries, fear, sin, sickness and death], be lifted up and thrown into the sea [of the world's system of demonic rulership under Satan (2 Cor 4:4)]! and does not doubt at all in his heart but believes that what he says will take place, it will be done for him." (Mark 10:23, Amp). In this preceding verse Jesus Himself has assured us that this faith-confession truth will work as long as we do not accept the facts of this world system of governance as the reality of life, but by faith stand on the absolute truth of the kingdom of heaven and dare to release the power of God through our authoritative word of faith (Rom 10:8-10). Faith attitude will always propel you in to a positive heavenly altitude of success and satisfaction. So develop faith by practicing it day by day in your life and become an expert in faith. Be a faith-man.
7. You can, because He is with you
Say out loud, ‘Yes I can!’ You are part of the great cosmic success story which God has planned before the foundation of the world. Because we are God’s beautiful handiwork born anew in Jesus Christ, we have the ability to do the good works which God planned beforehand for us, we can choose to live the good life which He has prearranged and made ready for us to live (Eph 2:10). The good news is, God has already chosen you and enrolled you in His blueprint of the eternal success story (Eph 1:4). You are a winner and He has promised to lead you always in triumphal procession as a true winner (2 Cor 2:14). Satan may make you feel miserable and may even tell you that you are a failure and you will never make it in life. Satan is a liar and he is father of all lies (John 8:44). Don’t give chance for the devil to keep you worried and distressed by giving room to such demonic worthless thoughts to influence you and thus allow such losers attitude to stay in your mind to make you ineffective. Instead say to the devil, ‘In the name of Jesus I rebuke you devil of discouragement, I am a winner in Christ Jesus. Leave right now, you devil.’ When you do these basic things as the word of God says in James 4:7, ‘[Firstly] You are submitting to God. [Secondly] You are resisting the devil and [Thirdly] he will flee from you [as God’s word promises].’ Devil will flee knowing that the one who is residing in you is greater than Satan and his demons who are in the world (1 John 4:4). In other words, the power of God will start to flow through you only when you start acting the word of God through your authoritative faith-confession in your daily lives.
Do not be afraid of any repulsive Satanic attack that may come against you when you act on the word of God, because Jesus Himself has promised you personally and have declared that “He has [already] given you authority to crush over all the demonic power of the enemy from the bottom to the highest hierarchy, and nothing by any mean shall hurt you.” (Luke 10:19, Paraphrased). It is up to you to use the abundant life and authority that He has already given you and be prosperous (John 10:10). Will you act the word to prosper? Say, ‘Yes I will’. You should choose life and use the authority that Jesus has already given you or the devil will use your mind and will influence it to bring death [separation from God and His abundant life of joy, peace and righteousness (Rom 14:17)] (Deut 30:19). Think for yourself based on the word of God, don’t let the devil do your thinking. Don’t live an ineffective loser’s life, choose everyday to think based on the word of God and be a winner because Jesus has promised “…I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matt 28:20).
Every day of your life, conceive of yourself as living in partnership and companionship with Jesus Christ. Say to yourself, ‘He is with me now’. The more you understand the consciousness of His presence and His nearness to you all the time, the more you will be become confident about His ability working in you and will be able to say and shout, “I can do all things through the anointed one’s [i.e. Jesus Christ] ability which strengthens me all the time.” (Phil 4:13, Paraphrased). When the devil brings a negative thought like, ‘You are alone, Nobody cares for you, You will die and be forgotten as a nobody in this earth, You are worth nothing, You are unworthy as a sinner and God hates such people, You look ugly and nobody will ever become a friend to you…’. Never forget to remember and say, ‘God loves me all the time and He is with me to save me.’ (Jer 31:3; 30:11). Choosing to live such warrior’s life of faith will destroy the worry habit and will flush it completely out of our system.
8. Look beyond you weakness in to God’s strength within you
Never say, ‘I’ll never be able to do that’, instead positively affirm ‘With God’s help I will do that.’ Saying negative things will only increase worries and cripple your ability to respond proactively. The reason King David was the most successful king in the whole of the Old Testament was because he was a man who believed not in his own strength to achieve and bring results, instead He always trusted in God’s strength all the time. He humbly acknowledged the secret to live such successful life saying, “It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect.” (Ps 18:32). When we draw our strength from God, He will be very pleased and will suddenly transform the hazardous way in which we are travelling in to a perfect overcoming supernatural way full of victory through His power. King David was always full of confidence in God’s ability, that he confessed from the bottom of his heart to God and others saying, “For by You I can run against a troop, by my God I can leap over a wall.” (Ps 18:29). We too should pattern our lives in this true warrior’s attitude of King David. If we do, then the only thing we will be able to see before us will be a confident, worry free life of victory through the supernatural empowerment of God.
When Apostle was beaten by the demonic messenger of Satan who acted as a thorn in the flesh and brought persecution after persecution, distress, depression and caused bodily illness to sap out his physical strength (2 Cor 11:23-30; Gal 4:13-14), he cried out to God in desperation and God replied to him saying, “My grace is enough for you. When you are weak, my power is made perfect in you…" (2 Cor 12:9, NCV). O what a wonderful grace! Such heavenly grace will begin to work in us only when we feel weak. This same grace will strengthen our body, give us victory over all the demonic enemies that oppress us, give us the super abounding comfort to out thirsty soul and be more than enough to meet all that we need in this life. The same Apostle after understanding the sufficiency of God’s mighty grace began to boast about His weakness because by that time he took his eyes of His own weakness to look upon God’s super abounding never ending grace, which made him realize that he was not a loser but a winner who is waging war to possess his birthright inheritance of God’s heavenly grace. He threw away all his worries, anxieties, insecurities and fears from his mind to finally receive the empowerment of God’s mighty grace to be successful and victorious all the time. This is what Paul the warrior Apostle said after the revelation he received from God, “…Once I heard that [God’s grace is sufficiently strong in my time of weaknesses], I was glad to let … [the hardships of life’s journey] happen [without worrying about it]. I quit focusing on the handicap [of my own weaknesses and failings] and began appreciating the gift [of God’s mighty empowering grace]. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness [to make me a victorious winner]. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.” (2 Cor 12:9-10, The Message). Never focus on your failings and weaknesses but on God’s positive empowering grace, because only by focusing and receiving God’s empowering grace you will be able to realize the God-potential within you which will make you succeed and be a winner in this life. You may fail but that doesn’t make you a failure. Just because a baby was born in a garage doesn’t make it an automobile. A real failure is one who thinks he cannot win anymore in life. Failure is in the mind that thinks’ constantly, ‘I can’t’. God has called us to think success constantly by believing, ‘I can do all things through Christ’. Praise the Lord!
Pray with me now saying, 'Father God, Thank you for taking care of me as your very own child. You are in absolute control of my life. Nothing bad can happen to me because of your watchful constant care over me in every area of my life. Guide me choose wisely to have friendship with faith-filled people. Help me give your hope to every person I meet and in turn be filled with your hope. I empty my mind now of all worries and I thank you for filling me now with your faith, peace and joy. Teach me to speak faith when feeling hopeless and sure enough become a practicer of faith. Yes I am now changing my wrong mindset and I am aligning my mind according to your word because you have empowered me now with faith, and I will daily from now on be transformed from the old way of thinking to the new way of Word based thinking which will make me live your abundant life on earth as it is in heaven. Help me focus on you to draw your strength in all my moments of difficulties and trials, and not focus on my weaknesses. Thank you that the power of your grace will be more than enough to meet all my needs. I praise you and love you for what you are to me. In Jesus name. Amen and Amen.'
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