4 Practical everyday steps to repenting of stress/worry/anxiety.

From Philippians 4:6-9

If you are like me, these steps often have to be taken numerous times a day. It is amazing how many things that pop into our mind that lead us to stress. These steps are for those who have a genuine relationship with God through Jesus.  These steps are simple but difficult.

Step 1: Know you need to repent.

• Phil. 4:6a “Do not be anxious about anything”
• It is a sin to worry or have anxiety over ANYTHING. The reason it is a sin is not because stress robs you of your happiness (though that may be true). It is a sin because it is a lack of faith. Worrying is a clear reality that you are not having faith in God at that moment. Any failure to trust God is sin.

Step 2: Pray

• Phil. 4:6b “…but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
• Instead of focusing on what you have no control over, give it to the God who is in control of everything. Give it up. Trust God. They way you trust God in issues like these, is by making your request known to him.

Step 3: Peace

• Phil. 4:7 “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
• Peace comes from a confident faith in God. When you are trusting that God and is in control and you are not, then you’ll pray and after that an unexplainable peace will be with you. If this peace is not with you then you are still not trusting God like you ought.

Step 4: Replace worry with worship

• Phil.4:8 “…Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
• Instead of focusing your mind on what stresses you out, turn your focus to the wonderful things God has done for you. Let your worried heart be filled with the wonder of God’s grace, especially what he has done for his people at the cross through Jesus.

Here are the long quotes I used in last Sundays sermon on love.  They come from the book Love or Die: Christ’s wake-up call to the Church by Alexander Strauch.

• “Christians cannot develop love by sitting at home alone on the couch watching TV preachers or by attending a weekly, one-hour church service. It is only through participation in “the household of God,” the local church (1 Tim. 3:15), with all of its weaknesses and faults, that love is taught, modeled, learned, tested, practiced, and matured. By dealing with difficult people, facing painful conflicts, forgiving hurts and injustices, reconciling estranged relationships, and helping needy members, our love is tested and matures.” 46

• “One simply cannot grow in love without the stresses and strains of life together in the household of God, the local church. The local church truly is “a spiritual workshop for development of agape love” and “one of the very best laboratories in which individual believers may discover their real spiritual emptiness and begin to grow in agape love.” If you are not a participating member of a local church, then you are not in God’s school of love.” 46