[Steve Myers] There are so many things in this life to worry about. You hardly have to think about it. Just turn on the television news and there's plenty of things to be anxious for. In fact, anxiety attacks have seemed to have taken over so many people's lives. And yet, when you look at the Bible there's a couple of things that become very evident when you read what Jesus Christ said about worrying.

One of the things that He pointed out very specifically was the fact that worrying doesn't accomplish anything. In Matthew 6:27 He says, "Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to your stature?" Or in other words how is that going to help your problem by just being anxious about it? So worrying doesn't accomplish anything. There's a second thing that Christ pointed to as well. It was the fact that worrying, being anxious, overly concerned about things doesn't do you good. In fact it can do you harm. Worry can be destructive.

There's an interesting Proverb, Proverbs 12:25 that says worrying weighs a person down, and yet on the other hand encouraging words cheer up a person. And so don't allow worry to do that to you because Christ focused on the fact that when we worry and we're overly anxious, it's actually the opposite of trusting God. The opposite of trusting God.

In fact, there's an interesting formula. Maybe we can put it into play by keeping Matthew chapter 6 in mind. It kind of goes like this: it goes by the fact that - alright, here we are worrying about things, and yet Christ says we should replace that by prayer, by being in touch with our Heavenly Father. And so prayer should replace worry and when we allow that to happen what results as a fact of replacing worry with prayer is that we then begin to trust God.

And so when we put that equation into effect, it focuses us in the right direction. We'll be able to cancel out that worry through prayer and our trust in God. And Christ kind of summarized that in Matthew 6:31 where He says, "Therefore do not worry," and He gives some examples of what not to worry about, but instead He says verse 33, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you" (Matthew 6:33).

One of the most important things that's added is that worry is removed. We've added prayer and a relationship with God to take its place.

That's BT Daily. We'll see you next time.