[Gary Petty] Do you suffer from anxiety sometimes? You know, all of us do. But recent medical studies show that thirty percent of all people in the United States suffer from anxiety disorders. Now, this is a little different than just anxiety because you’re going to the dentist. This is anxiety that is just sort of overwhelming. It fills each day with wrong thoughts and worry and stress and fear, so that the person can almost get to the point where they can’t function.

How can we deal with that level of anxiety? What can we do? And in this series, we’re going to talk a little bit about anxiety and how to deal with anxiety on the spiritual level. You know, anxiety has a lot of different levels. Sometimes you need to go see a counselor or talk to a friend. Or even medical help. But there’s also a spiritual side to anxiety. When we deal with anxiety, one of the first things to really remember is God. Take your worries to God. Do an interesting Bible study about anxiety in the scripture. Worry, fear – you’ll find there’s a lot of scriptures that talk about how to deal with fear and worry and anxiety, and they all center around: take it to God. Go to God. Pray to God.

Here’s what you could do – a simple step that can change your life. Every morning – every morning, when you get out of bed, before you do anything else, before you get involved in the day, or turn on the radio, or pick up the telephone – before you do anything,  take thirty minutes and pray, and pick up your Bible and study your Bible and spend time thinking about what you just read. Thinking about what is God telling me? What is He teaching me? What does He want me to know?

Just that thirty minutes a day can change the rest of the day. So this is the first step, simple step, on dealing with anxiety. Next time, we’ll talk about what you can do throughout the day in order to deal with overwhelming, anxious thoughts.

That’s BT Daily. Join us next time.