“Researchers at Penn State University asked 29 people with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) to write down everything they worried about for one month. The study participants also recorded the outcomes of their worries. The researchers found that 91% of people’s worries did not come true. For several of the people in the study, exactly none of the things they worried about actually happened.”
So often we can find ourselves weighed down with the worries of our labor and the load of our daily burdens. Our minds race with lists, plans, failures, worries… some things our minds are captivated with never even take place. What are you thinking about right now? What about when you first woke up? You already started worrying about your day? Concerned about the same things you went to bed weighed down with from the day before?
Paul writes while in prison, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” Philippians 4:8
He didn’t have money, he didn’t know if he was going to make it another day, he didn’t know what his future held. A lot of things were in peril for Paul, but he tells us to “meditate on these things”. What are you mediating on? This week even in the difficult times I have been speaking this verse over my life. So, I say, Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
- To Know Jesus. To Live on Mission.