Untitled Sermon (3)

BRINGING ANXIETY CAPTIVE/GETTING RID OF ANXIETY:

ANXIETY: Defined as “a state of being uneasy, apprehensive, or worried about what may happen; concerned about a possible future event”.

Anxiety is about fact of life in this day and age. Stress related illness is discussed all the time in magazines.--- “ANXIETY NEUROSIS”...

I dont think anyone is immune to anxiety and worry. Some more ...

STEPS TO BRING IT IN ORDER:

1, ENCOURAGE GOD”S PEACE ; Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Philippi: “Be careful for nothing… (Phil.4:6-7 )

God’s PEACE is superior to every frame of mind! Where does worry and anxiety begin? It begins in the mind, with thoughts. Thoughts of Fear produce worry and anxiety. Do you have this? You need peace in their place. God’s PEACE is positively greater than all your FEAR.

The PEACE of God will guard your heart and mind from Anxiety

The Word of God states you can have peace if you will do 3 things: Pray, Supplicate (ask or request), and give Thanks.

(a) There are many types of prayer, but all kinds are effective against anxiety. Many times i worry about things for days before i finally pray about it. Sometimes, as i pray in the spirit, i could picture the worry or care as an obstacle being bombarded by my prayers and being demolished. (b) Supplication is a simple request--- When you are worried and anxious about the future, you can simply ask God to direct you and change circumstances to His will. Reason, there are some things that we do not know how to pray about. We know that it is God’s will that we are healed, although we do not know how He will accomplish it. It could be a miracle or being directed to the right Doctor. So asking God to move on your behalf or others will bring more PEACE. (c) Worry, stress and Anxiety decrease if you are giving thanks. When you begin to give God thanks for things present, past or future, you are painting a positive picture and giving yourself a good image. Reason there is value in old song “Count your blessings”. Counting your blessings and giving God praise will change your frame of mind--from negative to positive!

3 CHANGE YOUR “WHAT IFS” : If you want to remain in PEACE after praying, you need to get rid of the negative “what ifs” in your life. Saying things like “what if i get sick” or “what if i have a wreck”. These negative “what ifs” will bring ANXIETY right back on the scene.

What if you change your “what ifs” to “what if something good happens? “What if i live to be 100 years old?” etc.

Thinking on those kinds of positive “what ifs” will change your whole attitude ! If you think on those positive things, you will have PEACE and good expectations in your life.

4 FACE YOUR FEARS : 2Tim.1:7

FEAR is dread, terror, cowardice and timidity. Fear produces anxiety! It comes from a dark place. But God is light and the light of the Word will cause it to disappear, dissipate and cease to exist . I read an article that said, People who do not face and deal with their fears, find that the fear grows larger. Fears seem even bigger if you continually ignore them. Rather, pulling them out into the light, looking at them and acknowledging them, makes them smaller. Confronting them in a practical manner and dealing with them will take away their power. We do not have to face our fears alone. We can face them with the Angelic host surrounding us and the greater one within us ! Perfect love casts out fear and turns it out the doors.-1Jn.4:18

5 CHANGE THE CHANNEL : 1Thess.5:22-24

Have you ever had the devil flash pictures of tragedy, death and destruction before you? Sometimes he will play movies before you to bring fear and anxiety. You overcome these negative movies by changing the channel. You replace with the positive.

6 GUARD YOUR THOUGHTS : 2Cor.10:4-5

Worry and Anxiety begin in the mind; therefore we need to guard our thoughts. Think about all the things we worry about in life. How many of them ever took place? But a lot of emotional energy wasted. That is energy you could have spent meditating on the good “what ifs”. ---Bring that worry and anxiety captive

How can you bring anxiety captive? Focus on God’s power over your fear. You can do it by prayer, by counting your blessings , and by making supplication in faith. Then you can do what 1Pe.5:7 says in Amp.

7 ACT ON GOD’S WORD