Worry + Faith = 0

In talking to a friend the other day who is going through some problems, I could tell she was worried. Her face and tone of voice gave herself away. After telling me how worried she was, she ended it with "But I'm praying about it and keeping my faith." In one sense, she was as worried as worried could be. One the other hand, she said she was having faith in the Lord. Worry and faith don't go together.

Philippians 4:6-7 says, "Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. And God's peace which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

In these verses, Paul doesn't say "Pray and worry." Instead, he says to "Pray and don't worry." So why are we to pray and not worry? Because prayer is supposed to be the way we cast our care upon the Lord. When Satan makes us worry, we are supposed to turn and give that care to God. That's what prayer is. It is acknowledging to the Lord that we cannot carry our burden, so we lay it at His feet. If we pray about something and then keep on worrying about it, we are mixing a positive and a negative. Both of these cancel each other out so we end up right back where we started---at zero.

Too many times, we pray and talk positive for a while, and then we worry and talk negative for a while. We go back and forth between the two extremes. That is like driving down the road going from one side of the highway to the other. If we keep doing that, at some point we are going to be in big trouble!

As long as we are worrying about our problem, we aren't trusting God. It is only by trusting and having faith and confidence in the Lord that we are able to enjoy the peace that passes all understanding.