The world is a very interesting place these days. As it continues to get smaller, it becomes much easier to find ourselves fall victim to worry, anxiety and fear. In the last week, as someone who lives on the west coast, I have added the missile capabilities of North Korea to a long list of reasons to be concerned and anxious about what is happening in the world in regards to my life.

Stress…Worry…Anxiety…Pressure…These are things that the vast majority of the population are dealing with right now. The world doesn’t seem to be as safe as it used to be, and people are fearful about the economy, personal relationships and the fear being unloved, health issues, the loss of a job or of income, the fear of attack (both foreign and domestic), and a laundry list of other possible issues. In fact I am willing to bet that right now each of you have already thought about, at least once since you’ve started reading this, the thing or things that are causing the rise of these emotions in your life.

I would like to encourage you this week with Philippians 4:6-7.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Ask yourself, when you are faced with the fear and anxiety that comes into your life, what is your response? The Apostle Paul has the perfect answer for us. When we begin to feel anxiety, we can take encouragement from the fact that God is there and he asks us to come to Him to ease our troubled minds. When we do, the peace of God, which the Bible says transcends all understanding, will guard our hearts. What that means is that even though the storms may rage, if we put our trust in God we can and will have peace no matter how improbable it may seem to have peace in our present situation.

First Peter further explains why it is that we should cast our cares and our worries on Christ in prayer. In chapter five verse seven Peter tells us, "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. God cares about you and he cares about me and he cares about your neighbor down the street that you don’t get along with. The bottom line is that God cares. He wants us to come to him with our cares and our concerns. He is there and available for us to give him our burdens and worries. All that we have to do is come to him.

It can be so easy to buy into the enemy’s lies and start to tell ourselves that we don’t feel strong, secure, healthy, or holy enough, which can bind us with the belief that we are not worthy of God’s love and care. We need to stop right now this very moment with the excuses that we have come up with, and start to put our hope in the one who is hope, Jesus Christ.

We have no reason to doubt that God is there for us and that he cares about us. Many of us have moments in our lives that we can look back on and see how the hand of God was working in our lives in a very supernatural way. We all have times when God has answered our prayers and we have seen how God delivered us from difficult situations or carried us through difficult times. So why are we so quick to forget?

Some of you may be saying that you have never had an experience like that, and although I am sure that you have, it is possible that you may have not realized it yet. But there is one thing is undeniably true, and that is God’s word. All of us can read in scripture how our God is a God who cares about his people and he has never wavered in this. Even in times when God was punishing Israel, it was not because he did not care, but in fact it was the opposite. God is a just and righteous God and he was trying to get the attention of his people so that they would turn from their wicked ways and follow him in the ways of righteousness.

Mark 4:40 shows us that Jesus’ disciples were afraid of the storm on the Sea of Galilee even though they had been traveling with Jesus and had been witness to the miraculous things that he had been doing on a regular basis. They forgot about the things that they had already seen Jesus do and had failed to remember the times Christ had acted. Instead they were focused on the storm and could not see past the fear and the anxiety.

The Bible becomes, as it should be, a foundation of the promises we have. How God answers prayer in scripture should be a reminder of the fact that he is the same God today as he was then and that we can have a peace that passes all understanding when we cast our cares and worries on Him. How God has answered our own prayers in the past should also be a reminder for us. God is a God of hope, of power, of might, and he is a great God who loves us. Don’t buy into the cultural commentary that tells us that there is no hope, but remember that our hope is in Christ and He has never failed us and never will.

Final Thought: I would encourage you to set aside time every day to be in God’s word and to spend time in prayer. Tell God what is causing you to be anxious or worrisome and ask him for his supernatural peace.