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I have had some decisions in life that I literally agonized over. I’m talking blood, sweat, and tears. I prayed, meditated, sought advice and counsel, read books and scriptures, wrote out pros and cons, slept on it, and tossed it over and over in my mind.
And while some of those previous components are healthy and biblical, there is one component of decision-making that I’m guilty of but didn’t have to be: that’s worry.
I worried over the decisions that I was making. Sure when the stakes are high and involve major adjustments in lifestyle or critical components that involve the life of others, no one wants to make the wrong decision. God wants us to make the right decisions more than we do. He even desires for us to come to Him for direction in those decisions. But more importantly, He doesn’t want us to worry over making the decision. Have you ever stopped to think, “What does worrying solve?”
Norman Vincent Peale writes, “The word ‘worry’ is derived from an old Anglo-Saxon word meaning to strangle or to choke. How well-named the emotion it has been demonstrated again and again in persons who have lost their effectiveness due to the stultifying effect of anxiety and apprehension.”
Worry literally chokes our ability to excel, succeed, progress, grow and even think clearly. Worry becomes the primary vehicle that releases fear and other negative emotions in your life. It (worry) forces you to only consider the negative and the most limiting option. I have even learned that worry many times causes you to meditate on things that may not even be true.
Daily Devotional: “I Didn’t Have To Do It” was originally published on praisecleveland.com
