Do you worry? Dale Carnegie said in his book "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" that today is the tomorrow that we worried about yesterday. Did what you worried about yesterday come to pass today? How did you handle the worry?
It has been said that:-
40% of what you worry about will never happen
30% of what you worry about or fear are things that happened in the past and can’t be changed
10% of what we worry about are considered by most to be insignificant issues
12% of what we worry about are issues about our health that will not happen
This means that 92% of what we fear or worry about will never take place....
That leaves only 8% that are legitimate problems we must face.
If we directed the energy of our worry toward these problems, we could probably lessen the impact on our lives. Further, we could substantially reduce our worries by directing them to God. Sharing our problems has a way of diminishing them, and putting them in perspective.
Let's look at Philippians 4:6-7
The Message puts it this way:
"Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the centre of your life."
The quote on our image has been attributed to Charles Spurgeon, but has also been quoted by Corrie Ten Boom, and Ian MacLaren - each with slightly different wording. Spurgeon, the famous Baptist preacher of the 1800's said:
Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its trials––
it simply empties today of its joy.
Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow––
it only empties today of its strength.
Ian Maclaren (pseudonym of Rev John Watson) said this: "What does your anxiety do? It does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but it does empty today of its strength. It does not make you escape the evil; it makes you unfit to cope with it when it comes. God gives us the power to bear all the sorrow of His making, but He does not guarantee to give us strength to bear the burdens of our own making such as worry induces."
For further reading, check out Matthew 6:24-34.