Putting a Dagger In the Heart of Worry

Overflow with Craig Booker

Far too often, the reason worry sticks around is we become complacent. We accept worry as just another part of our lives.

“In the previous chapter we looked at how the perfect love of God drives out fear and leads us to surrender our idea of control, which then leads us to worship rather than worry. The more we discover about the love of God, the more we’re wanting and willing to surrender, and the more worship we give to Him.” 1

God Delights in You!

“…the more we delight in God, the more we discover that He delights in us.”1

“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”

Zephaniah 3:17

“God takes great delight in you. He quiets all forms of worry and anxiety with His perfect love. And just in case you are ever tempted to listen to the sound of the world and be pulled back into fear, God says that He rejoices over you with singing.”1

How do we win the war on worry?

“We take back the battleground of our minds. We tear down the house that worry built, and we set out to build a new and peace-filled home on the most stable rock and foundation—the person and work of Jesus.”1

It’s Time for a Home Renovation

“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

“…you have the power through Christ to identify and bind the power of every lie that comes into your mind. You can take captive every thought! When you commit to this and put it into practice, you begin tearing down the house that worry built, brick by brick and thought by thought.”1

Stand Ready

Don’t expect the demolition process to be easy. Understand that the Enemy isn’t going to just sit there and take it as you pick apart the house he’s built in your heart.

“Whenever you set out to make a change, to start tearing down bricks and demolishing strongholds, the Enemy seems to rise up and attack with even more vengeance.”1

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“…no weapon forged against you will prevail…” Isaiah 54:17 NIV

“You have all you need, offensively and defensively, to start this process of demolishing the house that worry built.”1

The goal here is to change the way we think.

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” Philippians 4:8 NLT

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How do we drive a dagger through the heart of worry?

“We think about different things than the things that are causing us to worry.”1

“Controlling and then changing what you think about isn’t easy. But that doesn’t mean that the solution can’t be this simple. For most of our dealings with worry, it really does boil down to us changing the way we think.”1

“You see, worry is born from fear and the attempt for control; but as worry grows up, it lives and takes up residence in the mind. Over time, it slowly but surely begins building a house, one brick at a time.”1

“It takes that one conversation, one critique, one circumstance that is out of your control, and it slowly adds it to the structure. A bit of anxiety here, a dash of fear there, and before we know it, worry is taking up a lot of real estate in our minds.”1

Where did that thought come from?

“Worry thrives in our heads because it feasts on the future and things that have not yet come to pass. I’d guess that if you took ten minutes and wrote down everything you can think of that is currently worrying you, most of your list would be things that haven’t happened yet.”1

“…worry works best when it can convince you to spend your time fighting imaginary battles, therefore paralyzing you to the real work at hand.”1

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“If our goal is to be transformed and to fully take up our identity as a new creation, a loved son or a loved daughter of the King of the universe, we’ll need to start by renewing our minds." (Romans 12:2)

“As we take our thoughts captive, we slowly begin deconstructing the house that worry built.”1

“if we’re going to place a dagger through the heart of worry, it’s not enough to tear down the strongholds worry has built in our minds. We need to remove and replace those thoughts with something else. That’s where Philippians 4 comes in.”1

Start by looking at Philippians 4:8:

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” Philippians 4:8 NLT

If that’s not enough, look at Galatians 5:22-23:

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” Galatians 5:22-23 NLT

Ask Yourself:

“Does the thought line up with that which is loving, joyous, peaceful, or patient? If the answer is yes, keep that thought. If the answer is no, it doesn’t line up, then you know it’s time for a replacement.”1

“Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we become competent (2 Corinthians 3:4-5) to carry out all the good works that God has created for us to walk in (Ephesians 2:10).”

“In the Old Testament, God gave His people the Mosaic law, and He commanded them to obey every statute and decree. He did this for two reasons: first, to show how holy and perfect He was. And second, to show how impossible it was for us to reach that standard of perfection. In effect, God laid on the Israelites an impossibly heavy burden and said, “See, you can’t carry this on your own. You need a Savior.”

“God fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law in us, who no longer are bound to live according to the flesh and the anxieties that so commonly drag us down. We no longer live as slaves to those fears. No longer are we destined to spiral into a tunnel of control only to come out the other side with a mile-long list of worries.”

“You won’t drive the dagger of God’s perfect love through the heart of worry unless you realize that through Christ, you have the power to do all things.”

Discussion

1. Take a few minutes to write down any thoughts that are worrying you right now. Below each thought, write out a truth about God you can use to refute and replace that thought of worry.
2. What inputs are constantly pushing thoughts of worry into your heart? Are there any streams you need to cut off if you are going to get serious about tearing down the house that worry built?
3. Read Philippians 4:8. Pick one of the words Paul encouraged you to think about and write out a list of thoughts that relate to that word.
4. What does it mean that you are a “new creation” in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17)? What in your life has been made new?

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Sources

[1] Giglio, L. (2022). Winning the War On Worry - Cultivate a Peaceful Heart and a Confident Mind. Thomas Nelson.