Joyce Meyer - Worry-Free Living: Trading Anxiety for Peace

H ave you ever worried so much about thingsor about one specific situationthat you lost your ability to enjoy your everyday life? Have you ever been so anxious or nervous that you completely forgot what it feels like to live in peace? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you are not alone. Many people struggle with worry and anxiety, but they do not have to! God wants us to enjoy our lives and to live in peace and rest, trusting Him with all our cares and concerns. I have written this book to help you do that and find your way to worry-free living.

As we begin, lets look at two key scriptures that are vital for us to understand and to live by if we want to live a calm, peaceful life:

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:67 NASB

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

1 Peter 5:67 NASB

These verses assure us that, for Christians, peace is possible and worry-free living is within reach. In fact, for believers in Jesus Christ, peace should be the normal condition in which we live our daily lives. But as I meet and talk with people, I realize this is not always the case, and I hope the following pages will help people understand and experience the peace God has provided for us, the peace in which He wants us to live each day.

We can see from Philippians 4:67 and from 1 Peter 5:67 that God tells us in His Word to be anxious for nothing and to cast all our care on Him. Although the words of these scriptures may be familiar to us, we do not always know how to apply them to our lives in practical ways. Sometimes, especially when a situation is very stressful, we are accustomed to responding to it as the world would respond, with anxiety or fear, instead of responding according to Gods Word. When we do that, we end up muddling along in our circumstances, worried and nervous, when we could be enjoying the abundant life and peace God has for us.

I know firsthand what living in a state of anxiety and inner turmoil is like because I lived that way for many years. There were lots of days and weeks I had no peace at all! Only when I began to study the Word of God and apply it to my life did I begin to experience the peace, joy, and rest of God. I learned that God does not want His children to live in frustration, turmoil, worry, anxiety, fear, or confusion. When we allow ourselves to get caught up in these emotions, we are missing out on one of the greatest gifts God offers us, the gift of His peace.

Before we move forward, I want to share something with you about my journey from being anxious and upset to being peaceful and at rest because it may help you as you find your way to a new level of peace. When I first began living in the peace of God, as strange as this may seem, I was bored! I was so accustomed to being involved in some kind of internal uproar or mess all the time that I did not know what to do with the sense of calm that came to my life once I entered into Gods peace. I can assure you, though, that boredom was temporary. It was simply an adjustment I went through as I left behind a life of strife, upset, and conflict and began to experience the peace God had for me. Now, I cannot stand to be upset or anxious about anything. I so love, enjoy, and appreciate the peace of God that has filled every area of my life. I work with the Holy Spirit daily to maintain peace in my mind, in my emotions, about my family, about my ministryabout everything.

I have challenging days just like everyone else does, but thankfully I no longer let them control me. The peace God has revealed to me is available to you, too. I pray that as you read and apply the words of this book, you will learn to cast all your cares on the Lord, because He cares for you, and to be anxious for nothing. A life without worry awaits you!