Anxiety is a heavy weight. That may be why Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew 6:34, “Do not be anxious about tomorrow.” Worrying about what is to come won’t change it, and it certainly won’t prepare you to deal with it when it does come.
We live in a world that is full of anxiety. People all around us are anxious about their jobs, their families, potential illnesses, the governing powers, and even the most trivial parts of living. I believe that COVID-19 added to people’s anxieties. But why do people worry in the first place?
Worrying is hard wired into the human condition. We have internal triggers that alert us to danger. In the modern world, there are many dangers that didn’t exist in ancient societies. The media is full of bad news, and people have access to it 24/7/365. Not only that, everything anyone does in the modern economy presents an economic threat to someone. Finances are one of the biggest things people often worry about.
Proverbs 12:25 tells us what happens when we worry.
Anxiety weighs down the heart of a man, but a good word cheers it up.
It weighs the heart down. Don’t you feel heavy when you get anxious?
But the proverbs doesn’t just leave us hanging. It also gives us the solution to a heavy heart. It’s “a good word.”
When you see someone with a heavy heart, do you try to lift them up? We have the power to speak a good word to those around us, but we also have the power to speak a good word to ourselves when we feel our hearts getting heavy with worry. If we listen to the Holy Spirit, he’ll bring a good word to our minds when we most need it.
Could you use a good word today? Talk to a friend.
Allen Taylor is the author of I Am Not the King.