Ephesians

Principle 1: Don’t worry about anything.

“Do not be anxious about anything,” he says. In other words, replace worry with prayer. Many of us try to cure our worries with will-power alone. Someone has written a poem about this approach to worry:

I’ve joined the new “Don’t Worry Club,”

And now I hold my breath;

I’m so scared I’m going to worry

That I’m worried half to death.

But Paul presents us with a different solution to the worry problem. God doesn’t expect us to banish worry by sheer willpower—He knows that is not humanly possible. That is why God has provided us with the full armor that Paul describes in Ephesians 6. The solution to worry is only possible when you have put on the armor of God. Worry cannot be defeated on any other basis. Worry comes from fear, and the only way to dissolve fear is with facts. To put on the armor of God is to face the facts of reality. It means that we acknowledge the fact that:

• 
  Our belt of truth is buckled securely about our waist; we know we have found the truth of all things, the key to life, Jesus, the living Lord.
  
• 
  Our breastplate of righteousness is in place, protecting our heart, our emotional well-being, enabling us to feel secure in God’s care.
  
• 
  Our feet are shod with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace, and God’s peace calms our anxieties and steadies us for the great spiritual battle.
  
• 
  Our faith is our shield against the flaming arrows of the devil—against the fiery satanic attacks of doubt, fear, temptation, and worry.
  
• 
  Our minds are protected by the helmet of our approaching salvation, our sure hope that God is at work right now to bring about a victorious conclusion to human history.
  
• 
  Our hands wield the most powerful defensive and offensive weapon of all—the sword of the Spirit, the rhema—word of God.
  

Once we have examined and tested the reliability of our armor, then anxiety has to vanish, to be replaced by courageous faith. Once we have faced the facts of our faith, we have nothing to worry about. We serve our Lord and Commander, Jesus Christ, and the battle is His, not ours. He will be victorious.

That is Principle 1: Don’t worry about anything.