Prayer Is the Antidote to Worry, Part 2
David W Palmer
(Philippians 4:6–7 APE) Do not be worried for anything, but always in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be known before God, And the peace of The God, Who is greater than every mind, will keep your hearts and your minds by Yeshua The Messiah.
During his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught clearly—telling us not to worry, be fretful, or be anxious. But he began the explanation by speaking about two potential masters that we can serve:
(Matthew 6:24–34 NKJV) “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. {25} Therefore I say to you, do not worry …”
We note from the first word of verse 25 that Jesus began his long instruction about being worry-free with the word, “therefore.” Before we read on, we need to find out what the “therefore” connects back to and why. He says, “You cannot serve God and mammon, therefore …” So, the reason to not worry has to do with who you are serving—either God or mammon. I think we can safely assume that Jesus wants us to serve God, so his ensuing instruction about what not to do shows us how to avoid serving mammon. In other words, worrying is serving mammon:
(Matthew 6:24 NKJV) “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Seeing Jesus said that serving both masters simultaneously is impossible, then serving God and worrying at the same time is impossible too. So, if we are worrying, then some serving of mammon has crept into our lives. We must ensure that we resist this by getting the worry out. As we saw yesterday, the way to stop worrying about anything is to pray about everything:
(Philippians 4:6–7 NLT) Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. …
