Daily Devotions: Resting from Worry (Week 48, Saturday)

Worry is a mental habit that attempts to solve tomorrow’s problems with today’s limited energy. Paul tells us to be ‘careful for nothing’—or in modern terms, to be anxious about nothing—and instead, replace that anxiety with a constant flow of prayer and thanksgiving. A Sabbath rest is an opportunity to practice this release. If you carry your worries into your weekend, you aren’t really resting; you are just thinking about your work from a different chair.

This Saturday make a practice of ‘dumping’ your worries at the feet of Jesus. Write down everything that is making you anxious and then pray through the list adding a ‘thank you’ to God for each item. By including thanksgiving you shift your focus from the magnitude of the problem to the magnitude of God’s past faithfulness. Once you have made your requests known, leave them there. Trust that He is watching over those situations while you rest. Walk into your weekend light, unburdened by the weight of your own worry.