Can you think of times in your life when your parents would ask you what you learned at school or church. Most likely they were being really nice, but for some reason, you wanted to go to your room to be alone, or listen to music. You just wanted to be away from your parents and their questions. Because you wanted to get away, when your mom asked you, “What did you learn at school today?” You might have said, “Nothing”, and ran to your room. Or perhaps your dad asked, what did you do with your friends last night, and you said, “Nothing”.
This devotion is a tribute to those moments when you told your parents you learned nothing at school or did nothing with your friends. So when your mom asks you what you learned in this devotion, you can honestly say, “Nothing”.
To learn about nothing in this devotion, let’s check out a scripture about nothing that’s found in Philippians 4:6.
Be anxious for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. – Phil 4:6 (Jubilee)
Being Anxious Is Easy
The first part of this verse is easy. It tells us to be anxious. And for me, being anxious is really easy. I don’t have to try to be anxious, I can do it naturally. Being anxious is almost like second nature to me. You might have more homework than you have time to do, or you can see all the bad things going on in the world and it can become so easy to be anxious. You might even feel like you have a really good reason to be anxious.
Even if we feel like we’re justified in being anxious, this Bible verse tells us to be anxious for nothing. How is that even possible? With all the stress in our lives, with all the craziness going on in the world, how can we live our lives not being anxious?
Can We Really Live Our Lives Without Anxiety?
The end of this Bible verse gives us a clue how we can do this. It tells us in everything with prayer and thanksgiving, let our requests be known to God. So when we’re faced with anxiety, we’re to pray and to be thankful.
I know in my life, a lot of my anxiety comes from not being thankful. I can be stressed out that I have all state choir and band competitions next weekend, or I can be thankful that I have a God given musical ability. I can be anxious that I might not get my paper written in time or I can be thankful that I have the opportunity to go to school and get an education. When we are thankful, it makes all the difference. It’s hard to be anxious when you’re always being thankful.
Your Approach To Anxiety Matters
I remember a time when I was trying to learn how to skip rocks on water. As hard as I tried, I wasn’t able to make the rock skip. My best friend however, was a master at skipping rocks. He was able to make rocks skip four or five times across the surface of the water. I was so jealous at my friend’s ability to skip rocks, that one day I asked him how he did it.
He showed me a way to hold the rock that allowed me to get my rocks to skip across the water several times. My friend had what I needed, which was to change my approach to skipping rocks. Once my approach changed, I was able to skip rocks successfully.
How many times are we anxious because we need to approach things differently?
Living a life free from anxiety isn’t impossible, however, we may need to change our approach to do it successfully.
How Do We Change Our Approach To Anxiety?
So how do we do it? How do we change our approach to anxiety? I think it starts with really believing that God cares about you. It’s easy to think in the midst of a difficult situation that God forgot about you or that God doesn’t care. In reality nothing could be further from the truth.
God cares about you and wants to walk with you through any situation and circumstance you face. So don’t believe the lie that God doesn’t care about you. He cares about you so much. He wants you to be able to be anxious for nothing because you know that God will take care of you.
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We Can Be Anxious For Nothing
We don’t have to life our lives full of anxiety. Instead we can do what Phil 4:6 says be anxious, for nothing. We can choose to pray and be thankful in the midst of bad situations and circumstances. As we do that, we’ll experience God’s peace and love.
So dare to believe that God cares about you. Dare to live your life free from anxiety because you know that there’s nothing that God wouldn’t do for you!
If you’d like to discuss this devotion with your youth group, we’ve got a PDF handout of discussion questions ready for you. Click below to add to cart.
