Worrying about nothing

The lesson in Freedom from Emotional Eating centered on trusting God (Week Three-Worry). The story is told of Jehosophat in 2 Chronicles 20; he faced an adversary, and he had the people first seek God, then sing, then go to battle. He thanked God ahead of time for the victory; the Israelites did not even have to fight to win. The battle was won for us.

I wonder how many times I have battled in the flesh, and I have also worried.
Philippians 4:6-8 says

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, what ever is admirable-if anything is excellent and praiseworty-thin about so things."

How often do I worry a couple of hours before I pray. Women seem to have this tendency more than men; we think it is our job to worry, if we do not worry, we must not care.

That is not to say we should be in denial; if the situation is serious, we should pray with all our hearts. Asking the Holy Spirit to pray through us, we can be sure we are praying in the Spirit and in the will of God. He says that we have not because we ask not. After we seek God with all our hearts, we should then spend some time praising Him and thanking Him for all He is going to do. If we do not have peace in our soul, then God will give us time to pray about it again. It may not be right then, it may be in the middle of the night when we are more open to God's leading; or perhaps it will be early in the morning when we have our quiet time with Him.

I am so guilty of this, but I have to confess worry is sin, and sometimes I worry because I am not disciplined enough to get alone and seek God's face.

New Bible study

I am doing a Bible study now Freedom from Emotional Eating by Barb Reveling.
Starting TW taught me that I had a lot of anger still over losing my daughter, and over dealing with the obstacles that my grandson faces doing without his mom.

I worked through the Freedom book, truth journaling about my anger. It helped tremendously; I feel so much happier, and I think I can better deal with the food issue.
TW has good concepts on waiting for hunger, but I do like Barb's truth journaling. I set my boundaries (taught by TW), and then I am truth journaling when I do not eat right, or act right.
Emotional eating is so sneaky; I think I had it under control for awhile, but it is rearing its ugly head once again so I know I still have "stuff" to deal with and want to please the Lord.

One of the truths that a person could apply to any situation is the truth journaling. Barb says that we don't need self-control to set us free; we need to know the truth and the truth will set us free. I study the Word plenty, but I am not always able to see the truth about my behavior. As I pray and write, the Lord reveals the truth to me throught the pen. This amazes me.

This same concept happened to me when I was going through the grieving process. We would be at church discussing our problems, and the Lord would reveal to me as we were talking what to do about the situation. We need each other,and the support group helped me so much to deal with the grieving process.

4 years have passed, and I found that I still was angry over issues with my grandson. One of the truths I faced was the enemy of my soul magnified some problems. I learned to ask for discernment. The other problems were real, and I had to ask good godly friends to pray for Caleb as he is getting older (he was almost 3 at the time of the loss of his mother), he is grieving in a sense over the loss. It is in small doses thank the good Lord, but God is showing me not to overlook his pain and be in denial. So I am always discussing his progress with my other daughter, his stepmother (who is a prayer warrior, but she is very young and needs prayer in dealing with a seven-year-old, she is 22 herself), and my husband. We are interceding for Caleb, and I must say he has a very happy life. However, there are times when he asks me questions that pierce my heart through and through. For instance, he asked me if the dress she was buried in was dirty by now. Can you imagine the pain that caused me, and then I had to wonder what was his little mind thinking.

I want to say that God is a healer and I am happy. God has blessed me to stay close to Him, and as long as I do I have joy. Isn't that the way it should be for most Christians?