Anxiety Invades Prayer

"Shall We Be Anxious?" is the title of the brief preaching series at RBBC.  I've had more responses to last Sunday's sermon than any other at Rocky.  Of course, we know that the answer to this question is "no", and I gave eight reasons our Lord taught to back up the answer from Matthew 6.

It is a fact that, for the follower of Christ, anxiety is sin because the Word of God says there's only one thing we can be anxious about-- nothing.  "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God" (Phil. 4:6).  

This morning I read a quote alerting me/us to be ready for anxiety and worry to invade my/our praying.  May the Lord help me/us to pray trusting God to handle worrisome matters in life and not be diverted.  Here is the quote from Ed Welch in his book Running Scared:

"If I know that prayer isn't going to be easy, I am better prepared to deal with my excuses.  For example, too often I will begin to pray, then gravitate to the things that worry me, start to try to solve them, realize I am not really praying, and then decide to attend to urgent matter and pray later.  When I know that prayer is not natural, I realize that I shouldn't wait for prayer to feel easy.  If it seems hard, I am on the right path."