Spanish Narrator (0:00)

Momento seno frecido porriquea encuentre en su pas interior ordenando surropa interior que organizarca da cajon se a como una meditacion organisen isolucion en su castiario con un nuevo armario.

Lowe's Advertiser (0:31)

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McDonald's Advertiser (1:00)

Quick Choose a meal deal with McValue, the $5 McChicken meal deal, the $6 McDouble meal deal or the new $7 Daily Double meal deal, each with its own small fries, drink and Four Piece McNuggets. There's actually no rush. I'm just excited for McDonald's for a limited time only. Presence and participation may vary.

Joel Osteen (1:14)

Not Valver McDelivery hi, this is Joel in Victoria. Thanks for listening to our podcast and thanks for supporting the ministry.

Joel Osteen (Teaching Segment) (1:21)

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Joel Osteen (1:25)

We appreciate you and pray for God's very best in your life.

Joel Osteen (Teaching Segment) (1:29)

You know, life will always present things to worry about. We'll always have cares. We'll always have concerns. There'll be things that try to trouble us. But we all know that when we worry about the cares of life and the troubles of life, that they'll add no value to us. The Scripture talks about that. It says worry adds no value to your life. I heard it said like this one time. Worry is like sitting in a rocking chair. You have something to do but you get nowhere. You just rock and rock and rock. You're doing something, but it's not getting you anywhere. Worry is not good for our life and it needs to be contained. We need to learn to win the war over worry. You know, worry does change one thing. Worry. Worry changes your personality. It makes you frustrated, suspicious, cranky, miserable. Worry is not good for us. It changes who we are and it causes us to miss the beauty of the moment and to be fruitful in our lives. It literally chokes us spiritually. Listen, do you remember when Jesus was at Mary and Martha's home? He was There to have a dinner and to fellowship with Mary and Martha and her brothers. He noticed something about Martha. It must have been in her personality because he said this to her. He said, martha, Martha, you're anxious and troubled about so many things. See, he saw her moving around, doing a lot of stuff, but she wasn't fruitful in what she was doing. He wasn't discrediting that there were things to be done, but he was addressing how she was handling those things. He says, you're so anxious and so troubled. You know, I believe that when we're anxious and when we're troubled, we miss what's going on in our life right now. And I believe that's what he was trying to say to her. He was trying to say, you're allowing the day to day cares pull you away from me, cause you to go in the wrong direction. Instead of pulling you close to me, he was showing us what worry and stress do. Now, on the other hand, Mary, her sister, she handled the situation differently. They were sisters, they lived in the same household, they basically had the same concerns. But Mary handled the day to day worries differently than her sister Martha. She did this. She stopped. She allowed Jesus to speak into her life. The Bible says she even lingered in his presence. She sat at his feet. See, she had things to do as well, but she knew the most fruitful things she could do. The very best part of her day was going to be spending it with Jesus because she knew somehow, instinctively, if she could get that time with Jesus, then everything else would be okay. You see, these two sisters, they handled the cares of life differently. Paul tells us a little insight and a secret into this thing called worry. And he says it like this. He says in Philippians 4, 6, do not be anxious about anything. Don't be anxious about anything. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, giving thanks to God, letting your request be made known. See, he didn't just say, hey, be anxious. He followed up with a practice that you and I can do every single day. He told us how to win the war on worry. He said, pray. He was basically saying, if you don't want to be anxious about anything, pray about everything. Turn your worry into prayer. Take your worry list and put it on your prayer list. See, we can talk to God about everything that concerns us. And that's exactly what prayer is. It's having a conversation with God about the things that concern us. You see, prayer and worry can't coexist. They're opposites. So if we can take the worry and the anxiety of day to day. And we can begin to offer it up with God and bring him in the middle of, of our day to day challenges. It becomes a prayer. The stresses of life become less. We'll be like Mary, if I sit at the feet of Jesus, if I linger in his presence, then all the things that I have to do, all the things that are trying to pull me down are going to be easier. I'm going to be able to handle them. Because the rest of that scripture says, and the peace of God will guard your heart and mind. See, are you worrying? Are you praying? Are you living stressed out? Are you peaceful? You know, I have learned this and I've been practicing this for a long time. When I feel myself starting to think now, sometimes I like to use the word think instead of worry because I like to think my way through life. But really, you're not thinking your way through life. You're worrying your way through life. And Jesus didn't say don't think. Don't get me wrong. He wants us to use our intelligence. He wants us to be attentive to everything going on. He wants us to think, but he doesn't want us to worry. And sometimes that thinking can turn into worry. And when I feel that happening to me and I can feel myself getting anxious and frustrated and nothing seems to be right and everything seems to be difficult, I imagine my cares and I put them in this helium balloon that I've imagined. And I put them in that helium balloon and I hold them out to God and I say, God, take this care. And as I see that balloon going up to heaven, I offer up a prayer and I say, thank you, God, that you can take care of anything in my life. You said that I can't change it by worrying, but I can change it by walking with you, by listening to you, by allowing you to direct my steps, to acknowledge you in this situation right now where I'm feeling frustrated. You said that you would direct my path and you would give me information. So I hold that balloon and I just release it to him in prayer. Now, can I tell you this? Sometimes I have a bouquet of balloons and I release them one by one. But that's okay because God doesn't want me to hold onto my worries myself. He says, I want to be part of everything that concerns you. You see what I'm saying? When I am releasing that balloon full of my cares to him, I'm saying my problems are small in comparison to my big God. To my big God. When we worry you know what we might as well be saying? We might as well be saying, God, I got some big problems and you're not big enough to take care of them. But when we invite him in, the Bible urges us, the scripture urges us to cast our care upon him because he cares for us. He cares for you today. Listen, it bothers him when you're worried. He wants to take that heavy load. He wants to come in and he wants to help you figure it out. Like I said, he doesn't want you to shirk your responsibilities or quit using your intelligence. He's just saying, bring me in the middle of it. Let me be in the center of your life. Because when we don't, we literally choke our spiritual life. The parable of the sower in the book of Matthew talks about this. There was a farmer that was planting seed. That farmer represents God. It represents the seed that he plants and is trying to get in our life every single day so that it'll spring up and it'll be fruitful. But the parable talks about this one ground and it was a thorny ground. And it said the cares of life sprung up as thorns and choked that seed out and made it unfruitful. It literally strangled the seed and made it non productive. Do you know when we allow worry to choke out the things of God, we're not fruitful in the ways of God. God doesn't want us to live discouraged and frustrated. He doesn't want it to change who he's creating us to be the light of the world. Someone that people want to be around, someone that people want to talk to on the phone. Someone that can speak a blessing in the midst of, of the day to day challenges. See, God is saying, you're going to have challenges. There will be cares. There'll be plenty of time for you to worry. But you have to wage war against worry because it's your enemy. It's not your friend. Listen, if we're going to walk in the freedom that Jesus came to give us, we're going to have to be like Mary. We're going to have to be pulled in the right direction, not in the wrong direction. Don't be pulled away because of the stresses of life. Be pulled to God with great peace and confidence that he can take care of anything that you have any care, any concern, he already knows. Linger in his presence. Sit at his feet, offer up the prayer with thanksgiving in your heart saying, my problems are small compared to my great big God. Amen. Amen. He's an awesome God.