How to Stop Worry at the Gate

by Barbara Brabec

From experience I've learned that worry can completely debilitate you from the inside out. It's like a cancer, the way it eats at you. "Worry gives a small thing a big shadow," according to an old Swedish proverb.

My mother always used to say, "Don't worry about crossing the river until you get to the bridge," but I became one of the world's great worriers in spite of her good advice. For most of my life, I worried not only about things that might happen, but things that might not happen. Then, a few years ago, I learned the secret of how to stop Worry at the gate before it could go to work on me.

No, I didn't suddenly get rich overnight and I still have many of the same problems I've always had, but I'm sleeping better, am more relaxed, happy and satisfied with life than I've ever been before. Want to know my secret? You'll find it in a great book called the Bible.

The Greatest Self-Help Book of All

After God blessed me in a special way, I vowed to finally read the Bible from cover to cover. Although I had read it sporadically as a child and young adult, I had let more than thirty years of my life slip by without tapping the power in this book, and I paid the price in years of needless worry and sleepless nights. I can only wonder how many others have let their Bibles grow dusty on the shelf. What I've learned from "The Good Book" to date is too good to keep under wraps! (I'm not talking "religion," here, folks, but simple common sense.)

"We have deprived ourselves of the best there is in the world if we deprive ourselves of a knowledge of the Bible," said Woodrow Wilson. 

In his syndicated column, "The Writer's Art," James J. Kilpatrick urged his readers to read the Bible, saying it was a tremendous work of literature. "Without some minimal knowledge of biblical allusion, a serious writer languishes in a cultural void," he said.

Personally, I identify with Mark Twain, who said, "Most people are bothered by the passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand." I was surprised to learn that the Bible is a collection of 66 books written by 40 or more different men over a period of 2,000 years. "Yet it is clearly one book with perfect unity and consistency throughout," say the authors of The Bible Has The Answer (Master Books):

"Anyone who diligently studies the Bible will continually find remarkable structural and mathematical patterns woven throughout its fabric, with an intricacy and symmetry incapable of explanation by chance or collusion."

I've always believed that we could achieve greater success in life through reading and self-study, but it I was nearly 58 years old before I learned that the Bible is the greatest and most influential self-help book ever published. I'll never again let my Bible grow dusty from lack of use because it is teaching me how to live life to its fullest—joyfully, peacefully, thankfully, and without anxiety or worry. How sweet it is!

The Bible's Power in the World of Business

The Bible's power is not limited to our personal lives. See Joshua 1.8 and Psalms 1 for insight on the connection between success, prosperity in business, and a study of the Bible. "The Bible says that men and women who follow the principles of the word of God have every reason to expect God to bless them and to be successful in the endeavors of their life," says Pastor David Jeremiah, who cites a survey that confirms the Bible's power in the world of business. "In a group of 1,361 vice presidents of major corporations surveyed by a New York executive search firm and the UCLA School of Management, 89% were found to be active in their faith." Adds motivational speaker and author Zig Zigler: 

"The church is interwoven in every facet of our life. In the corporate world those who have faith do better than those who do not. A survey by Fortune magazine revealed that 91 percent of the CEOs of the Fortune 500 companies claim a church affiliation indicating that, to a degree, their accomplishments were the result of the values they learned either in church or from the Bible."

It's hard to argue with this kind of evidence, and I hope you won't even try. Just open your Bible and ask God to show you how to apply its teachings to your personal and home-business life. And to knock Worry for a loop this year and kick Stress out with it, follow my lead by imprinting these Bible verses on your forehead:

"You cannot add any time to your life by worrying about it" (Matthew 6:27)

"So don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will have its own worries. Each day has enough trouble of its own" (Matthew 6:34).

May God bless your life and work this year and always!

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© 2007 by Barbara Brabec. Barbara is the author of several home-business books. Her personal domain includes information on her books and a wide variety of articles on business, writing, publishing, computers, crafts, and personal interests.