Paul penned these words in his letter to the believers of the Church in Philippi. Like all of us they were susceptible to being distracted by worry about the day to day challenges as well as the disagreements in their lives. Paul’s timeless advice is that God is available in “all situations” and we can come to Him with Thanksgiving and present our needs and requests.  The challenge with worry is that it creates a two-part negative effect for us – 1) Worry is for the most part a poor use of our time because it can take us in many bad directions since the worry is what has our focus. 2) Worry never travels anywhere without its first cousin “Fear” and fear can paralyze us to a state of no energy and action to improve our own lives much less help others in their lives. May Paul’s words encourage us to not to carry worry with us but to use it as a source of energy for us to uplift our needs to God and then go to work with the energy of our blessings to enable us to live and act for God in our daily lives.