Money is one of our top worries, often second to health or safety. Money divides families, breaks up marriages, and turns gentle dispositions into fits of rage. How we handle our money says more about our priorities than any words we could ever speak.

A survey by the American Psychological Association shows money as a “perennial” source of stress in the lives of Americans year after year. Surprisingly, the stress is not limited to lower-income households. Even those with $1 million or more net worth worry about their financial future.

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To keep from being swept away by anxious thoughts about the future, put your mental energy to better use by planning for what you can and praying for God’s guidance at every step.

Planning and praying are both action-oriented. When you’re busy planning, you move out of the unproductive state of worrying about a problem and into the productive state of looking for ways to solve it. In a similar way, when you pray, you’re giving God a chance to work in your life.

Although most Christians already know how to pray, how to best plan takes more practice. In the verses preceding Jesus’s instruction not to worry, Christ tells us how we can best plan to keep anxiety at bay.

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1. God is in control. Life situations can change in an instant, from your job status to your relationships to your health. However, God is unchangeable — He is the same today as He was yesterday and as He will be tomorrow (Malachi 3:6).

Because of that, you can breathe easier knowing that the unchangeable God sits on the throne for eternity, no matter who’s causing you strife at work, at home, or elsewhere (Psalm 9:7).

God promises to bring good out of every situation for those who put their trust in Him (Romans 8:28). When you put your faith in God and His commandments, you stop living for your selfish desires and start to reflect on His power, love, and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7).

This doesn’t mean that you’ll always understand the Lord’s ways, especially when disaster strikes (Isaiah 55:8). Rather than try to make sense of life’s tragedies, put your trust in the King’s promise that His plan is to prosper you and give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).

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Understand that there is a war and you are in it. Like it or not, all of us are caught up in the spiritual war that’s taking place between good and evil. If you don’t engage in the war, you’ll still be affected by it – and you’ll be much more vulnerable to evil than you would if you decided to fight as God calls you to do. So be active; not passive. Engage in spiritual warfare with the confidence that God’s power working through you is greater than any evil working against you.

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For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

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