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b'READ: PSALM 94:17-19; MATTHEW 6:25-34; 11:28-30\\n\\n\\n\\nThere are a lot of anxious and worried people in the world today, but that\\u2019s nothing new. People have been worrying for a long time, otherwise the Bible wouldn\\u2019t address worry like it does. We\\u2019re not the first people to have days when we feel anxious or nights when we lose sleep because we\\u2019re worried about what the future might hold.\\n\\n\\n\\nMoses worried that he wouldn\\u2019t know how to speak when God sent him to Pharaoh to bring the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt (Exodus 3-4). The proverbs talk about how a person can get weighed down with anxiety (Proverbs 12:25). The psalms are filled with verses that were written by people experiencing worry and anxiety. For example, Psalm 13 begins with the words, \\u201cHow long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?\\u201d Throughout the Bible, we see over and over again how God responds to all our worries, and how He meets us with compassion in times of anxiety.\\n\\n\\n\\nJesus is \\u201cGod with us\\u201d (Matthew 1:23), and He took time to talk about worrying\\u2014and even more than that, He experienced anxiety firsthand. On the night before He went to the cross, Jesus went to a quiet place to pray. He was \\u201cdeeply distressed and troubled,\\u201d and He told His disciples, \\u201c\\u2018My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death\\u2019\\u201d (Mark 14:33-34). Jesus was \\u201cin anguish,\\u201d and as He prayed earnestly, \\u201chis sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground\\u201d (Luke 22:44). Jesus was willing to go through all this distress and sorrow and hurt\\u2026because He loves us. In Jesus, we see how God bore our weaknesses and took our pain, ultimately dying on the cross, so that we could be free (Isaiah 53).\\n\\n\\n\\nAnxiety, worry, and fear are nothing new. God understands what we\\u2019re feeling and how our thoughts can be so unsettling. Jesus is fully God and fully human, so He can truly empathize with our struggles, and He wants to help us (Hebrews 4:14-16). We don\\u2019t have to be ashamed when we experience anxiety. We are never alone in our worrying. Life in our broken world is full of challenges, but one day Jesus will return and put an end to worry and anxiety for good. Until that day, Jesus holds us in our distress, and He never lets us go (John 10:27-30). \\u2022 Emily Acker\\n\\n\\n\\n\\u2022 Do you sometimes find yourself thinking that life would have been simpler if you had been born in the past, that you wouldn\\u2019t worry so much if you didn\\u2019t have to live in this modern world? Ultimately, it\\u2019s the fear of death and loss that are at the root of most worries, and these fears are timeless. Similarly, there are lots of things in this broken world that can signal to our bodies that we are in danger and we need to be ready to take action or hide\\u2026so while it\\u2019s good that our hearts can beat faster and our muscles can get tighter when we need them to, it\\u2019s not very helpful when our bodies feel like we\\u2019re in danger when we\\u2019re actually not. As humans, we all have times when we feel anxious or worried, not just in our teen years but throughout our lives. How might it be comforting to know that God is not surprised by our worries and anxieties\\u2014and He doesn\\u2019t expect us to be able to handle all the stresses of life on our own?\\n\\n\\n\\n\\u2022 What kinds of things make you feel worried or anxious? Consider taking a moment to bring these things to God in prayer. He loves you, and He longs to listen to your hurts and remind you that you are held safe in His arms. You\\u2019re not a burden when you\\u2019re anxious\\u2014you are valuable beyond measure, and you are worth caring for. (1 Peter 5:7)\\n\\n\\n\\n\\u2022 When Jesus rose from the dead, He'