One time Jesus said to a busy woman, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things” (Luke 10:41- ck. NIV). I can certainly relate to Martha. How about you? If you’re like most women, you don’t worry about just one thing. Because we’re good at multi-tasking, we usually have a whole collection of things we’re anxious about.

What do you think about this statement: “All anxiety is practical atheism”? I find it a bit startling. If it is true, it means that when we are anxious and worried, we’re living as if there were no God.

Picture it this way. Here are your problems—your “impossible situations.” And out there somewhere is God. If you subtract God from the circumstances, all you have left are your problems.

You probably really do believe there is a God, but maybe you assume He is so busy running the universe that He doesn’t have time for you. Or you figure solving your problems is your responsibility–you got yourself into this mess, so it’s up to you to get yourself out of it. Or perhaps God seems remote from your life, and you question, “Does He really care about me?” So you carry a heart-heavy load of anxiety.

I did a search in the New Testament on the word “anxious” and discovered that every time the word is used, it’s in connection with our human concern with what we are going to do about a situation–what we’re going to say or do or wear or eat or whatever. I don’t worry about whether the earth is going to keep turning on its axis. I worry about “me”—my needs, my health, my family, my work.

What we need to do when we’re anxious is to stop being “practical atheists” and turn to the Lord. God is big enough to solve any dilemma.  As James tells us, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).