All the days of the desponding and afflicted are made evil [by anxious thoughts and forebodings], but he who has a glad heart has a continual feast [regardless of circumstances].
— Proverbs 15:15
I once went through a period in my life when I was plagued by anxiety. I was filled with fear and dread for no particular reason. I kept feeling something terrible was going to happen. Finally I went to the Lord and asked Him what was troubling me. He told me it was "evil forebodings."
At the time I didn't even know what that phrase meant or where it came from. Sometime later I came across Proverbs 15:15 in the Amplified Bible. I immediately recognized the term the Lord had used when He told me what was bothering me—"evil forebodings."
In those days I was like so many other people. I was looking for some "monster problem" that was keeping me from enjoying life. I was so intense about everything, I was creating problems for myself where none really existed.
Once in a meeting, the Lord told me to speak out something. Apparently someone needed to hear this: "Stop making a big deal out of nothing." I used to be the type of person who needed to hear direction like that. I could make mountains out of molehills. I had to learn to just let some things go—forget them and go on.
Some of us become upset over things that just are not worth becoming upset over—those "little foxes, that spoil the vines ." (See Song of Solomon 2:15 KJV) If our lives consist of becoming upset over one little thing after another that really don't matter, we won't have much peace or joy.
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