Anxious for Nothing by Max Lucado

Week 4: Chapter 3 — Leave Your Worries at the Altar

Read Chapter 3 of Anxious for Nothing. Primary Scripture: Philippians 4:6–7; 1 Peter 5:7.

The third movement of CALM is Leave — actually releasing our burdens to God rather than praying and then picking them back up. This chapter asks the hardest practical question: how do you let go of what you cannot stop thinking about?

Discussion Questions

8 questions

1.Lucado describes the experience of praying about a worry and then immediately picking it back up — like casting a fishing line and reeling it right back in. How honestly does that image describe your own prayer life? What makes genuine release so difficult?

2.Peter writes, 'Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you' (1 Peter 5:7). Lucado emphasizes the word 'all' — not some, not the manageable ones. What categories of worry do you tend to hold back from God, and why?

3.Lucado uses the idea of an 'anxiety attack' versus an 'attack on anxiety' — the difference between being ambushed by fear and taking the initiative to fight back through prayer and Scripture. What would it look like for you to go on offense against anxiety this week?

4.Lucado suggests that we sometimes love our worries — that they feel productive, responsible, or even loving (as in, 'I worry because I care'). Do you recognize that dynamic? What might it mean if your worry is actually functioning as a substitute for trust?

5.The promise of Philippians 4:7 is that God's peace will 'guard' our hearts and minds — a military metaphor, as if peace stands sentry at the gate. What does it feel like, physically and emotionally, when that guard is in place? And what does it feel like when the gate is left open to worry?

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Closing Prayer

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Father, I am a poor caster. I bring my burdens to you and then snatch them back, as if trusting you is too risky or too passive. Forgive my functional unbelief — the worry that insists I must hold on or things will fall apart. Today I want to mean it when I say: it is yours. Guard my heart and my mind with a peace I cannot manufacture. Stand sentry at the gates of my imagination, and let what enters be filtered through the truth that you gave your Son for me. Amen.

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