Worry, Anxiety, and Fear

This has not been an easy week. Perhaps one of the toughest I've had in some time. My old, so-called friends showed up. Their names are Worry, Anxiety, and Fear. I didn't even realize I was hanging around with them again. I've tried making myself conscious of their presence, I know not to associate with them, I've preached about not giving into them, and I counsel people all the time not to put these three in the driver's seat.
Last night at a men's prayer gathering, someone pointed out that worry is something he has struggled with for several weeks now. He has prayed about it. Even though the circumstances have not changed, he is at peace about the circumstances now. When he mentioned this, I realized how much I was letting these three guys into my life again. I need to work on this in the coming weeks.
This morning I have been sitting here thinking about how much of our world is driven by worry, anxiety, and fear. People are voted in and out of office based upon these three things. Those that get elected to office tend to operate under the influence of these three things. Business deals are made or broken based upon them. Even more scary is that marriage decisions, parenting decisions, and church decisions are made under the influence of these three more often than we want to admit.
Why do we keep hanging out with these three? They're bad dudes. They get us nowhere. Jesus made it very clear that none of them add a single hour to our lives. Medically, they've been known to wreak havoc on our physical selves. Psychologically, they've been known to wreak havoc on our mental selves. As Jesus told us many years ago, they mess us up spiritually. That's all three components of our make-up!
Question: If one of your friends was hanging around with someone that was messing them up as much as worry, anxiety, and fear were messing with you, what advice would you give them?...........Yep, that's right. Now let's all heed our own advice.