Do not worry …
Summary: Worry is a killer. It stresses our bodies and steals away our happiness and joy. Jesus tells us not to worry. Is that simply good advice, or something more?
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 6: 25-27)
When you hear the words, “Don’t worry…” it matters who is saying them. If someone tells me not to worry and they are clearly worried, I may not be convinced. If am in the hands of someone I trust, and they say, “Don’t worry,” I will be more inclined to relax.
Worry is thinking about what could go wrong. For example, what if we don’t have enough food to eat tomorrow?
There is lots of bad news these days about what is going to happen tomorrow. People are predicting a recession or worse, a depression. Other reports talk about the “supply chain” and how it is being interrupted. Shortages are a real thing these days. What if we run out of (fill in the blank) ______?
When we pray, “Give us today our daily bread,” I think of “daily bread” as a placeholder for all kinds of things that my physical body needs. More than just bread we need other foods like milk, cheese, meats, vegetables, and so on. We also need vitamin supplements, medicine, clothing, housing, water, heat, etc., etc. We need a lot of “things” to sustain the quality of life we are used to.
One of the things that make me smile are action films. As the story opens, the hero or heroine is seen living a normal life. They are surrounded by all of the “things” that normal people have. Suddenly, something happens to draw them into an adventure and from that point forward until the end of the story there is nothing normal about their lives. Adventure seemingly takes them away from the need for vitamin supplements, medicine, prescriptions, exercise, regular meals, and the occasional fresh change of underwear.
Adventures are nice, but nobody likes going without their things.
When people say, “Don’t worry…” it usually means that we should close our minds to the possibility of bad things happening to our things. That is hard to do. When God says, “Don’t worry” it is because God already knows how the story ends.
God knows that everyone dies.
Well, that doesn’t sound like much help!! That is what I was worried about!
Yes, but…
God knows that the body is mortal. Peter tells us “all people are like grass.” (1 Peter 1:24) Our bodies grow, mature, and die. That is normal. The reason God can tell us not to worry is that he sees what is important. He sees us as we really are. We are spiritual beings with a temporary physical body.
By trusting in Jesus, we can know that the end of our adventure is a happy one. Our Father brings us home after our time here on earth. Everything we could ever truly need or want is waiting for us when we go home to our Father.
When Jesus says, “Do not worry,” he means it.
Relax! God has got this.
Application: Trust Jesus.
Food for Thought: As Christians, how do we stop worrying?
That is a great question. We know not to worry. We know that worrying does not help. We are commanded not to worry, which suggests worry is a choice. We know that the opposite of worrying is prayer and trusting the Lord. But none of those truths come easily. If our relationship with God is growing, our trust should be increasing, our peace should be increasing, and our worry should be diminishing. There is a math equation in there somewhere. Philippians 4: 4 – 9.
Rich,
Your knowledge of Scripture inspires me! I love the Philippians 4 passage. Especially verse 7:
“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.“
To me worry is the realization that you have no control over, or MAY have no control over, something, or how something is going to turn out. That unknown drives you crazy because you just want to feel like its all going to be ok. All of this though doesn’t take into account God’s Will in your life. I have to stop and ask myself, is this what I want, or is this what God wants in my life. Sometimes I don’t even know (lol).
So I would say, ask God what His Will is on something that worries you. If it is not His Will, then let it go. I know that is easy to say and may sound dismissive, but if it doesn’t glorify God, and it doesn’t help you love God or your neighbor, then it is not worth your brain power. If it is His Will, ask Him to help you understand, and what He would have you do about it. This is a part of building your trust in God. It doesn’t happen “magically,” like any relationship you will have, you have to learn to trust God, and that comes from talking to God, telling Him how you feel, asking Him what to do, and then waiting to see how He will work in your life.
Romans 5:1-5 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Chris,
You make a great point: We have to “learn” to trust God. To Rich’s comment about a math relationship, there is a positive correlation between the growth of our faith and the ascent of our trust in the Lord. The more we believe, the more we trust, the more peace we have.
Well put! I think the devil may use worry to trap us in selfishness and inaction, and failing that, just to wear us down mentally. He tries to impede our testimony as followers of Christ by weaponizing our fears, small and great, against ourselves.
J,
Thank you for joining us! You make a good point! We shouldn’t leave our fears laying about for the devil to weaponize against us. It is much better to turn to the Lord. 🙂 As we do, his love displaces fear.
(1 John 4: 18)
Don’t worry. Be happy.
Pray
Tim,
It is interesting to think of “being happy” as a choice, but you are right. We decide in large measure how we respond to life’s situations.
12-22-2022, As Christians, how do we stop worrying?
Our problem is we exist as physical beings in a physical world who for a short time will continue to remain confined to these physical bodies as God completes our transformation process into the spiritual beings we are predestined to be. While this process is taking place, we will remain imperfect beings seeking to serve our perfect God.
What we need to wake up too is the fact that worry is not of God, but of this world.
Our calling is to trust and obey God. The Christian life is one of trusting in God for all things, from the beginning to the end. It begins when we repent and believe the gospel and then all the way through our lives we are called upon to trust in God, and to trust in the Lord Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life. Troubles do not come from God, but as long as we exist on earth they will come from all directions to shake our faith which is the source of our freedom from all forms of worry.
Mark 1:15, John 14:1, 6
In Matthew 14:22-32, we see Peter’s success as he keeps his eyes on Jesus, and his faltering faith as he looks down at the water.
Words of Jesus in Matthew 6:25-35 effectively cover this subject.
Keep our focus on Christ as we walk through this storm.
Ron,
I like the way you divided the world from the spiritual and noted that worry is something associated with the world. That is a powerful insight. To use Paul’s metaphor, “For now we see through a glass, darkly…” (1 Corinthians 13:12) when we are on the other side of the glass, all will be clear. Worry is something that can only exist where there is doubt and things are not clear.