WORRY
People the world over have all worried sometime about something, but with some it is so bad it affects their health. If someone is on medication for anxiety or stress, I do not recommend he stops it all at once, but little by little as the Lord gives him peace and grace to handle the affairs of life. Jesus, when speaking about worry, says in Matthew 6:25–34: “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” The idea is that if God can make the body and give it life, He also knows what our needs are and is able to take care of it by providing us food and clothing.
“Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” God takes care of birds, even in the middle of winter; they have no supermarkets to go to, and when they eat, they must literally scratch out a living to get a worm. And yet God takes credit for it: “Your heavenly Father feedeth them.” I never saw God feed a bird or its little chicks in the nest, but God gave it wings, and claws, and a beak. And God has given us legs and a fist to knock on doors, and if we need a job, He has also given us a promise: “Seek, and ye shall find” (see WORK). By the way, I have never seen a bird worry, or leaning up against a tree wondering, “How am I going to feed my family?” When there is a recession, depression, war, or stock market crash, you know what birds do? They sing to their heavenly Father.
“Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?” What good does worry do? Normal planning, yes, but to get in fights with our spouse, in the hearing of our children, helps nothing. There are people in mental institutions because they cannot make a decision anymore, but God can.
“And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” This is a clear promise that God knows what kind of clothes you should have. He even knows your size, and He says if we fret over such things we have “little faith.”
One of my brothers used to worry for me. He would say to me, “Your car is old and it will die one day, so are you saving any money for another car?” I would say, “No.” (I was not against saving money. I like the idea, in fact, but I had no extra money at the time.) But I believed as long as I was doing what the Lord wanted me to do, I could trust Him to take care of me. And the time did come when my old car stopped working, and the money I needed along with a good deal was there waiting for me to get my next car. Again my brother showed up and said, “I told you that you would need another car someday.” I said, “Yes, and I have one; the only difference is you worried about it, but I left it in God’s hands.”
“Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” Lost people (in this context the “Gentiles”) should be concerned about these things. But if one has the faith to trust God for heaven, then he should have the faith to trust Him for his “daily bread.”
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Put God first in your life. Our concern should be am I pleasing Him? He will take care of those who put faith in Him.
“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (All these verses come from Matthew 6:25–34). We cannot even solve today’s problems by worrying, let alone tomorrow’s. Well over 50% of what we worry about never happens. Someone says, “But there must be something I can do about it.” Yes, do all that God wants you to do and then, in prayer, leave the rest to Him.
There are some Christians with large responsibilities and enormous pressure put on them, but God has a prescription for them found in Philippians 4:6–7: “Be careful [Strong’s “to be anxious”] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Whether you have a big problem or a little one, “in everything,” tell God “by prayer.” God is looking for people who will trust Him for their needs and with their problems.
And because God gave us our five senses, we need to trust what the hand feels or the eye sees, or ear hears. I say this for those few individuals who can no longer trust their own senses. I suppose most of us, to some degree, will check to make sure we shut a door or closed a window, but there are those who will keep repeating a task, such as redoing the laundry several times. After the first time you begin to trust your God-given senses, it will be easier to trust them the second time and so forth, till you will do as others and it will become second nature. But don’t fall into the trap of rechecking; once is enough. If someone has this problem, then he or she should seek professional help.
How long you pray about your concerns depends mostly on how much of the “peace of God” you want for it. As I have grown in the Lord, I have found that it is easier to leave things with the Lord than it was when I first began to trust Him. So the length of the prayer is not what the difference is, but as I wrote before, if it was required, I would rather pray for two hours than worry about something for two weeks (see PRAYER).
Let me leave you with this closing thought and verse on this subject: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). There is no getting around it, in this world “ye shall have tribulation,” but in Christ we can still have “peace” and “good cheer.” In this world ye shall also have cold weather, freezing cold weather, but be of good cheer, you have a heater, and if you turn up the thermostat, in a few minutes you will have a warm house. So, with tribulations and problems, if we take them to the Lord in prayer, in a few minutes the “peace of God” will fill our hearts, and even if we do not know how the problem will be solved, it is enough to know God will solve it. As has been said, “I know not what tomorrow holds, but I know Who holds it.”
People the world over have all worried sometime about something, but with some it is so bad it affects their health. If someone is on medication for anxiety or stress, I do not recommend he stops it all at once, but little by little as the Lord gives him peace and grace to handle the affairs of life. Jesus, when speaking about worry, says in Matthew 6:25–34: “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” The idea is that if God can make the body and give it life, He also knows what our needs are and is able to take care of it by providing us food and clothing.
“Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” God takes care of birds, even in the middle of winter; they have no supermarkets to go to, and when they eat, they must literally scratch out a living to get a worm. And yet God takes credit for it: “Your heavenly Father feedeth them.” I never saw God feed a bird or its little chicks in the nest, but God gave it wings, and claws, and a beak. And God has given us legs and a fist to knock on doors, and if we need a job, He has also given us a promise: “Seek, and ye shall find” (see WORK). By the way, I have never seen a bird worry, or leaning up against a tree wondering, “How am I going to feed my family?” When there is a recession, depression, war, or stock market crash, you know what birds do? They sing to their heavenly Father.
“Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?” What good does worry do? Normal planning, yes, but to get in fights with our spouse, in the hearing of our children, helps nothing. There are people in mental institutions because they cannot make a decision anymore, but God can.
“And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” This is a clear promise that God knows what kind of clothes you should have. He even knows your size, and He says if we fret over such things we have “little faith.”
One of my brothers used to worry for me. He would say to me, “Your car is old and it will die one day, so are you saving any money for another car?” I would say, “No.” (I was not against saving money. I like the idea, in fact, but I had no extra money at the time.) But I believed as long as I was doing what the Lord wanted me to do, I could trust Him to take care of me. And the time did come when my old car stopped working, and the money I needed along with a good deal was there waiting for me to get my next car. Again my brother showed up and said, “I told you that you would need another car someday.” I said, “Yes, and I have one; the only difference is you worried about it, but I left it in God’s hands.”
“Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” Lost people (in this context the “Gentiles”) should be concerned about these things. But if one has the faith to trust God for heaven, then he should have the faith to trust Him for his “daily bread.”
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Put God first in your life. Our concern should be am I pleasing Him? He will take care of those who put faith in Him.
“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (All these verses come from Matthew 6:25–34). We cannot even solve today’s problems by worrying, let alone tomorrow’s. Well over 50% of what we worry about never happens. Someone says, “But there must be something I can do about it.” Yes, do all that God wants you to do and then, in prayer, leave the rest to Him.
There are some Christians with large responsibilities and enormous pressure put on them, but God has a prescription for them found in Philippians 4:6–7: “Be careful [Strong’s “to be anxious”] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Whether you have a big problem or a little one, “in everything,” tell God “by prayer.” God is looking for people who will trust Him for their needs and with their problems.
And because God gave us our five senses, we need to trust what the hand feels or the eye sees, or ear hears. I say this for those few individuals who can no longer trust their own senses. I suppose most of us, to some degree, will check to make sure we shut a door or closed a window, but there are those who will keep repeating a task, such as redoing the laundry several times. After the first time you begin to trust your God-given senses, it will be easier to trust them the second time and so forth, till you will do as others and it will become second nature. But don’t fall into the trap of rechecking; once is enough. If someone has this problem, then he or she should seek professional help.
How long you pray about your concerns depends mostly on how much of the “peace of God” you want for it. As I have grown in the Lord, I have found that it is easier to leave things with the Lord than it was when I first began to trust Him. So the length of the prayer is not what the difference is, but as I wrote before, if it was required, I would rather pray for two hours than worry about something for two weeks (see PRAYER).
Let me leave you with this closing thought and verse on this subject: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). There is no getting around it, in this world “ye shall have tribulation,” but in Christ we can still have “peace” and “good cheer.” In this world ye shall also have cold weather, freezing cold weather, but be of good cheer, you have a heater, and if you turn up the thermostat, in a few minutes you will have a warm house. So, with tribulations and problems, if we take them to the Lord in prayer, in a few minutes the “peace of God” will fill our hearts, and even if we do not know how the problem will be solved, it is enough to know God will solve it. As has been said, “I know not what tomorrow holds, but I know Who holds it.”