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PROGRAM D-7500
Worrying is worthless! You probably know that already, but the question is, have you stopped worrying? Jesus told us clearly “Do not worry.” It wasn’t a suggestion; it was a directive. Yet often we just fall into that easy trap of worrying. We’ve been looking at Matthew 6 to see three reasons not to worry, and now we close with three ways to stop worrying. I talked about the importance of replacing worrying thoughts with thoughts of how your Heavenly Father takes care of you.
Secondly, we stop worrying by placing our faith firmly in our Heavenly Father. In Matthew 6 Jesus says to his disciples that their problem is they have little faith. “O ye of little faith,” he said to them—and I think he must say it to us as well. How do you have more faith? The Bible says that faith comes by hearing the word of God. So, if you’re worrying a lot, it could be because you’re not spending enough time in the word of God, and therefore your faith is weak.
I know that when I have some concern on my mind and it’s starting to become a worry, if I will just sit down and read the Word, something always pops off the page and ministers to me just where I need it. But if I don’t do that, the worrying just gets worse.
Then, the third thing we must do in order to stop worrying is “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. . .” as Jesus told us in Matthew 6:33. Worry is an indication that somehow we’ve got our priorities confused. If we seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, if that is our number one priority, then it will drive out worry.
Worry is like the check engine light in your car. You know when that light goes on that something is wrong with your car and you need to have it checked out. Well, when you and I are worrying, it’s a warning light that something is wrong with us spiritually. Either we’ve forgotten who we are in Christ and how our Heavenly Father has promised to take care of us, or our faith is very weak, perhaps because we’ve not spent enough time in the word of God, or we’re not truly seeking first God’s kingdom. Other things, other people, other activities have taken first place in our lives.
Remember, worrying is worthless, a total waste of your time, and it indicates you need to stop and check out why your worrying instead of trusting the Sovereign God, who is your Heavenly Father.