Part II

I remember a song we sang when I was young: Why worry when you can pray? Well, it’s a good question, isn’t it? Why do we worry when Jesus has clearly told us not to worry? Worrying is truly worthless!

I’m sure you’ve read this passage from Matthew 6 many times, but let’s look at it once again. Jesus said:

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 important than food, and the body more important 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? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.. . So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

In this passage there are at least three reasons why we should not worry if we belong to God through faith in Jesus Christ. They are:

  • Because of who we are—we are more valuable than birds.
  • Because it never does any good.
  • Because it’s a bad testimony.

Worry is a function of your mind, your thoughts. So, in order to stop worrying, you have to change your thought patterns. And in order to change your thought patterns, you have to replace wrong thoughts with right thoughts. So here is one thought that can stop you from worrying: You have a heavenly Father who is taking care of you.

Jesus said in Matthew 6 that our heavenly Father knows what we need and will provide for our needs when we seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. Now, this may cause you to ask some questions, like “Why doesn’t God answer all my prayers if he is taking care of me?” That’s what we expect a father to do, right? I think of my own father and I am certain that if he could have met any need I had, he would have done it, and he often did.

Sometimes it seems that our earthly father is more predictable than our Heavenly Father. Most earthly fathers can be counted on to do anything they can for their children. Yet often our Heavenly Father doesn’t come through for us the way we think he should, or the way we want him to. Does he love us less than our earthly father? Why doesn’t he act like my earthly father would?

The answer to that is because he has a different agenda for us from our earthly fathers. He has an eternal agenda, and his purpose is to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ. That daily transformation that needs to take place in our lives often comes through unexpected—and sometimes unwanted—ways.

Spurgeon, a great preacher of the 19th Century, wrote: “O blessed acts of sorrow that cut a pathway to our God by chopping down the tall trees of human comfort.” Isn’t it true that the difficulties and uncertainties of life are the things that teach us to depend on our Heavenly Father? So, even when you’re in the midst of tough times and you don’t see how God is taking care of you, you should not worry, because he is working everything out for your good. “In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

Now, I fully recognize that it’s a lot easier to say those words than it is to live them. Believe me, I’ve gone through trials where trusting God to make all things work for my good did not come naturally or easily. And the worrying had to be abandoned many times; it’s not just one quick application of Romans 8:28 and everything is fine. It is a process of choosing to believe and replacing the worrying thoughts with faith-building thoughts. That takes spiritual muscle and maturity, and we build those into our lives by practice.

Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:5
that we must “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” I have found that to be a daily task, something I must intentionally do. So, when worry sets in and my thoughts are taking me in that direction, I must choose to abandon those thoughts and replace them with thoughts that will bolster my faith. I must literally capture those worrying thoughts and make them obedient to Christ—to think about all I have to be thankful for, to remember that God has promised to take care of me and to remember that worrying is worthless.

The battle is in your mind, and you stop worrying when you change your thought patterns. I’ve written a whole book on this topic—Think About What You Think About—because I believe that most of our problems begin with wrong thinking. It’s certainly true in my life; as soon as I allow my thoughts to get out of control, to think about things I should not be thinking about, that’s when worrying moves in and I become a worry-wart, as we say!

Philippians 4:8 says we are to think about what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. When you’re worrying it is often because your thoughts are not true, certainly not noble, never admirable or excellent or praiseworthy. So we need to stop worrying. And you do that by replacing wrong thoughts with right ones. It may only last for a few minutes before you start worrying again, but if you will simply keep replacing wrong thoughts with right ones, soon you will build spiritual muscle and you’ll discover that you’re not worrying nearly as much as you used to.

Jesus said that we should not worry about tomorrow. Isn’t it true that most of our worries are about tomorrow? What’s going to happen? What if this happens or that doesn’t happen? We allow our minds to conjure up all kinds of possible scenarios that frighten us and worry us. Jesus knew this and he specifically tells us not to worry about tomorrow, not to borrow trouble from tomorrow.

I know some friends who are trying to make a decision about a major move in their life—moving from one place to another and altering their current lifestyle dramatically. As I talked with them, I realized that they were considering this move based on being fearful of tomorrow, trying to make sure that nothing bad will happen in the future. Obviously, we should be properly wise in preparing for the future, but there’s no way any of us can know what the future holds. Worrying about the future, making decisions out of fear, goes against this simple directive from our Lord—not to worry about tomorrow.

The Proverbs 31 ideal woman is described as a woman who can “laugh at the days to come.” She is a woman of faith who simply refuses to let her fears of tomorrow hold her captive through worry and fear.

In that same 6th chapter of Matthew, 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? Well, the Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by 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 usually comes alive and ministers to me just where I need it. But if I don’t do that, the worrying just gets worse.

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.

We know from Scripture that Jesus was fully God and fully man while he was here on earth, and we know from Hebrews 4 that Jesus was tempted in every way, just as we are—yet without sin. That means that Jesus was tempted to worry. As he was on the Mount of Olives before his arrest and crucifixion, we read in Luke 22 that he was in anguish when he was praying to His Father, so much so that his sweat was tinged with blood.

But note how Jesus dealt with this anxiety—this overwhelming worry. He prayed, “. . . yet not my will, but yours be done.” In this midst of the worst kind of worry and anxiety, he submitted to God’s will for his life. He rested in the knowledge that his Father does all things well; his Father could be trusted; his Father had good plans for him, even though those plans included the cross. After he prayed like this, an angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.

Well, we have an even better help when we’re worried. Hebrews 2:18 says, “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” When we are overcome with worry, it is sinful on our part because it means we are not trusting God in that area. Well, Jesus understands that temptation to worry and he is able to help you when you’re tempted to worry.

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb. 4:16). That’s the best antidote for worry. We are to cast all our care on him because he cares for us.

I hope you will remember that worrying is worthless and determine by God’s grace to put it behind you, one worry at a time, and live in the peace and comfort of knowing God is in control of your life and of the universe!