Are You a Worry Wart?
There is the propensity in all of our hearts to worry, to be anxious, to be afraid, overburdened and stressed. Life throws up many challenges. Sickness strikes, jobs get lost, relationships get strained, and finances get squeezed. Parents worry about their children’s future. Will they make it in life? Will they find love, success and happiness? Young people worry about the very same things too. Will they find love, happiness and success? Then there is peer pressure, the pressure to conform, to copy, to blend in, and the fear of being bullied or rejected.
The elderly have their own concerns. Deteriorating health in declining years, meagre finances, the loss of independence, perhaps the prospect of residential care and having to give up their home. Then as we look around the world what do we see? Rampant diseases, wars, threats and acts of terrorism, broken economies, and spiralling inflation. So, when you look at the state of things around us you may think, “I have every reason to worry. No wonder I’m anxious and afraid.”
Actually, as believers we don’t have the right to be worried and afraid. God doesn’t let us off the hook and say, “Oh all right then, you’re an exception. Go ahead and worry all you want. I give you full permission to be full of anxiety and fear.” In fact, it’s precisely the opposite. In Matt. 6:25-34 (NKJV), Jesus, three times, expressly said, “Do not worry” and again “Why do you worry?” He said in John 14:1, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” And “Fear not, only believe.” In Matthew 6:34 in the NKJV version Jesus said, “Do not worry about tomorrow.” In the Authorised Version it says, “Take no thought about tomorrow.” Now, ‘take no thought about tomorrow’ doesn’t mean make ‘no plans for tomorrow, or make no provision for tomorrow.’ Paul writes in 2 Cor. 12:14 “Now for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be burdensome to you; I do not seek yours, but you. For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.”
“If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” - 1 Tim. 5:8.
So, making provision for our future is not lack of faith, but common sense. All the Bible is saying here is, it’s all right to make provision and plans for tomorrow but it’s not all right to be worried and fearful about tomorrow. Worry robs you of your joy and steals your hope of tomorrow. Spurgeon said, “We crucify ourselves between two thieves. Our regrets about yesterday and worries about tomorrow.”
Someone wrote:
If Jesus is who He says He is,
If Jesus can do all He says He can do,
If Jesus can be all He has promised to be,
If Jesus will come like He said He will come,
If Jesus loves you like He said He loves you,
You have no reason to worry or fear,
and every reason to be at rest.
So stop being a worry wart!
- Pastor David Goudy