God Cares Series

There was a guy named Bob Redrow who was on his first business trip to Japan. He and his colleagues were picked up by a van to be taken to their meeting, and during the ride Bob became anxious and upset by the driver. The van was zipping through the narrow streets… and all the while the driver was constantly turning around to talk to his passengers. Finally, Bob had enough and… as politely as he could - he asked their host to please turn around and focus on the road. The man gave Bob a strange look, but turned around and faced forward. One of Bob’s colleagues leaned over to Bob and asked, “What was that all about?” Bob answered, “He is gonna get us killed. He’s not paying attention to the road!” His friend replied, “Bob, the steering wheel is on the right. That guy’s not driving.”

Bob had become (PAUSE) anxious and worried because he assumed he knew everything about his situation. But he didn’t know everything. He’d didn’t know that - in Japan - people drive on the other side of the road (than we do) and that their steering wheels are on the RIGHT (not the left) side of their cars. In fact, most of the world drives on the “wrong” side of the road.

For the past few weeks we’ve been focusing on “Favorite Verses” that people have and our favorite verse for today is I Peter 5:7 “Cast all your anxieties on Him (on God), because He cares for you.”

Now why would God bother to tell us to cast all our anxieties on HIM? Well, because we have a problem that way. We tend to get anxious… a lot.

ILLUS: One church site put it this way: Our lives are filled with anxieties. “A frightening diagnosis. A financial setback. A deadline you can’t meet. A relationship you can’t repair. A global pandemic disrupting every aspect of life. The possibilities are endless, but the result is the same. Stress, worry, and anxiety can overtake you. and it can paralyze your life.” (https://real-life.northviewchurch.us/felt-needs/stress-worry-anxiety/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw9ZGYBhCEARIsAEUXITWxDbiUSMDQB8ARuPOA5RB-eoV3MHnXaz9sP-fBcr1g5ILTJrL5l10aAi-WEALw_wcB)

The English word for "WORRY" comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word meaning - “to strangle.” And that’s precisely what happens when stress, worry and anxiety take control of us. They can strangle us… and paralyze us with fear.

And yet God says we have the ability to overcome worry in our lives. We have the ABILITY to control our fears. Philippians 4:6 says “Be anxious for nothing”

We’re not supposed to be anxious, but – too often – we are. We ARE anxious. It seems almost normal to be worried about stuff. But God says – don’t do that! Don’t be anxious. Why not?

Well, anxiety is not good for us. It robs us of sleep and peace and health. According to Dr. Charles Mayo (one of the founders of the Mayo Clinic) “Worry affects the circulation, the heart, the glands, the whole nervous system. I have never known a man who died from overwork, but many who died from doubt.”

ILLUS: American Institute of Stress notes that “75 to 90 percent of all visits to a primary care physician’s office are related to stress disorders.”

Don’t they have pills to handle stress & anxiety? Yes. There is an abundance of pills like Ambien and others. In fact Americans consume five billion tranquilizers, 5 billion barbiturates, 3 billion amphetamines, and 16 tons of aspirin every year. Much of that “medicine” (according to the American Institute of Stress) is taken to help alleviate stress or the resulting headaches and pain associated with stress.

So pills can help. But according to one insomnia expert (Gregg Jacobs, an insomnia expert with The Sleep Disorders Center at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) “it isn’t that Ambien doesn’t work. It’s just that while drugs like Ambien get you to sleep, they don’t get at the stress and anxiety, which are often the underlying cause of insomnia.” Once you’re off the drug, insomnia usually returns with a vengeance.

So, pills can help but they don’t solve the problem. In fact, worry doesn’t solve our problems either. We can worry and fret all day long and our problems will still be there. Our anxiety won’t fix our fears!

What’s the core problem in our being anxious? Well, it’s the same as it was for Bob, the businessman who visited Japan. He was anxious because he thought he KNEW everything about his situation. But there was something he DIDN’T know. And because there was something he didn’t know, he became anxious and irritable and unreasonable.

And the same is true of us: If there’s something we don’t understand; if there’s something we failed to take into consideration, fear and anxiety can come into our lives like a flood and overwhelm us.