WORRY
Death was walking toward a city one morning and a man asked, "What are you going to do?" "I’m going to take 100 people today," Death replied. "That’s horrible!" the man said. "That’s just the way it is," Death said. "That’s what I do." The man hurried to warn everyone he could about Death’s plan. As evening fell the man saw a newspaper that said 1000 had died that day in the city. Just as he arrived at his home he met Death again. "You told me you were going to take 100 people," the man said. "Why then did 1,000 die?" "I kept my word," Death responded. "I only took 100 people. Worry took the rest."
Are you worried about anything this morning? Odds are that someone is. Worry seems to be an epidemic in the world in which we live. Some years ago, the Mayo Clinic stated that statistically 80 percent to 85 percent of their total case load were ill either in reality or artificially due directly to worry and anxiety. Many experts say that coping with stress is the #1 health priority of our day. One leading physician has stated that, in his opinion, 70% of all medical patients could cure themselves if only they got rid of their worries and fears. Medical science has closely tied worry to heart trouble, blood pressure problems, ulcers, thyroid malfunction, migraine headaches, and a host of stomach disorders. An estimated 25 mill Americans have high blood pressure due to stress/anxiety. 8 million have stomach ulcers. Every week 112 million people take medication for stress related symptoms.
What is worry? The writer E. Stanley Jones said "Worry is the interest we pay on tomorrow's troubles." It is when we become so preoccupied with future troubles that our present thoughts are troubled. "No man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today, that the weight is more than a man can bear." -- Gordon MacDonald
Matt. 6:25 "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? 26 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? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall we drink?' or `What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own
The Greek word used for worry is the word MERIMNAO which literally means "to be drawn in different directions". Worry pulls us apart. It is trying to live in a place you are not. So what is the cure to worry. It comes when we realize that worry is:
1. Needless (vs. 25) - there are more important things in life than food and clothing.
Worry is needless since there are much more important issues than what we so often become preoccupied with. Soldiers under fire in a foxhole don’t get upset that they got mud on their uniform. They have much more pressing things to concentrate on.
A week before my 16th birthday I was at a weekend youth retreat. I could not really enjoy myself because I had a math test on Monday that I was worried about. I knew I should be home studying but I chose to go to the retreat instead. On our way to one meeting the car I was in was hit by a truck. The car was totaled and my head was cut open. I was rushed to the hospital and operated on. A I sat there after the operation, my head bandaged, blood everywhere, I suddenly realized that I was not worried about the test anymore. There were more important things to think about.
This does not mean that food and clothing are not important. They have to be seen as part of the bigger picture. Will a car breakdown loose your salvation, will your changed dinner plans for next week alter God's plan for the nations? Most things we worry about will never happen anyway.
According to the National Bureau of Standards, a dense fog covering seven city blocks to a depth of 100 feet is composed of something less than one glass of water. This can be compared to the things we worry about. If we could see into the future and if we could see our problems in their true light, they wouldn't blind us to the world -- to living itself -- but instead could be relegated to their true size and place. And if all the things most people worry about were reduced to their true size, you could probably stick them all into a water glass, too.
People today worry about a great many things. Threatened layoffs at work. Drugs and weapons in the schools. We have every right to be fearful, right? Maybe not. In Scared to Life (Victor), Douglas Rumford cites a study that explains why we shouldn't allow fear to rule our lives: 60% of our fears are totally unfounded; 20% are already behind us; 10% are so petty they don't make any difference; 5% are real, but we can't do anything about them. That means only 5% are real fears that we can actually do something about.
A patient in a mental hospital was holding his ear close to the wall, listening intently. The attendant finally approached. "Sh!" whispered the patient, beckoning him over. The attendant pressed his ear to the wall for a long time. "I can't hear a thing," he finally said. "No," replied the patient, "it's been like that all day!"
2. Senseless (vs. 26) - nature and the nature of God shows us it is unnecessary
Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength. -- Corrie Ten Boom
We need to believe our senses and learn to trust the unchanging nature of God. We do not need to pray for sunrises or season to come – God is faithful. We see God’s provision all around us. We know that He is our Father and fathers provide for their children. Our experience of Him and nature shows us that God can be trusted, so worry is senseless. Remember than God cares for you. Remember all He has brought you through and believe that He will continue to do so.
God's investment in us is so great he could not possibly abandon us. -- Erwin W. Lutzer
Psalm 145:13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made. 14 The LORD upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. 15 The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. 16 You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.
3. Useless (vs. 27) - it accomplishes no purpose
It is not worthwhile to wear a day all out before it comes. - Sarah Jewett
It's no use putting up your umbrella till it rains. -- Alice Caldwell Rice
Worry is kind of like a rocking chair. It is something you can do, but it never gets you anywhere. It accomplishes nothing. It fact it only acts to make things worse in your life.
When we lived in Kuwait the traffic was terrible. I noticed that people respond to traffic jams in one of two ways. The first is to just accept it live with it. Put on the radio and just occupy your time until you get through it. The second is to act crazy to try to force your way through. Both get through the traffic in the same amount of time but the one is rested and the other is a basket case.
Because worry does not accomplish anything but making you sick you shouldn't do it. Think of how God feels when we carry around useless burdens which do nothing but weigh us down. Like a good parent God doesn’t want His children to struggle with things that He could help them with.
4. Faithless (vs. 28-32) - it shows lack of faith in your Father
Worry is not just silly but also sinful. Worry shows that you are not trusting God as your provider. If you say that you trust someone but then by your actions show that you do not then you are not trusting. It represents what unbelievers do and shows that you do not trust God. Someone once said "If we worry, we can't trust; if we trust, we can't worry." God is faithful in providing for His children.
A sign in front of a church carried this admonition: "When your knees knock together, kneel on them." That's good advice! Trust in God and you will calm your fears and renew your courage.
If only we would stop lamenting and look up. God is here. Christ is risen. The Spirit has been poured out from on high. All this we know as theological truth. It remains for us to turn it into joyous spiritual experience. -- A. W. Tozer
I am inwardly fashioned for faith, not for fear. Fear is not my native land; faith is. I am so made that worry and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life; faith is the oil. I live better by faith and confidence than by fear, doubt and anxiety. In anxiety and worry, my being is gasping for breath--these are not my native air. But in faith and confidence, I breathe freely--these are my native air. -- E. Stanley Jones
Years ago, in the pioneer days of aviation, a pilot was making a flight around the world. After he had been gone for some two hours from his last landing field, he heard a noise in his plane, which he recognized as the gnawing of a rat. He realized that while his plane had been on the ground a rat had gotten in. For all he knew the rat could be gnawing through a vital cable or control of the plane. It was a very serious situation. He was both concerned and anxious. At first he did not know what to do. It was two hours back to the landing field from which he had taken off and more than two hours to the next field ahead. Then he remembered that the rat is a rodent. It is not made for the heights; it is made to live on the ground and under the ground. Therefore the pilot began to climb. He went up a thousand feet, then another thousand and another until he was more than twenty thousand feet up. The gnawing ceased. The rat was dead. He could not survive in the atmosphere of those heights. More than two hours later the pilot brought the plane safely to the next landing field and found the dead rat. Brothers and sisters in Christ, worry is a rodent. It cannot live in the secret place of the Most High. It cannot breathe in the atmosphere made vital by prayer and familiarity with the Scripture. Worry dies when we ascend to the Lord through prayer and His Word.
God's prescription for worry is simple. Take this little verse, memorize it and claim it often.
Phil 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
It says to give your worry to God and fill your heart with thankfulness.
A weary Christian lay awake one night trying to hold the world together by his worrying, Then he heard the Lord gently say to him, "Now you go to sleep, Jim; I'll sit up.
Leave tomorrow's trouble to tomorrow's strength; tomorrow's work to tomorrow's time; tomorrow's trial to tomorrow's grace and to tomorrow's God.
Don't try living tomorrow before it comes. Give all your fears and uncertainties to Jesus.
Yard by yard life is hard, but inch by inch it is a cinch.
