God's Cure for Worry
Philippians 4:6-8
One pastor has said that "there is nothing more prevalent in the age in which we live than the increasing problem of tension. It isn't for nothing that the ulcer has become the badge of modern life." We all have to admit that worry is a common problem. We all are anxious at one time or another. For many worrying is their favorite pastime. Worry is neither inconsequential nor trivial. Worry is so powerful that it can fragment your world and wreak havoc on your physical, mental and spiritual health. Think about all the stress-related illnesses that we see: heart attacks, high blood pressure, ulcers, insomnia, headaches, strokes, immune system malfunctions, and even suicide. Christian author William R. Inge defined worry as "interest paid on trouble before it becomes due." Worry is the great plague of life, both for believers and unbelievers. It crosses all educational and economic and racial boundaries. It is human to worry, to fret, to fear something in the future. (Copied) Worry may be common to all but it is sin! God in Philippians 4:6-8 deals with the issue of worry and provides us with four steps to overcome worry.
I Worry about Nothing - "Be anxious for nothing"
A. God clearly commands us not to worry. To worry is to disobey God.
B. Worry about what? "Nothing!" The word for "nothing" is literally "not even one thing" As Christians we are commanded not to worry about one single matter. Nothing is the most exclusive word in the English language. It leaves out everything.
C. The truth is people worry about everything and anything instead worrying about nothing. They worry about:
1. Material things (what they are going to wear, what they are going to eat, how they are going to live) - Matthew 6:25 "For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?
2. Mortality (not just worrying about death, but dying, aging, and health) - 6:27 "And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto his stature? (add a single hour to his life's span?)
3. Moot (unlikely) things they have no control over - 6:34 "Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
a. Winston Churchill once said, "When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened." American poet and diplomat James Russell Lowell expressed a similar opinion when he said, "Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which will never happen. These two men point out one of the biggest issues with the problem of worry—it unprofitably expends vast amounts of time and energy.
b. Someone has said that only 8% of the things people worried about were legitimate matters of concern. The other 92% were either imaginary, never happened, or involved matters over which the people had no control anyway.
D Worry is not a passive pursuit - there are serious effects to worry
1. Worry causes Distraction and Division - Worry takes our minds off the things of God as we fret over temporal matters.
a. Merimnao is the Greek word used for anxious or worry in most of the New Testament. It is derived from merizo = "to divide;" and nous = "mind." Thus worry means a "divided mind"
b. Anxiety's divided mind causes distraction. It overwhelms the brain and the senses, and that makes it very hard to generate the mental energy necessary to recall memories. When you're filled with anxiety, trying to focus on anything else becomes almost impossible.
c. James 1:8 tells us that "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways."
2. Worry cause Doubts - most of our worries are the result of a perceived loss of control.
a. Worry is caused by not trusting God to take care of the various situations in our lives.
b. This is seen in Mark 4 where we have Christ, sleeping in the stern of a small boat, with his disciples, as a storm arises, putting the boat in danger of sinking. Starting in verse 38 we read, " And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, don't You care that we are perishing?” Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? (Mark 4:38b-40)
c. The person who is consumed with anxiety is really saying, "I do not believe that God loves me and cares about me or that He is able to take care of my problems!" Worry and trust cannot live together in the same house. As long as trust abides, worry can never enter. When worry comes in, trust has already left! Worry starts where faith ends.
d. Said the robin to the sparrow, "I should really like to know Why these anxious human beings rush about and worry so?" Said the sparrow to the robin, "Friend, I think that it must be that they have no Heavenly Father, such as cares for you and me." -by Elizabeth Cheney (Matthew 6:26)
e. John R Rice said, "Worry is putting question marks where God has put periods."
3. Worry causes Depression
a. Proverbs 12:25 "Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression."
b. The Biblical character Elijah illustrates this connection between worry or fear and depression. In 1 Kings 18, we read that after a victory over the false prophets of Baal, the wicked Queen Jezebel issued a death threat against the prophet, Elijah. She promises to kill him within 24 hours. Therefore, Elijah runs and hides. In chapter 19 we find this mighty prophet of God, who brought fire down from heaven, sitting in despair under a tree in the desert wanting to die. In 1 Kings 19:3-4 (HCSB) we read, “ … Elijah was afraid and fled for his life... and He sat under a solitary bloom tree, and he prayed that he might die. ‘I’ve had enough, LORD.’ he said, ‘Take my life’ ”.
c. Psalm 42:11 "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God."
4. Worry causes Despair
a. Psalm 27:13 (NASB) I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living .
b. James MacDonald said "Despair is a place you don’t want anyone to go, not even people you don’t like. People who go there often don’t come back. Despair is an utterly, enduringly dark place. No light. No comfort. No hope. No words to pray. Alone."
c. Despair literally means to be without hope. More deeply, it means without Spirit, without breath, without life. Despair is being without a future, without a direction, without alternatives.
5. Understanding that worry is sin we need to ask God's forgiveness..
a. “And whatsoever is not of faith is sin,” and SIN MUST BE CONFESSED!
b. 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
II Pray about Everything - "In everything by prayer and supplication"
A. Why worry when you can pray?
B. Colossians 4:2 "Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving "
C. We need to pray in every circumstance and in and about everything in our life. We need to pray for the very things we usually are worrying about.
1. Provisions - "Give us this day our daily bread." (Matthew 6:11).
2. Protection - "Deliver or Keep us from the evil" - Psalm 91:14b-15a " I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him; You protect me from trouble."
3. Power - 2 Timothy 1:7 "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."
4. Peace - Isaiah 26:3-4 - Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusts in thee.
5. People - James 5:16 - "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."
D. When we put our cares in God's hands, He puts His peace in our hearts. - copied
III Be thankful for All Things - "with thanksgiving"
A Thanksgiving implies that the grateful person is in perfect submission to the will of God, however His will is manifest. Why? Because it is only when one is fully convinced that God is working all things together for good that he or she can really give God sincere thanks out of a grateful heart. Paul is cautioning you and me against a whining, complaining, murmuring spirit which is really just an expression of one's lack of faith in God's goodness. - copied
B 1 Thessalonians 5:18 "in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus"
C Be thankful for all things that comes along in life - not just the "good" things.
D Romans 8:28-29a " And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son."
E God is sovereign and is over all adversity and all prosperity, over all hard times and all good times, over all sickness and all health, over the raging storm and over the still waters. In order to make us more like His son, everything that is allowed into our lives is either from God, the Father's hand directly or is filtered through His hands of wisdom and grace.
IV Think Only About Worthwhile Things - Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
A If you allow a matter to spin around in your mind, turning it over and over and consider it from every aspect, and dwell upon it, it affects your outlook and your actions.
B Did you know that the average person has 10,000 separate thoughts each day? That works out to be 3.5 million thoughts a year. If you live to be 75, you will have over 26 million different thoughts. - copied
C For many Christians the greatest battle in their life is with evil and negative thoughts, even sinful thoughts.
D We need to be careful because, as David Legge said, "Your character will take on the complexion of your thoughts."
E Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become actions; watch your actions, they become habits; watch your habits, they become character; watch your character, for it becomes your destiny. - copied
F Proverbs 23:7 "For as he thinks within himself, so is he."
G Wrong thinking leads to wrong feeling, wrong feeling results in wrong doing.
H Jonathan Edwards put it this way "The ideas and images in men’s minds are the invisible powers that constantly govern them."
I F.B. Meyers preached a message on Philippians 4:8 entitled, Six Sisters, in which he said " Let these six sisters stand at the gateway of your soul, and challenge every thought"
1. Think on the True - Keep out of your mind the false, but admit the true, because every life, every government, all politics, all business, all great commercial undertakings, all books and systems, which are not founded upon truth crumble sooner or later.
2. Think on the Honorable - Exclude from your mind all that is dishonorable, and admit only what is worthy of God
3. Think on the Just - Everything unjust in speech or habit prohibit; everything which is just foster.
4. Think on the Pure - Here is the fight for a young man's life, to arrest the impure, however bedizened and bedecked, and to admit into his heart only that which is perfectly pure, pure as the lily, as God's ether, as the light. - copied
5. Think on the Lovely, That conduct which is consistent with 1 Corinthians 13:4, 5, 6, 7, which proceeds from the heart of love and thaws the ice of selfishness, which has accumulated upon others.
6. Think on Things of Good Report - Anything which is virtuous, and anything which wins praise of God or man, think on these things.
7. Isaiah 26:3 (NLT) "You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you,
all whose thoughts are fixed on you!
J Thinking on these things is congruous with Romans 12:2 "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God"
To overcome worry remember to:
1. Worry about Nothing
2. Pray About Everything
3. Be Thankful for All Things
4. Think Only about Worthwhile Things
