EFFECTIVE? Worry is activity without advancement.
- Matthew 6:27.
- Worry comes naturally to most people. It’s a natural, although sinful, response to many of the problems that we encounter in life.
- One of the difficulties with worry is that worry makes us feel like we’re doing something when we are actually doing nothing productive.
- Many mothers, for instance, feel guilty if they’re not worrying about their children. This is, in their minds, part of their job description as moms. The painful truth, though, is that worry almost never solves anything.
- Worry is activity (you’re doing something) without advancement (you’re not making anything happen).
- Advancement is what we want. We want to get closer to solving the problem.
- In some situations, we may have the ability and resources to solve the problem. In most situations, we don’t – but we do have within our power the ability to advance the situation toward an answer. This may involve people we can talk to, things we can do, or work we can do. If there is nothing else that we can do, there is always the opportunity to pray fervently about the situation.
- Any and all of those things advance our cause. Worry does not. Worry is like spinning our tires.
- Jesus made this point in Matthew 6. He asked who can add an hour to his life by worrying. What does that mean? He means: even though there are 876,582 hours in a hundred years, you can’t even add one hour to that total by worrying. That’s how embarrassingly ineffective worry is.
- In fact, we all know that, if anything, worry is likely to significantly reduce your life through stress-related problems.
- So for starters this morning you’ve got to get out of your head that worry means that you’re really doing something. You’re not. It’s ineffective.
A DIFFERENT WORRY THOUGHT: View your worry as an invitation to battle.
- With the ineffectiveness of worry in mind, let’s consider a change in approach.
- The worry that we feel almost always represents a life problem. We need to accept the fact that life is a spiritual battle. Life is a battleground, not a playground.
- As a result of that, it should not surprise us that we have problems. It should not surprise us that we have things that it would be easy to worry about.
- I want to propose that you begin to look at your worry in a different way. When you see the problem that is tempting you to worry, look at it as an invitation to battle.
- Examples:
1. “My son is walking down the wrong path. I am going to be strong as a father as I talk to him and in what I expect from him. I’m going to be bold in prayer asking God to move in his life. And I’m going to continue to live out my life as a devoted follower of Christ.”
2. “The company is talking about layoffs. I’m tempted to worry about my finances. Instead, I’m going to stand by faith that God will provide just as He promised in Matthew 6:33. I’m going to be a witness to my co-workers that in the uncertainty I have a solid Rock on which to stand. And I’m going to continue to be a hard worker even as co-workers are goofing off because they’re bitter at the company.”
3. “These test results aren’t what I was hoping for. As I wait for the additional tests, I’m going to ask for healing and I’m going to trust that no matter which way this situation goes, I can’t be outside of the hand of God. If He heals me, I’ll serve Him in this life; if I die, I will remain in Him through Christ’s death and resurrection. My hope is in Christ either way. And I know that either way He will provide everything that is needed for me and those I love.”
- Two clarifications:
a. Are you a worrier or a warrior?
- We are not meant to be the victims. “Oh, woe is me, things are going so bad and all I can do is sit here and worry.” No – we are meant to be warriors.
- When we worry we are opting out of the battle. We are wringing our hands, not grabbing our sword with our hands. We are standing still, not moving forward.
- If you are a worrier, that’s a strong sign that you are not a warrior.
- Instead, we need to use our worry as an open door to stand up and move into the battle. You’ve got a problem, a burden, a difficulty – invite God into it and fight alongside Him.
- Am I a spiritual force the enemy should fear? When a situation touches you, does our spiritual enemy regret that because he knows that now you’re going to be in that fight? Or does he laugh and thinking, “Oh, good, she won’t hurt us. She’ll just worry about it.”
- If that insults you, good. It should. Maybe you’ve been a Christian for ten years, twenty years, fifty years and yet you are not mature enough to be threat in spiritual warfare. You’re just a baby Christian when it comes to worry. You’re just over there sucking your thumb and worrying while the enemy is going to town. You’re no threat at all. I don’t want to be like that – I want the enemy to tremble when I’m in a situation. I want to be a soldier of the cross. I want to be part of the advancing troops.
b. Peace is not the absence of problems; peace is confidence in God’s provision.
- Many Christians have an understanding of peace that is not Biblical. We believe that peace means that God is going to take away all our struggles and problems. That was never promised.
- One way to describe peace is that it is confidence in God’s provision in the midst of struggle.
- This emphasizes the need to have faith in what God is going to do. We have a promise from Him and that is sufficient for us to have trust in Him.
- What makes this better and more important is two things:
1. The nature of this world is that the problems are just going to keep coming, so this type of peace is far more useful in real life.
2. This type of peace is better for glorifying God because it is focused on trusting who God is and not what He’s done (because He hasn’t done it yet). That faith/trust glorifies God because it’s based on who He is rather than just what He’s done.
- So you need to get your definition right.
- If you’ve been fussing at God because you have problems in your life and you somehow thinks that’s a sign that He’s letting you down, you need to get your head on straight. Your life is not going to be care-free, except for fleeting moments of bliss every now and again. Life is war; life is battle. Embrace the type of peace that God is offering you.
ONE PIECE OF BEING EFFECTIVE IN THE BATTLE: Find confidence in God’s promises.
- This is true for everyone, but especially for someone who is new to this battle.
- You need to find promises from God’s Word and gain confidence from them. We gain confidence because we know that God is good for His promises. You can trust Him to come through for you.
- One thing I would recommend: if you are in the midst of a big battle on one of these issues (or whatever), it’s a good idea to memorize the verse that speaks the strongest to the problem. Why? Because when it comes to worry, you are going to have it come up in your mind dozens of time a day. It’s a spiritual battle you’re going to fight, therefore, dozens of time a day. Yes, we should be able to handle it once and be done, but that’s not the nature of our worries. Therefore, having the verse memorized allows us to brandish it as the sword of the Lord time and again as we fight forward through our worry.
- I asked Facebook friends to share some of the biggest things that people worry about. These examples are pulled from that list.
a. “I’m scared about my kids’ future.”
- Jeremiah 29:11-13; Matthew 7:11.
- This is spiritual battle for your child’s future. If you just worry, you are doing nothing to help your child.
- What can you do? Get in the battle.
- Now, please note here that I am not guaranteeing a particular outcome. We cannot say more than God has promised. But I want to be a part of the battle for the soul of my child.
- What can I do?
- I can strongly live out my own faith as an example. It’s pretty hypocritical to ask God to do something great spiritually in your child’s life when your own spiritual life is mediocre. It kills me how many parents want their kids to grow up to be faithful each week to God’s house when they themselves only show up when they feel like it. What example are you setting?
- I can do what’s right in my child’s life and not what’s easy. One example: continuing to give in to paying for things that are destroying your child’s life just because you don’t want to have that fight. Why are you choosing what’s easy over what’s right?
- Pray specifically. Don’t just pray “Lord, help him.” Pray for what you want. “Father, I want to see Him living passionately for Christ. I want Him to have clear insight in how destructive these things are for His life. I want Him to be fruitful for Your Kingdom.” Get a clear picture and pray toward it.
- I’ve listed a couple verses that are worth memorizing on this issue. The Jeremiah verse speaks to God desiring to bring good things into our lives. Sometimes we doubt this and believe that God is indifferent toward us. Sometimes as parents we act like we love our kids more than God does or that we want to see our child helped and God is the one standing in the way. The Matthew verse teaches us that God is that loving Father who is eager to give good gifts to us.
b. “Will it get better?”
- Isaiah 40:31; Romans 8:18; Romans 12:12; 2 Corinthians 4:17-18; Hebrews 13:5.
- Life can be discouraging, especially if you’re trying to overcome a substantial problem while also dealing with depression or anxiety. We can feel overwhelmed and doubt that our lives will ever get better.
- This ties right into the idea of battling forward. We usually have battles to fight for things to get better, but we have God with us to fight alongside us.
- The Isaiah 40 verse tells us that God strengths us as we wait on Him. He uses that waiting time to make us stronger.
- The Romans 8 touches on a different aspect of this issue. It teaches us that when we are going through trials God is using that difficulty to transform us into the people He wants us to become. God doesn’t waste our suffering. This enables us to pray for God’s movement in our lives during the struggle.
- Roman 12:12 is a nice short verse that commands us to be patient in our trouble and faithful in our prayer.
- 2 Corinthians 4 is good when for life and death situations, reminding us that there is an eternal glory to the tribulations we undergo.
- Hebrews 13:5 reminds us that God will not abandon us.
- All of these remind us that God is working for us and within us.
c. “I don’t want him to die lost.”
- John 3:16-17; 2 Peter 3:9.
- Our greatest concern about any person should be for their salvation. This is heightened when the person is someone we love dearly and they show no signs of wanting Jesus in their life.
- Of course, there is no verse that can guarantee that a particular person will come to salvation, because each person has free will to choose for or against God. Some of you may ask, “How can I not worry when he may not be saved?” Again, it goes back to the principles we discussed earlier in the sermon. It’s absolutely true that there is no guarantee that a particular person is going to get saved but whether it happens involves a battle for that person’s soul. Are you going to be in the battle or are you going to sit on the sidelines? Worrying about it contributes nothing to the battle. It’s not actually caring for that person enough to do something effective about it.
- John 3:16-17 is the most famous in the Bible for good reason – it speaks movingly of the central truth of God’s love. We can gain much-needed insight from it. God so strongly desire the salvation of those we love that He sent His only son to make it possible.
- 2 Peter 3:9 helps us to know that there are not some people that God has written off. God desires all humanity to be saved.
- Again, this is a battle for souls. We need to pray. We need to live a passionate life of faith ourselves.
d. “I don’t know which way to go.”
- Psalm 46:10; Psalm 139:23-24; James 1:5.
- When we’re at a crossroads and wanting God’s insight on which path to take, will He enlighten us? Many aren’t sure.
- Here are some encouraging passages.
- Psalm 46 is the classic “be still” verse. It reminds us that sometimes we need to be quiet before God and listen.
- Psalm 139 offers a clear paradigm for telling God that we want to know if there is any sin that is preventing us from hearing from Him.
- James 1:5, though, is probably the key verse. It promises that God will give us insight into which path is the God’s will. Now, sometimes God is ok with both directions and leaves the choice to us, but when there is a right and wrong answer, God will direct us.
