Today we will continue our sermon series on "The Bible and Emotional Problems." The topic that we will learn is worry. "I have a mountain of credit card debt," one man told another. "I have lost my job. My car is being repossessed and our house is in foreclosure, but I am not worried about it." "You aren't worried about that?" exclaimed his friend. "No, I've hired a professional worrier. He does all my worrying for me, and that way I don't have to think about it." "That's fantastic! How much does your professional worrier charge?" "$50,000 a year", he replied. "$50,000 a year? Where are you going to get that kind of money?" "I don't know," comes the reply. "That's his worry."
What is worry? The Longman Dictionary describes worry as 'an uncomfortable feeling in the mind, caused by a mixture of fear and uncertainty.' Worry is the uneasy feeling we often experience in times of fear, trouble, or problems. Worry comes from an Anglo-Saxon root meaning "to strangle" or "to choke." Worrying is thinking about the future in a way that leaves you feeling anxious or nervous.
What do we worry about? Dr. Krainess suggests the three categories into which most worries fall:
1. Disturbing situations for which one must find a solution, such as obtaining money for food, lodging, or medical expenses.
2. Disturbing situations when one has no control; for example, a loved one dying of cancer; or a son away in the military.
3. Unimportant, insignificant, minor problems of everyday life, which in reality aren't worth worrying about.
A survey taken by USA Today studied significant sources of worry. 36% said work is the most important source of stress – 22% money – 10% children – 7% health – 5% marriage – 5% parents – 5% no stress at all – 19% little stress.
Not all worry is bad. There is a positive, wise kind of worry. God provides us with thinking and feeling. There are situations where it is appropriate to worry. For example, if our baby has a high fever or is three years old but still cannot walk or talk, it is right to be worried. If we worry about getting sick and because of that we watch our diet, exercise, that is a good kind of worry. Driving carefully within the speed limit is also a reasonable worry if we worry about getting in an accident.
Andrew Grove, a very successful CEO of Intel, wrote "Only the Paranoid Survive." In his book, he suggests that instead of not being paranoid, be creatively paranoid and anticipate every possible alternative, learn from it, and do something about it. In other words, to be successful in business, worry is needed to motivate creativity and innovation. A few days ago, I read an article about why Nokia, the largest cell phone maker in 1998, failed. Two of the reasons are that Nokia overestimated its brand value and was too confident with its operating system while brands like Samsung and Apple came up with more advanced phones every year.
In Galatians 4:11 and 1 Thessalonians 3:5, apostle Paul expressed his worry because some false teachers had come to the churches in Galatia and Thessalonica and tried to mislead them with wrong teachings. As Evangelical Christians, we certainly have reasons for worry these days as well. Nowadays, many nonbelievers would consider sharing the gospel to be "hate speech." We can see America turning away from the Lord, making it more challenging for Christians to remain faithful. For example, a federal judge denied a request from the College of the Ozarks, a Christian university in Missouri, to be exempted from a Biden directive that allows biological men who "identify" as female to live in women's dormitories. A professor of neuroscience and psychology at Duke University has been removed from an American Psychological Association email group for suggesting there are only two sexes. A new study found that 43 percent of millennials "don't know, don't care, don't believe God exists." And LifeWay Research that for the year 2019, Protestant church closures outpaced church openings in the US. Knowing these things may cause us to worry, but we must be careful. It is only a positive worry if it motivates us to come to God, pray for our country, and ask for His protection. We must not allow these things to make us despair.
So, when the Bible says: "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?" (Matthew 6:25) or "Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say." (Luke 12:11) or "Casting all your worries on him because he cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7), they do not talk about those positive, constructive, and good worry but negative, wrong, and destructive worry.
Here are some reasons why the Bible tells us not to worry:
1. Worry damages our health. Doctors claim that worrying too much can affect both the mind and body in various ways, such as Disrupted sleep, Headaches, Difficulty concentrating, Nausea, Muscle tension, Exhaustion, Irritability, Elevated stress, and Difficulty making decisions. Statistics show that half of all the people in America's hospital beds are constant worriers. 43% of all adults suffer health effects due to worry and stress. 75% - 90% of all visits to primary care physicians are stress-related complaints or disorders. Dr. W.C. Alvera of the Mayo Clinic says, "Eighty percent of the stomach disorders that come to us are not organic, but functional . . . Most of our ills are caused by worry and fear." Dr. Charles Mayo once said, 'Worry affects the circulation and the whole nervous system. I've never known a man who died from overwork, but I've known many who have died from doubt.' Worry has been linked to all the leading causes of death, including heart and lung disease, cancer, accidents, and suicide.
2. Worry has many negative impacts on our lives and daily activities. One of the most intense expressions of worry is OCD - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. A person with OCD has a variety of intense, unwanted thoughts that they are obsessed with. Sometimes they feel compelled to do certain rituals because they fear that if they don't, something terrible will happen. This could mean turning off the faucet a certain way five times, closing all the doors, lining up the papers on a desk to match perfectly, having all the cans spaced perfectly in the cupboards, and so forth.
3. Worry is useless. A military chaplain once drew up a “Worry Table” based upon the problems men and women had brought to him through his years of service. He found their worries fit into the following categories: 40% of the time we worry about things that will never happen; 30% concern things that can't be changed; 12% center on criticism (that is often untrue); 10% relate to health which worsens when you worry; And only 8% are legitimate concerns which you can do something about. God does not wish for us to spend our days worrying. Not about the future, not about money or need. He will provide for all those who trust and believe in him. Ill.: Helen Hayes was a famous American actress many, many years ago. She and her husband had only one daughter. That daughter died at the age of 18 from polio. A few years later, Helen's husband died at a young age. Helen, however, lived to be in her eighties. When asked why her husband died at such an early age, she said he could not learn to stop asking why. He worried about their daughter's death until it killed him.
4. Worry immobilizes a person and does not lead to action. Worry is like putting your car in neutral but pressing the gas pedal. It burns oil and gas and is hard on the engine, but it doesn't get you anywhere. Worry is also like fog. Fog can be scary and obscure vision, causing accidents. But did you know that seven city blocks could be covered in fog 100 feet deep, and it would take less than an 8 oz. drinking glass of water to create it? Worry is like that thick fog that makes it hard to look ahead when there's really nothing to it!
5. We have a heavenly Father. When we trust God, we do not worry. And when we worry, we do not trust God. Worry says, "I've got a problem and I don't think God can take care of me through it." In this way, worry hinders our witness. Titus 2:10 says that we need to make the teachings of Jesus more attractive to people in every way. We don't do that when we worry. When we get so worried about things that consume us, we risk missing opportunities God has placed before us to impact people with our faith. Think about it. What kind of faith does it reveal to someone when we are so worried about every little detail of life? When we find ourselves worrying, we must ask ourselves, "Do I believe my God can handle this problem?" If we truly have confidence in our God, our faith can be a powerful testimony to others.
Next week, we will continue with how to overcome negative-destructive worries in our lives so that we can be more effective witnesses for the Kingdom of God.
