So, Who's Worrying?

Good question, right?

Well the answer is in the question actually. All of us worry. Some more than others, but the truth is that we all worry from time to time. We worry about our children, jobs, family members, illness, death, bills and financial woes, our pets, friends, world events, and all kinds of things that typically have “stressors” attached to them. Otherwise known as LIFE. Problems will always be a part of your existence. We can't escape from it but we sure can learn how to manage it better! Worry is simply believing what the devil has told us is actually true! It's not, my dear readers, it's NOT! Satan found a grand old way to not only place doubt into our minds but to also use “worry” to escalate those thoughts into anxiety disorders. Oh the endless circle. The endless web that he weaves! John MacArthur said this about worry, "Worry is the sin of distrusting the promise and providence of God, and yet it is a sin that Christians commit perhaps more frequently than any other." 

God Has a Plan!

Nothing good ever comes from worrying. Think about it. You spend hours, days, weeks and sometimes even months, worrying about something that on average, never actually happens! That's part of the deception! Getting us to worry so much about something that will never happen instead of keeping us focused on the Lord and His peacefulness. So it's such a waste of precious time! The uselessness of it! All the sleepless nights, all the burdened days; all the joyless, peace-destroying, health-destroying, happiness-destroying, love-destroying hours that men and women have ever given into, in all earth’s centuries, never produced one good thing. It's all evil and only evil. It's been given to us by the enemy, the devil, making it a harass-able sin! What it does do though is shuts out the face of God, the loveliness of nature, the joy of love, the compensations of life. It has poisoned, and continues to poison, the peace of others while it casts its hateful shadow over other lives. Doubt and worry is nothing more than dark shadows hanging over our heads anyway. No matter how you look at it. The very point of the sin of worry, the very reason why it is the most cowardly and baseless of sins, is that it darkens the lives we are most responsible to bless! It darkens our own lives in ways that we don't even see because we're in the midst of that darkness.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus deals with this face of worry. He actually gives it more space than to adultery or murder. I'm not saying or even concluding that worry is a graver sin than adultery or murder, just that it's far more prevalent. Wherever Jesus Christ looked He saw the unmistakable traces of anxiety. He knew what it was right away. All the faces bore that sinister mark of worry and anxiety. The Sermon on the Mount is the constitution of the kingdom of heaven here on earth. That kingdom excludes worry. That kingdom excludes anxiety. Matthew 6:28-30, “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; v29) and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. v30) Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” 

The Christian is not an orphan in this unfriendly world. Why? Because he's a child of the One, True God. The One, True and Faithful God who feeds the birds and who clothes the flowers, making each the subject of His solicitude. It's been estimated, based on the quantity that is needed to sustain life of every bird, that no millionaire on this great, big earth could feed God’s birds for just ONE day. But God feeds them every single day! So in effect, Jesus says basically, “Now, that's what the Christian’s Father does for flowers and birds. Will He not do as much, and much more, for His own dear children?” The argument can't be answered. It's no wonder that we've imagined a multitude of invisible spirits at work upon the human countenance from the cradle to the grave, spirits angelic and spirits from the pit, spirits of light and spirits of darkness; that with viewless engravers that patiently inscribe the lines which mark every thought and action upon our furrowed faces! Of course, the deeper, and yet even more awful truth is that human thoughts and actions are self-recording, and as much as we might try to struggle against it, that record is burned and ironed into the substance of the human face. Self recording of thoughts and actions are replayed over and over. Worrying about things give them permission to get bigger and bigger because our minds are very creative!! And the enemy is aware of our weaknesses......

The definition of worry is as follows: 1) a state of anxiety and uncertainty over actual, imagined or potential problems. 2) mental distress or agitation resulting from concern usually for something impending or anticipated and 3) to torment oneself with or suffer from disturbing thoughts. This seems to sum up what we all go through from time to time. The Bible tells us in Philippians 4:6, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;" This may be the hardest command to obey as Christians because of our nature. Supplication, or petitions, is simply a specific but detailed request! See, God is interested in ALL of our matters, not just the religious ones or the spiritual ones but in everything....all the fine details that concern each of us. Paul tells us here not to panic but PRAY. Whenever God tells you to remove something from your life, or to eliminate something that is a hindrance to you, He always has something much better, much more superior to replace it with. He will always replace a negative with a positive. So tell Him exactly what is bothering you, or troubling you, what you want and need. Don't pray vague prayers, but rather, be specific. Unload all of your "stressors" on the Lord and pray about everything instead of worrying. It's a tremendous safety valve release of pressure! But once He tells us to be anxious for nothing, look what He assures us in the very next verse, one that most people never quote, Philippians 4:7, "and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." God ALWAYS shows us what His promises are, what the results of our obedience is, after a command! And in this case, what a beautiful result to be promised of peace that surpasses all understanding! This is the God that we serve!

Some people are just born worriers, seemingly to have a keen ability to find a problem in every solution given because basically they don't trust. They find problems with everything actually. The tend to look at the negative side, always the bad things. Worry isn't really natural and must be a learned behavior, and one that has to be practiced to get good at! If it's learned, then wouldn't it suffice it to say that it can be unlearned? I'd venture to say yes! Jesus said, in Matthew 6:34, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." People in general, tend to expect the worst to happen in life and it's a pure source of stress. It's worthless because it can't change the past or control the future. What it does do though is mess us up in the here and now. The bottom line is that worry tends to be us assuming responsibilities that God never intended for us to possess because in essence, it's playing God, trying to control the uncontrollable. Our Lord Jesus warns His own disciples against the distracting and distrustful sins of this life more often than many care to see. This particular sin of worry more often than not ensnares the poor just as much as the love of wealth ensnares the wealthy.

Exchange Stress for God's Peace

Matthew 6:27, "Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?" This is another example of a question that is already answered......the answer is NO. In fact, research has proven that excessive worrying can lead to many health related problems. Worrying is feeling uneasy or being overly concerned about a situation or problem. With excessive worrying, your mind and body go into overdrive as you constantly focus on "what might happen." Excessive worrying can lead to anxiety, even a panic state of mind. A panic disorder, or panic attack. That only increases one's fears and amplifies the worry, which starts the snowball effect. There are two elements to the stress response. According to Web, MD, the first is the perception of the challenge and the second is an automatic physiological reaction called the "fight or flight" response. This response brings on a surge of adrenaline and sets your body on red alert. Chronic worry and emotional stress can trigger a host of health problems. The problem occurs when fight or flight is triggered on a daily basis by excessive worrying and anxiety, often times unreasonable and unrealistic. The fight or flight response causes the body’s sympathetic nervous system to release stress hormones such as cortisol. These hormones alone can boost blood sugar levels and triglycerides which are the blood fats that can be used by the body for fuel. The hormones can also produce the following PHYSICAL reactions: Difficulty swallowing, depression, dizziness, dry mouth, fast heartbeat, fatigue, headaches, inability to concentrate, irritability, muscle aches, nausea, shortness of breath, trembling and twitching. When the excessive fuel in the blood isn’t being used properly for physical activities, the chronic anxiety and the immediate outpouring of stress hormones can also have some serious physical consequences, including, but not limited to: Suppression of the immune system, digestive disorders, muscle tension,
short-term memory loss, premature coronary artery disease and a heart attack! These are pretty serious health risks! And, although these effects are a response to stress, stress itself is simply the trigger. Whether or not you become ill will totally depend on how you handle stress. The Lord Jesus and PRAY!

Here's an interesting bit of information that I found proof of the power of our Lord and of prayer! A life insurance company a few years back did a study for their company policies. They learned that people who attended church on a regular basis, once a week, lived on average 5.7 years longer than that of the general public. Why? Well, it's possibly because people who attend church weekly and who have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ know that worry destroys the system and they are more likely to pray than to worry. See, God tells us in 1 Peter 5:7, "casting all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you." He wants us to unload our worries and troubles upon Him. He is the God who made every thumbprint in the world different and unique, just as He made every snowflake in the world different and unique and every voice print in the world different and unique. He is the same God who made each of us, His own likeness, different and unique and He is big enough to handle all of the details, great and small, in our lives. He IS the God of details! He can handle anything and everything that you give to Him, that you surrender to Him! There isn't any problem too big for God's power to dissolve nor too small for God's concern. It ALL matters!

So the counter attack to the bad benefits of worrying and anxiety is finding an "attitude of gratitude." This is the healthiest human emotion. Having a grateful heart, being thankful and being appreciative of all that is given to us in this life. It actually increases our immunity! How awesome is THAT!?! It has a physical benefit to expressing our attitude of gratitude. If you look at the ungrateful people that you know or have crossed paths with, they tend to also be very unhappy people on average. They are never satisfied. They are never fulfilled. Nothing is ever good enough for them. They tend to be , what my pastor calls, the ""when....and then" people. WHEN such and such happens THEN I'll be happy. They are never happy in the MOMENT. So here's a little challenge for all of us to take. Something I've done when my own worries started to become more than a normal event of life. I found it to work in a strange and powerful way! If you're feeling depressed and worried, make a list of about 50 things that you're truly grateful for in your life. When you begin to focus on the gratefulness, it gets your focus OFF of the problems that are weighing heavy on your heart and redirects the focus onto the benefits IN your life! We really have so much that we take for granted and it becomes apparent when we focus on the 50 things that we are truly thankful for! Give it a try! Try to develop the attitude of gratitude and watch the stress level in your own life diminish. In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, it tells us, "in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 

Every single problem in our lives, from depression to finances to family to careers and everything in between, can be changed if we change our thought process. Yes, that's a true statement. Everything begins with a thought. Including sin. It has to be thought of first before an action can take place. Therein lies the choice. So all of our thoughts can be made positive by allowing the Lord to replace the negative thoughts. We must retrain our thoughts, our minds, to be in the right thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ because, after all, He is our example! The power of the mind is an amazing thing! Not only can it be fragile, broken and shattered, but it can also be REPAIRED, REGENERATED and RENEWED! Something I've witnessed in my own life and the lives of others! Our minds belong to God if you're a born again believer! Our minds can be renewed and repaired. Those thoughts can be replaced with positive thoughts and gratitude. That can change your life forever! I wrote about the Victim Mentality, and for those who haven't read it, you can go here because I touch on how the enemy wants us to be victims instead of being the free warriors that we are in Christ! Thoughts. It all starts with a thought. Some people grab ahold of that one thought and focus on it to the point it becomes who they are, how they act and eventually, it grows into many other useless thoughts.

So to reduce the stress in our lives, we must first change the way we think. Sounds simple enough until we try it. It's POSSIBLE though and with practice, with conscious practice, we begin to realize that stress is inside of ourselves, not outside. Our minds are special and wonderful gifts from God and is capable of storing over 100 trillion thoughts! It can handle some pretty gigantic things, things that we can't even imagine in this life. The beauty of our minds and thought processes is we've been given the freedom to choose what we think about by God. In Philippians 4:8, we are told to do something so beautifully simple and so true, "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things." God knows how our minds work and He knows what's best for us. Throughout His breathed Word  and Instructions to us, He is always speaking to us in Love and guiding us in the ways that we should go! This is a perfect example of how much He knows how these kinds of thoughts, if we choose to meditate on them, will do our minds, body and spirits GOOD! It is here that I will remind you that what we ALLOW into our minds through our eyes, ears and thoughts can can depress us, darken our spirits, moods and lives, weigh us down and certainly give cause to worry and anxiety! Many people, even Christians, are totally indiscriminate about what they're allowing to enter in their minds through music, songs, movies, trashy reading materials, pornography, and "tolerating" the sex filled culture we are living in. All of this should be a warning as to the age of worry that we seem to be occupying right now. What you think, affects the way you feel. The way you feel, affects the way you act. The way you act, affects the way you feel. So guard your mind by keeping it focused on the RIGHT things!

God's 8 Filters to Meditate On!

When it says "meditate on these things" Paul is saying this involves a deliberate, conscious choice. Change the channels of your mind much the same way you change the channel on your television. When a thought comes to your mind, ask yourself immediately, and get in to the habit of this practice, "Is this true, right and noble...is this from the Lord?" If it's NOT, then reject it and ask the Lord to replace them with His thoughts! There are 8 words in Philippians 4:8 that are also meant to be seen as 8 filters! True, noble, just, pure, lovely, good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy. If our thoughts aren't falling into one of those 8 filters, then we don't need to be thinking about them. We need to block them from getting into our mind, because eventually, whatever isn't of the 8, will cause stress! Remember what Proverbs 23:7 says, "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, But his heart is not with you." AS we THINK in our HEARTS, so we are. Pretty profound, wouldn't you say!?! This can be translated into something like, "Whatever I think about is what I am becoming...or what I am." If you don't like the way you're heading, change what you think about in order to change the direction of your life. God can do miracles in our lives, but there are some things that we have to be proactive in as well. This involves the matter of choice. So by choosing to meditate on those 8 things, the things of the Lord, we are choosing to change our thought processes. It won't be easy, but it will be rewarding! It will bring us a peace that surpasses all understanding.

If you adhere to His command in Philippians 4:6-7, then you will experience the guaranteed peace of mind! People are always looking everywhere for peace of mind in all the wrong places and never finding it! It's elusive. They try pills, fads, therapy, new age crystals, stress reduction seminars, yoga, read all kinds of self-help books just to get a little peace of mind and still nothing. Paul tells us that God's peace is a gift to us! It's a gift that definitely can't be explained, duplicated, fabricated or understood. You'll know it when it appears because it's a sense of peace that washes over your life. So how do you maintain that kind of peace? By trusting in Jesus Christ! Paul isn't talking about "religion," he's talking about a relationship with God's only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ! You were made with a God-shaped vacuum in your life and when you try to fill that with anything else, well, it's like trying to force a square peg into a round hole. It just doesn't fit no matter how hard you try. Trying to fill your life with popularity, wealth, power, pleasures, possessions or prestige just don't fit in the bigger picture! It doesn't fill the space. God made us to know Him, to love Him, to have a relationship with Him. Not one of us is here by accident because God doesn't create by accident so therefore not one of us are, or were, an "accident!" He made each of us for a purpose. When we know Him, there is a sense of peace that comes into our lives.

Philippians 4:7, "and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." The word "keep" or "guard" in the Greek is a military term meaning a sentry guard, a garrison, or a detachment of soldiers. The book of Philippians was written to a group of people who lived in the city of Philippi in Greece. It was a Roman colony that was protected by the Roman legion and the people knew this word very well because they knew the Roman legion kept the peace in Philippi. Paul used the word that he knew everybody would know and says, that's the way God will guard your mind and heart when you have a relationship with Jesus Christ and trust Him moment by moment. Instead of worrying about everything, you pray about everything. And you thank God for all things and keep your mind on the right things. God will put a garrison, a sentry guard, around your heart and when worry comes knocking at the door, He will protect you with His peace!

God's alternative to dealing with stress in your life is found in 1 Peter 5:7, "casting all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you." He carried your sins on the Cross in the past, He will carry your stress in the present! Give it to Him.....He will handle it all with His loving care! Prayer is an ancient word for "to tie to" or "to bind" and that's what we need to do with our worries! Pray them to heaven to our Lord Jesus Christ the King!



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