“Don’t Worry”
“Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not.”
Matthew 6:27 New Living Translation
Corrie Ten Boom knew about worries. She put her life on the line every day while helping Jews escape during WW II. In her book Each New Day she told of something a friend taught her. "When I worry I go to the mirror and say to myself, ‘This tremendous thing which is worrying me is beyond a solution. It is especially too hard for Jesus Christ to handle.' After I have said that, I smile.” She used to say, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows; it empties today of its strength.”
According to Harper’s Index, the average American is in a bad mood 110 days out of the year. About 30% of the time we are in a bad mood because of worry, stress, anger, or depression. We worry about lots of things: am I eating enough, do I eat too little, am I going to live, when am I going to die?
Once upon a time, Death was walking toward a city. A man who met Death asked him what he was going to do. “I’m going to kill 10 people,” Death replied. “That’s terrible,” said the man. “I know,” said Death, “But that’s what I do.” The next day the same man met Death coming away from the city, and he protested, “You said you were going to kill 10 people, but 100 died.”
“I only killed 10,” said Death. “Worry and fear killed the rest.”
We laugh at this story, but the truth of it hits close to home.
We know we shouldn’t worry; we know that it’s wrong and even sinful to do it; we know that it doesn’t do any good, yet we do it anyway.
Matthew 6:25-34 (New Living Translation) teaches five arguments against worry and two ways to defeat it. How well do you live up to Jesus’ way to deal with worry?
Five arguments against worry –
· If God gave us life, surely we can trust Him with the small things. (v. 25)
· Like the birds of the air, our security isn’t found in storing up things for the future. (v. 26)
· Worry is pointless; it won’t make us taller or cause us to live longer. (v. 27)
· If God gives breath-taking beauty to a short-lived flower, how much more will He care for you? (vv. 28-30)
· God is your Father; to worry shows distrust in Him. (v. 32)
Two ways to defeat worry –
· Focus on doing the will of God, and love God above everyone and everything else.
· Worry can be defeated when we live one day at a time (Matthew 6:34). ”Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
Beloved, worry quenches the work of God’s grace in your life because it’s a sinful replacement for trust and confidence in His promises. Trust and worry cannot live in the same heart; they are mutually exclusive.
GospeLines Prayer: Father, I don’t want to be like the man on his deathbed who said, “I have had a lot of trouble in my life, most of which never happened.” Instead, help me to live and die worry free. Amen and amen.
Tommy Harrison