Worry Is A Waste

Over the past few days, I've been thinking about what it means to worry.  I have been a worrier all my life.  I admit it.  I've gotten a little bit better about not worrying as much as I've gone through a lot of physical suffering this year.  You would think it would be the opposite, right?  Well, I guess it could have created more worry, but the truth is that God has been teaching me a lot.  He has been drilling into me the fact that he is always with me and that I can do anything with his help.  However, he is very gentle with me.  There have been times in the past few months where I've felt like a fragile little child...trapped, wounded, and scared.  God knows how to handle me with care.  When I say that he has been drilling into me the fact that he is always with me, I mean that he has been showing that to me every day in a very real, but gentle way.  He provides me tangible evidence that he hears me when I call on him.  Someday I will share what that evidence is.  Most of all, he gives me scriptures in his Word that are exactly what I need to read at the moment to bring me comfort, courage, strength, joy, peace, etc.  

To worry means to torment oneself with or suffer from disturbing thoughts.  It is a state of restlessness and agitation, producing mental disturbance, uneasiness, foreboding, anxiety, and painful uncertainty.  It is so powerful that it can even gain control of your physical body if you let it.  I know this from personal experience.  You are the only one who can control how much you worry about something, even when people tell you things that are worrisome.  You may get bad news about yourself or someone else.  You may lose your job suddenly.  You may see on the weather report that a tornado or hurricane is threatening your home, or the home of someone you love.  You may be worried when your child is late coming home from school, or a date.  There are many things that can cause us to worry.  However, the worry I'm addressing is about things that haven't even happened yet. 

There have been times when I've been lying in bed unable to sleep because I've gotten myself so worked up worrying about something.  I'm sure most of you have had the same thing happen.  Worry consumes us with fear and paralyzes us.  It can cause us to think irrationally and sometimes even lead to poor decisions based in fear.  It can hold us back from our true potential and cripple us.  It's pointless, fruitless, and can ruin just about anything...our physical bodies, our relationships, opportunities, promotions, travel plans, etc.  Worry is really hard to control once it crosses over a certain point.

To some extent, worrying can be a good thing, if it's in the form of genuine concern.  It can help us to discern certain questionable situations, solve problems, change plans that need changing, and keep us aware of the situations around us.  However, when it crosses over into obsessive worry it becomes a problem.  Obsessive worry is when you can't stop the horrible thoughts running around inside your head.  When you can't ever see the positive side of a situation because you're too worried about what "might" happen.  You're too afraid to move forward because you are paralyzed in your mind.  You start to have a physical reaction and you have trouble breathing, or you start sweating, you get a massive headache, or you begin to experience pain somewhere in your body.  When worry begins to affect not only yourself, but your family and friends as well, then you know you have a big problem.  Our worry not only holds us back, but it can hold others back as well.  We can pass our fears on to other people, and that's not good.  You can worry someone else and ruin their day.  The person may not have had a thought in their head about anything bad happening to them, but with one sentence out of your mouth, you can plant a negative seed in their mind that can grow into a full blown tree in no time.  That's why it is so important to get worry under control.  It's not just for our own benefit.

In Matthew 6:25-27, Jesus is teaching about worry.  He said, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes.  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap, or store away in barns; and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?  Vs. 34, "Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Jesus tells us not to worry because he knows what worry can do to us; especially worrying about the needs that God promises to supply.  As I already mentioned, worry can damage our health.  In addition to that, it causes the object of our worry to consume our thoughts, it disrupts our productivity, it stunts our creativity, it negatively affects the way we treat others, and it reduces our ability to trust God.  How many of these things are you experiencing?  Here is the difference between worry and genuine concern - worry immobilizes, but concern moves you to action.  Planning for tomorrow is well worth our time, but worrying about tomorrow is just wasting time.  Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference.  When we plan well, with God's guidance, it can alleviate worry.  But, when we become obsessive worriers we are consumed by fear and will find it very difficult to trust God.  We need to make sure we don't let the worries about tomorrow affect our relationship with God today.  He knows what we need and his plans for us are good.  Trusting God doesn't mean that bad things will never happen to us.  It means that we trust him in the good times, knowing that we can also trust him in the bad times.  God is with you, he loves you, and he is for you.  So, don't worry! 

Romans 8:38 says, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present or the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

I really liked this article:  How To Stop Worrying So Much.  I hope you enjoy it as well.  Let's be warriors instead of worriers.