The Dangers Of Worry

Therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life, what you shall eat {or what you shall drink;} or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life greater [in quality] than food, and the body [far above and more excellent] than clothing? (Matthew 6:25 AMP)

There is something that most of us as Christians do, usually unawares, yet is the one of the most dangerous things anyone could ever do.

 Do you want to know what that is? It is the dangerous act and lifestyle of worrying. Oftentimes we worry about our lives, what we shall wear, what the economy will be like, what our children shall become in life, what the Pastor says or thinks about us, what the government policies will be like, what the weather will be like tomorrow: the list is endless.

This however is a dangerous way of living. Let us look at this interesting account in the Word:

Therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life, what you shall eat {or what you shall drink;} or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life greater [in quality] than food, and the body [far above and more excellent] than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth much more than they?

And who of you by worrying {and} being anxious can add one unit of measure (cubit) to his stature {or} to the span of his life? And why should you be anxious about clothes? Consider the lilies of the field {and} learn thoroughly how they grow; they neither toil nor spin.

Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his magnificence (excellence, dignity, and grace) was not arrayed like one of these. [I Kings 10:4-7.] But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive {and} green and tomorrow is tossed into the furnace, will He not much more surely clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry {and} be anxious, saying, What are we going to have to eat? or, What are we going to have to drink? or, What are we going to have to wear? For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for {and} crave {and} diligently seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need them all.

But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.

So do not worry {or} be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries {and} anxieties of its own. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble.

Matthew 6v25-34 AMP

I guarantee you that after such a prayer you will sense a breeze of relief sweep over you. There will be an outpouring of an inner joy where you are rest assured that God is working behind the scenes for you.

Folks there is no recommendation whatsoever for us to worry. Instead of being useful or helpful, worrying is actually detrimental to our progress as Christians.  Worry shows a lack of faith and is also a clear indication of the presence or fullness of fear. Fear, worry, doubt and anxiety are direct products of the devil and they are interlinked and intertwined. In the account above, we saw that it says  “And who of you by worrying {and} being anxious can add one unit of measure (cubit) to his stature {or} to the span of his life?”

Worry is meditating on the contradictions of the Word. Just like faith meditates on the Word of God, worry meditates on anything that contradicts or disagrees with the Word of God. For example, when the devil says ”you are broke,“ by worrying you will meditate on this lie. The Word on the contrary says God supplies all your need and He is your Shepherd. Worry will meditate on the lies of the devil. By worrying you will begin to expand the notion that you are broke in your mind. You begin to see yourself broke, imagining yourself borrowing from your friend, imagining yourself sleeping without having dinner, living life in poverty; you imagine all the implications of being broke in your life. The more you worry (meditate), the more real it becomes to you that you are broke and eventually it will become a reality. That’s exactly what most of us do in our lives. We often absentmindedly believe the lies of the devil and meditate on them.

The main reason why it is simpler for us to worry than to believe God is because worry is usually ignited by visible things, whereas faith is ignited by invisible things. That is why the Bible says we walk by faith and not by sight. Faith is the substance of things hoped for; worry is the substance of things that are seen. This is why we become more worry conscious than faith conscious. The problem with worry is that it is an indirect message to God that says, ”God, I do not believe Your Word and I do not trust You“

Worry is when we try to meet our own needs on our own without God’s involvement. Instead of letting God take care of our lives, by worrying we strategise on how we can best help ourselves because we don’t believe that God can do it on His own.

One truth to know is that God loves and cares for you, more than He cares and loves the birds. That means that if God is able to feed birds that do not know how to hold a plough, birds that don’t wake up at 6am to go to work, they do not get caught up in hectic traffic jams in the morning on their way to the office; birds do not earn a salary or get retrenched sometimes, yet their tummies are always full of food. It is all because God, your own Father (not the birds’ Father), God the One who created you, the one who loves you with an everlasting love, the creator of the universe and the Lord your Shepherd; that same God cares for birds. Folks, if my Father does care for birds, I don’t think He will want me to live below or just above the poverty datum line, I certainly don’t agree that He is comfortable with seeing my children go to school with little or no pocket money, I will never agree that God delights in seeing me borrow money from other people, no no no, certainly not, God forbid!!!

If God cares for birds that do not toil, I am assured that I do not have to toil to be rich, and that also means that I cannot spend one more minute thinking of how I will get money to pay the bills. Even on deadline day I cannot panic, I do not panic when the debt collectors call me saying they are coming to sell my property. I do not worry because if my own Father can feed birds; I know that He will meet my every need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Worry is the cause of all stress and all depression. If only we would choose to believe God’s Word, we would have no minute to waste trying to think of how we can meet our needs. John 1v1 says that we should not let our hearts be troubled but rather believe God. worrying puts us in a condition of instability. By worrying we cannot add one cubit to our stature. It cannot develop us into anything better.

See, I told you that worry is meditation on the contradictions of the Word. There is one pretty sure thing about meditation. In Joshua 1v8, God tells Joshua that if he would meditate on the Word, he would make his way prosperous and have good success. The opposite is true where worry is concerned. The more you worry(meditate on the lies of the devil), you make your way disastrous and you will succeed in getting whatever you worry about. Meditating on the money that is insufficient for gasoline to take you to work tomorrow will make you succeed in failing to get gasoline for the car for tomorrow. If you however choose to meditate on the Word, you are rest assured of having even a full tank of gas to travel with.

Worrying is a choice you choose whether or not to make. There is one effective remedy for worry that I know, and that is, casting your cares upon the Lord. 1Peter 5v7 says ”Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately {and} cares about you watchfully“.The reason why people worry is because they do not know that God cares for them. Worrying is doing nothing but carrying upon yourself the burden that Christ should carry for you. He tells us to give Him our burdens Matthew 11v28. God does not want us to have sleepless nights thinking of what life has for us, no, He wants us to give all our problems to Him and surrender all things to Him, thus also admitting that you believe God enough to take good care of you. If you ever face a situation that may want you to spend a minute worrying about, go straight to the closet and pray. Just say ”God, this is trying to trouble me, I refuse to give it another thought. It is a care and so I give it unto you because you care for me. Take care of this situation because I have no right to do so. I thank you for taking care of me, in Jesus’ Name.“

I guarantee you that after such a prayer you will sense a breeze of relief sweep over you. There will be an outpouring of an inner joy where you are rest assured that God is working behind the scenes for you. Do not sit there worrying, there is nothing that you can produce that is useful, Jesus told us that. There is a general feeling that engulfs you when you worry, for example if you worry about your children, it is normal to think that you are being a responsible parent and a caring parent. You do not care for people by worrying about them. It is more powerful to believe and confess the Word over someone than to worry for them. Worrying is playing in the devil’s playground, his territory. So refuse to worry!! Refuse to worry!!!

Notice He also says “Therefore do not worry {and} be anxious, saying, What are we going to have to eat? or, What are we going to have to drink?”

Do not worry saying……Worry also involves speech. Watch also your mouth, your choice of words because it shows whether you worry or you believe.

Learn to cast your cares upon Jesus and never spend one more second worrying, because He cares for you.

Stay blessed and remember,

Jesus is Lord!!  TLG