He Chose Wednesday's to Worry

 

J. Arthur Rank, an English executive, decided to do all his worrying on one day each week. He chose Wednesdays. When anything happened that gave him anxiety and annoyed his ulcer, he would write it down and put it in his worry box and forget about it until next Wednesday.

 

The interesting thing was that on the following Wednesday when he opened his worry box, he found that most of the things that had disturbed him the past six days were already settled. It would have been useless to have worried about them.

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Worry Is Faith in the Negative

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Worry is faith in the negative, trust in the unpleasant, assurance of disaster and belief in defeat...

worry is wasting today's time to clutter up tomorrow's opportunities with yesterday's troubles.

A dense fog that covers a seven-city-block area one hundred feet deep is composed of less than one glass of water

divided into sixty thousand million drops. Not much is there, but it can cripple an entire city.— Source unknown

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What Does Worry Do?

 

It does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow,

but it does empty today of its strength.

It does not make you escape the evil;

it makes you unfit to cope with it when it comes.

God gives us the power to bear all the sorrow of His making,

but He does not guarantee to give us strength

to bear the burdens of our own making such as worry induces. —Ian Maclaren

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Worry Is Fear’s Extravagance

 

Worry is fear’s extravagance. It extracts interest on trouble before it comes due. It constantly drains the energy God gives us to face daily problems and to fulfill our many responsibilities. It is therefore a sinful waste. A woman who had lived long enough to have learned some important truths about life remarked, “I’ve had a lot of trouble—most of which never happened!” She had worried about many things that had never occurred, and had come to see the total futility of her anxieties.

 

An unknown poet has written:

 

“I heard a voice at evening softly say,

Bear not your yesterdays into tomorrow,

Nor load this week with last week’s load of sorrow.

Lift all your burdens as they come, nor try

To weigh the present with the by-and-by.

One step and then another, take your way;/ Live day by day!” — Our Daily Bread

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Fret Not, Faint Not, Fear Not

 

Fret not—He loves you (John 13:1)

Faint not—He holds you (Psalm 139:10)

Fear not—He keeps you (Psalm 121:5)

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Don't Worry, But

 

Count your blessings instead of your crosses.

Count your gains instead of your losses.

Count your joys instead of your woes.

Count your friends instead of your foes.

Count your smiles instead of your tears.

Count your courage instead of your fears.

Count your full years instead of your lean.

Count your kind deeds instead of your mean.

Count your health instead of your wealth.

Count on God instead of yourself.

— Author unknown

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Fashioned for Faith, not Fear

 

I am inwardly fashioned for faith, not for fear. Fear is not my native land; faith is.

I am so made that worry and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life; faith is the oil.

I live better by faith and confidence than by fear, doubt and anxiety.

In anxiety and worry, my being is gasping for breath—these are not my native air.

But in faith and confidence, I breathe freely—these are my native air.

 

A John Hopkins University doctor says,

"We do not know why it is that worriers die sooner than the non-worriers, but that is a fact."

But I, who am simple of mind, think I know;

We are inwardly constructed in nerve and tissue, brain cell and soul, for faith and not for fear.

God made us that way. To live by worry is to live against reality. — Dr. E. Stanley Jones

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Is Anxiety a Sin?

 

A family had put their Grandma on her first plane flight, but she hadn’t been very confident about the experience of leaving the ground on this contraption. When they met her at the airport on her return, one of the family members kidded her by asking, “Well, did the plane hold you up okay?” She grudgingly replied, “Well, yes,” and then quickly added, “But I never did put my full weight down on it!”

 

Many Christians are like that Grandma. The truth is, they’re being sustained completely by God, but they’re afraid to put their full weight down on Him. As a result, they’re plagued by anxiety and aren’t able to enjoy the flight.

 

Few of us are strangers to anxiety. It creeps in over big and little things, gnawing away at our insides. Arthur Roche graphically described anxiety as “a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.”

 

We often feel anxious about our finances, our health, or our children. Sometimes we can’t identify any specific reason for our anxiety, but it’s there, nagging away at our insides. If we don’t learn to deal with it properly, it can cause all sorts of health problems, which in turn feed our anxiety!

 

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus made it clear that anxiety stems from a lack of faith and from a wrong focus on the things of this world instead of on the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:25-34). If we excuse our anxieties by saying, “Well, it’s only human,” or, “Anybody would feel anxious in this situation,” we will not overcome it because we are not confronting the root cause of it, namely, our sin of not believing God and of not seeking first His kingdom and righteousness.

 

To those who follow Him, Jesus promised, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27). If a non-Christian sees you as a believer weighed down with anxiety and care, he isn’t going to be asking how he can have what you have! Anxiety and joy are mutually exclusive. So for the sake of our testimony of Jesus Christ, it is imperative that we learn to experience the peace of God, especially in the face of trials.

 

There are many people who come to Christ because they are anxious and they want the peace He offers. But if they do not confront the fact that they are living to please themselves rather than God, they will simply settle into a self-centered life where they “use God” for their own peace and comfort. Jesus said, “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it” (Mark 8:35). The peace Christ offers is the by-product of enthroning Christ as Lord and living for His kingdom.

 

Christians should care deeply about people and their problems and should work hard to resolve problems. As members of the same body, we are to have mutual concern for one another (1 Corinthians 12:25). Paul mentions the concern that he bears daily for all the churches (2 Corinthians 11:28). He tells the Philippians that Timothy is genuinely concerned for their welfare (Philippians 2:20). In each of these verses, the word concern is the same as the Greek word for anxious, but clearly it is not sinful anxiety but proper concern.

 

But proper concern turns to sinful anxiety when we lack faith in God’s role as the Sovereign Lord and provider—when we put self at the center instead of God’s kingdom and righteousness. So the first step in dealing with anxiety is to examine whether it is due to lack of faith or to a wrong focus on self. Confess the sin to God and yield to Him. —Steven J. Cole

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Not My Worry

 

“Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee” (Psalm 55:22).

 

A man worried constantly about everything. Then one day his friends heard him whistling happily and looking noticeably relaxed. “What happened?” they asked him in astonishment.

 

He said, “I’m paying a man to do my worrying for me.” “How much do you pay him?” they asked. “Two thousand dollars a week,” he replied. “Wow! How can you afford that?” “I can’t,” he said, “but that’s his worry.”

 

While this humorous way to handle stress doesn’t work in real life, as God’s children we can turn our worries over to Someone who has everything perfectly under control even—especially—when we feel it is not.

 

The prophet Isaiah reminds us that God brings out the stars and calls them all by name (Isaiah 40:25-26). Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. And just as God knows the stars by name, He knows us individually and personally. We are each under His watchful care.

 

If we are inclined to worry, we can turn that worry over to the Lord. He is never too weary or too tired to pay attention to us. He has all wisdom and all power, and He loves to use it on our behalf. The Holy One who directs the stars has His loving arms around us. — Our Daily Bread

 

 

Pray About It

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“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).

 

The Sin of Worry

 

Did you ever find yourself worrying? Do you know that Scripture calls worry a sin? When you realized that you were worrying, did you go to God and confess it as a sin? Worry is just as much a sin as adultery, or murder, or theft. Yet how often we as believers treat it lightly when we find our stomachs tied in knots because we have worried ourselves into a nervous frenzy.

 

The apostle Paul was just as much concerned about the sin of worry as he was about any other sin that pursues God’s children. He began his instruction on the subject with a command: “Be careful for nothing.” The word translated “be careful” has in it the idea of an anxious, distressing care. It is the kind of worry that puts a crease in our brows. It is the kind of care the makes us irritable and hard to get along with. The command is given, “Do not under any circumstance worry about anything.”

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The Solution to Worry

 

After the apostle gives us the command, he shows us the solution. “But [instead of worry] in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” Making our requests known to God is the same as committing them to the Lord or letting our burden roll off our shoulders into the hands of God. The solution to worry is trust. Faith believes God is capable of bearing what we cannot, and counts Him faithful to bear it if we give Him the opportunity.

 

When Paul exhorts the child of God to use prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, he is bringing several ideas together. The word translated “prayer” has to do with presenting our desires or wishes to God, with a conscious dependence upon Him to fulfill His responsibility toward us.

 

Paul next says that we should offer “supplication.” Supplication concerns a specific request for special needs. Paul is saying that to be relieved of worry we ought to move in our praying from the general to the specific. How often we pray, “God, bless me today. Bless my loved ones,” and that is as specific as we ever get. The antidote to worry is to recognize a specific need, put yourself in a place of dependence upon God, and expect Him to do something about that very thing.

 

Paul also says that we should offer “thanksgiving.” Thanksgiving looks back to previous answers to prayer and demonstrations of God’s goodness, giving thanks because He has worked in similar situations before. Confidence for the future is based on what God has done in the past.

 

God’s Substitute to Worry

 

And now we have a promise: “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds.” It is not natural, it is not understandable that a child of God can live with the peace of God in his heart in the midst of today’s many problems. But it is true. The apostle gives the promise that, when we cast everything that would cause us concern into the hands of God, the peace of God shall stand guard duty over our hearts and minds.

 

What the apostle is describing here is not so much delivering the mind after it has become obsessed with worry. Rather, he is promising that the mind will be kept from worry, because that which normally would cause concern is immediately transferred to the shoulder of One who is able to bear it for us.

 

We can live without worry, and without fear, and without anxiety, and without nervous exhaustion, and without frustration—but not without God’s help. We must let our worries roll off on God, and He will deliver us from worry. — From The Joy of Living by Dwight J. Pentecost.

 

 

God’s Concerns

 

When it comes to worry, followers of Jesus stand out in two ways: what they are concerned about and what they do with their fears. Christians have exactly the same worries as everyone else, but as they get to know God better, they realize that they can trust all their concerns to Him. If all their concerns are being handled by God, they are freed up to focus on God’s concerns. What is God concerned about? His concern is to see more and more people trusting Jesus and coming back into a relationship with Him.

 

And this should be our first concern too. But it can’t be if we are distracted by our worries. This doesn’t mean our everyday challenges aren’t valid or serious. They are, and God knows this. But God can do more for us than we can do on our own. He loves us and will provide what we need. If we can start to give our worries to Him, we will begin to see how dependable He is. And as we grow in confidence, seeing that our lives are in His hands, we will be able to share our confidence with others. In this way we will join God in His concern for the many people who still don’t know Him. — From What Are You Worried About? Discovery Series, Our Daily Bread Ministries.

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Seven Answers for Anxiety

 

You may be a Christian who is allowing your anxieties to speak for God, which is never a wise thing. Allow God to speak for Himself. Here are just a few of my favorite examples:

He loves you (Deuteronomy 23:5).

He does not want you to live in fear (Psalm 27:1).

He knows who you are and still loves you (Psalm 139:1).

He wants you to be with Him always (John 3:16).

Nothing can snatch you from His hand (John 10:28-29).

His love for you will never fail (1 Corinthians 13:8).

He says you are His precious child (1 John 3:1).

 

These are just a very small sample of God's thoughts about you and His promises. There are so many more! As a baby step, find and memorize two or three promises that give you a sense of security and peace. Allow God’s voice—instead of the voice of anxiety—to fill your heart and mind. When you listen to God's voice, Paul says God will "keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7). God will guard your heart and mind. There is no stronger protection.

— From Seven Answers for Anxiety by Gregory L. Jantz.

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Don't cross your bridges until you get to them.

We spend our lives defeating ourselves

crossing bridges we never get to.

 

"So, don't be anxious about tomorrow.

God will take care of your tomorrow, too..."

(Matthew 6:34)

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Dear friend, Do you have stingy faith? Do you only pray to the Lord when you absolutely have to? God is not bothered by your requests. In fact, He delights when you bring everything to Him in prayer. He truly cares. Don't worry about being a burden to God. You're no bother!

"Many things are lost for lack of asking." — Old English Proverb

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Don't worry about the future but trust in God's love and

be confident in His power to bring you through any bad circumstance!