Worry

The Cause And Cure For Worry

Worry—feeling uneasy or troubled—seems to plague multitudes of people in our world today. It’s human nature to be concerned about the bad situations in our world and in our personal lives, but if we’re not careful, the devil will cause us to worry beyond what’s reasonable.

Like a rocking chair, worry is always in motion, but it never gets you anywhere. So why do we struggle with it? And what good does it do?

Worry is the opposite of faith. It steals our peace, physically wears us out, and can even make us sick. When we worry, we torment ourselves—we’re doing the devil’s job for him! Worry is caused by not trusting God to take care of the various situations in our lives. Too often we trust our own abilities, believing that we can figure out how to take care of our own problems. And yet, after all our worry and effort to go it alone, we come up short—unable to bring about suitable solutions. 

At a young age, we discovered firsthand that people hurt people, so we didn’t trust others. We tried to take care of ourselves, refusing to depend on anyone who would hurt or disappoint us.

Too often our experiences in the world teach us this, and even after we become Christians, it takes a long time to overcome it. It’s difficult to learn how to trust God, but we eventually must learn that trying to take care of everything ourselves is too big a task.

Cast Your Cares on the One Who Cares for You

First Peter 5:6-7 says, Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. If Jesus invites us to cast all of our care and worry on Him, why do so many of us refuse to let go? Apparently, we’re not yet fed up with being miserable.

The only way to have victory in our lives is to play by God’s rules, and He says we must quit worrying if we want to have peace. So, when things come our way that cause us to be concerned, we need God’s help. But how do we get it? First Peter 5:6-7 lists two important steps: 1) humble yourselves, and 2) cast your anxieties—or cares—on Him.

All of us would be better off if we’d learn to lean on God and ask for His help. But as long as we try to do everything ourselves, God will let us. He won’t take care of our problems and worries—our anxieties—until we turn loose of them and give them to Him. Either we’re going to do it or God’s going to do it, but both of us aren’t going to.

Now, casting your care doesn’t mean you can be irresponsible. God won’t do for you what you can do yourself. You must do what you can do, and then trust God to do what you can’t. When we humble ourselves and ask for His help, then He will release His power in our situations. It’s only then that we can really enjoy life.

So the cure for worry is humbling ourselves before God, casting our cares on Him, and trusting Him. When we are able to believe and say, “God, I trust You,” it will literally change our lives.

Develop an Attitude of Faith and Prayer

I’ve learned that my attitude has a lot to do with living a worry-free life. There will always be situations that cause us concern, but with God’s help, we can live above all of it and enjoy life. However, when you give your problems to God, you must also decide to be satisfied with His answers.

See, trusting God to do what’s best for us also involves dying to self. Paul said, …It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20). You can trust God to do what’s best for you, so you don’t have to worry about it. When you have a positive attitude and keep your faith in God, you can’t be defeated. 

Together, faith and the Word of God will help you overcome worry. Worrying involves negative thoughts, but speaking positive things out of your mouth will interrupt those negative thought patterns. When we are full of the Word of God, we can speak it out of our mouths in faith. Faith is stronger than doubt, negativism and unbelief. It has a positive attitude that can overcome our past and lead us into a great future.

Faith is a powerful force that cannot be conquered.

Another powerful force is prayer. When you’re under pressure, it’s always best to pray about it instead of talk about it. Prayer is the blueprint for a successful life. During His time on earth, Jesus prayed. He entrusted everything to God—even His reputation and life. And we can do the same. We don’t have to explain all the problems to Him; we can just give them to Him and ask Him to take care of everything. Don’t complicate prayer. Just have confidence in simple, believing prayer. 

Look at Paul’s instructions in Philippians 4:6-7: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

If you’re a Christian who goes around burdened or weighed down all the time, something is wrong. You may have had faith in Christ for salvation, but you haven’t moved into walking in faith daily for the life that God has given you. The Bible tells us that God is faithful—that’s one of His major characteristics. He can be counted on to come through for us, so we should trust Him totally and completely. When we do, we’ll be ready for anything that may come our way.

Allow God to Give You Peace and Rest

In Matthew 11:28, Jesus said, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Jesus wants to ease our burdens and give us rest.

That sounds good, doesn’t it? I’ve had enough heavy stuff in my life, and I want to be free.

When we’re overloaded with the cares of this life—struggling, laboring and worrying—we need some help. Our minds need to rest from worrying about how to take care of problems; our emotions need to rest from being upset all the time; and our wills need a rest from stubbornness and rebellion. So we need to be humble enough to call out to God and say, “I need help!”

Your beginning doesn’t have to dictate your ending. Get God involved in every area of your life and allow Him to lead you into rest.

Worry or Worship?

Worry and worship are exact opposites, and we’d all be much happier if we learned to become worshippers instead of worriers. Worry opens the door for the devil, but worship is reverence and adoration for God that leads us into His presence. God created us to worship Him, and I don’t believe we can walk in victory if we don’t become worshippers.

Sometimes, when we don’t have what we need or want, the enemy tries to discourage us and keep us from worshipping God. But when we know that God has our best interests at heart, we can worship Him regardless of our circumstances. Remember, God is good, even when our circumstances are not! God may not always give us our heart’s desire right away. But He always wants us to develop a deep, personal relationship with Him and an outrageous love for Him—so much so that we can’t live without it. This kind of relationship and love brings about worshipful attitude that God wants us to have. 

To worship means “to reverence,” or “to defer to.” We are to have reverential fear and awe of God. We are to respect and honor Him, and defer to Him through submission and obedience, adapting ourselves to His will. We must realize that Christ, living in us, has come to lead and guide us into a special lifestyle of worship and victorious living.

When Satan throws worry on you, I challenge you to stop what you’re doing, get down on your knees before God, and begin praising Him. Worship is a spiritual weapon, a warhead or bomb you can use against the enemy. Your prayers and worship will get you heavenly help, and you won’t have to fight your own battles alone. God’s grace and power can make things happen with ease that you can’t bring about no matter how much you struggle. 

So stop worrying about everything, give it to God, and live in grace. Grace isn’t just divine favor—it’s power! Don’t waste another day of your life worrying. Determine what your responsibility is and what it is not. Don’t try to take on God’s responsibility. When we do what we can do, God steps in and does what we can’t. So give yourself and your worries to God and begin enjoying the abundant life He has planned for you.

The Bible Has Much To Say About Worry

Worry is sin!

We are commanded not to worry five times in just one chapter of Scripture:  Matthew 6. Over and over, like the tolling of a bell in a country churchyard, ring out the words, “Take no thought…take no thought…take no thought.”

God’s own Son cups His hands to His mouth and shouts, “Don’t worry!”

Don’t worry about your finances.  “My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” Philippians 4:19.

Don’t worry about your weaknesses.  “The Lord is the stronghold of my life” Psalm 27:1.  “The people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits” Daniel 11:32.

Don’t worry about your frustrations.  “You will keep him in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you” Isaiah 26:3.

Don’t worry about your enemies.  “The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” 1 John 4:4.

To worry is to put your faith in fear.  It is to trust in the unpleasant. It is to believe in defeat and despair.  It is a stream of doubt that surges through the mind, drowning optimism, hope and faith.  

An aviator was making a round-the-world trip.  On one leg of his journey he heard a noise in the plane—it sounded like the gnawing of a rat.  He was two hours from the nearest landing field. Not knowing what delicate instruments might be destroyed by the rat’s sharp teeth, he began to worry.

Then he remembered that a rat is not made for the heights.  It is made to live in dark holes in the ground. He nosed the plane higher and higher until the gnawing stopped.  Two hours later when he landed, there in the cockpit lay a dead rat.

Worry is a rat.  It cannot live in “the secret places of the Most High” Psalm 91:1.  It cannot breathe in the atmosphere of confidence and faith.

If your life has been thrown off course by worry, climb higher.  Come into the presence of the living God. Feel His peace, His power, His love — And know that worry must die in His presence.

5 Ways To Turn Worry Into Trust

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs and don’t forget to thank him for his answers.  Philippians 4:6, Living Bible

The persistent refusal to do something about an issue that troubles you is what can give birth to chronic worry.   Worry, however, is a choice, a bad decision which can be overcome. Interested in breaking the worry habit? Then follow these practical guidelines which will help you turn worry into trust.

Guideline #1:  Acknowledge that worry has become a problem.  Worry may be such an ingrained habit that it feels normal.  But admitting that worry has become chronic is the first step towards a long-term solution to the problem.

You may think, “I can handle my problems.  Sure, I do a little bit of worrying–everybody does–but I don’t need any help.”  Your body may tell you otherwise. Gained a few pounds after reaching for “comfort food?”  Or would your friends confirm that they have long listened to you complain about the same troubling issues?  We are so used to worrying that turning over our problems to God feels irresponsible to us! Ask yourself, how wise is it for you to carry the burden of worry when God says there is a solution by entrusting that concern to Him.  The first step is to acknowledge that, as 1 Peter says, “He himself bore our sins [including what worries you] on the tree…” (1 Peter 2:24).

Guideline #2:  Ask God in faith to deal with your problem. Remember Paul’s advice?  “Don’t worry about anything; pray about everything!” Today, we seem to do the reverse.  We worry about almost everything and pray about practically nothing. God’s prescription begins with trust, so specifically ask Him to deal with the problem that kept you turning and tossing last night.  Ask Him to undertake for you and remove that nagging thought about what could happen if….

Guideline #3:  Act in obedience to the Word of God in this matter.  What does the Bible say about our worries? It says they are to be cast upon a Savior who cares.  Peter wrote, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (I Peter 5:7). What beautiful words for a world filled with cut‑throat competition, a world which is seemingly so cold and friendless.  Psalm 55:22 has similar words of advice, “Cast your cares on the LORD, and he will sustain you.”

Guideline #4:  Commit to Him what He alone can do.  To put God’s prescription into action requires something fundamental and very difficult.  It requires commitment, whereby you come to the place where you say, “I refuse to worry about this,” So very many of the issues that keep us awake nights, tossing and turning, are things which only God can do; but it is our nature is to “fix” things, and when we can’t–we worry about them. You can decide to turn your concern over to the God who says, “I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God, (Isaiah 45:5) and find peace.

Guideline #5:  Refuse to worry about your problem again.  Once you have finally committed your worry to the Lord, you’ve got to make the decision that you are going to leave the problem with Him, and not pick up right where you left off the last time this issue came to mind. You must refuse to worry, and you can!  You can say, “Lord, I turn this need over to You‑‑You work it out without my help. I refuse to stay awake and be concerned about it,” and instead repeat a verse of scripture to yourself, or try to think of names and attributes of God starting from A and working to Z.  He can and will take the night shift and you will have a good night’s sleep.

Meditation on God’s comforting advice and promises of hope will calm your spirit and soothe your soul.

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.
Philippians 4:8