Erma Bombeck said “worry is like a rocking chair: It gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere.” This week as I read Matthew 6, where Jesus spoke specifically about worry and anxiety, verse 27 jumped out at me. “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?” The English Standard Version puts it like this: “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?”
I’ve read this verse many times, and yet reading it this week was like seeing it for the first time. Worrying doesn’t add hours to our lives; it wastes hours away! It seems like a simple truth, yet how often – even today – have we been caught up worrying about what we don’t understand or situations that haven’t even happened? The great preacher Charles Spurgeon once said that “Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.” We don’t have to worry, because God already knows what’s going to happen and He knows all of our needs. Rather than worry, we are called to seek Him first. Seeking after anything else – including worry – is a waste of time.
Satan uses worry as one of his weapons to hinder God’s work in our lives. In Matthew 13, Jesus shared the parable of the Sower, and the different ground conditions on which he sowed his seed (a picture of the condition of our hearts). The seeds that fell on thorny ground were choked out and died, and Jesus used this to illustrate the hearts that miss out on Him because they are consumed with, among other things, “the care of this world”. How often we waste precious time being consumed with the care of this world rather than focusing on Him.
Worry is a woe that Satan wishes on us, and it’s one of his timeless tactics. Thankfully, God’s Word is filled with reassurances about not worrying (which tells me we’re not alone, even our brothers and sisters throughout history have struggled with worry). Isaiah 41:10, Jeremiah 17:7-8, Matthew 6:25-34, 11:28-30, Philippians 4:6-7, 1 Peter 5:7 are all familiar verses that provide comfort in the face of worry.
Jesus instructs us in Luke 21:34-36 that because we risk becoming weighed down by worry, what He calls the “cares of this life,” we should be alert and “pray always”. Is it our instinct when we start thinking about the future to pray, or do we first ponder the “what ifs” and think on the unknowns?
Satan wants to plant seeds of doubt to get us worrying. Rather than let him affect our faith, we should recall God’s faithfulness in our lives, and remember His many blessings to us! Take Abraham, for example. Romans 4:19-21 explains that Abraham “being not weak in faith… he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.”
One of the keys to stop staggering in doubt and worry is to focus on our faith rather than fear. “God is greater than our heart and knows all things.” (1 John 3:20). Spurgeon also said that, “Half our fears arise from neglect of the Bible.” When our focus is on fear, of course we can expect that we will be filled with doubt and worry! When our focus is on God, and what His Word says is true, our faith will be refreshed and strengthened. When we are sitting in the rocking chair of worry, we should pick up God’s Word and read.
Submitted by Hope Reidt, Hope Reflected