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Do Not Worry is the title prior to these passages in my NIV life application bible.
“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? Matthew 6:25-27
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6: 28 - 34
If I have discussed worry with you or have been in a bible study with you these verses in Matthew have come up. They were my first favorite verses. Prior to becoming a Christian I may have just been placed in the category of worrier. I was excellent at the art of worry. At some point I even convinced myself that if I worried well enough, it wouldn’t happen. As if the investment of time and energy of worry would actually settle the debt of whatever I was worrying about.
Worry and Stress plague our communities. We worry about what is happening, what may happen, and what didn’t happen. Usually at the beginning of a new year we hear people anticipating the opportunity for a fresh start. We are excited to begin a new chapter in our life. This year, 2009, I have heard more comments related to caution and fear. In many ways this is understandable as 2008 was certainly plagued with personal and worldwide strife.
In my life:
· My husband was promoted requiring a significant increase in travel.
· Early in the year the real estate market reversed.
· I jumped fully in to private practice, with a new building to maintain.
· We were hit with Gustav, worse for Baton Rouge than Katrina.
· The financial markets begin to waver.
· Both of my parents were hospitalized simultaneously for heart attacks, heart failure and stroke.
· The stock market plunged – really plunged and recession became reality.
· We elected a new president – inevitable change to come.
· Our pastor left our church – founding pastor, significant change.
· My Mom came to stay with me to recuperate from open heart surgery.
· My focus on my private practice with new building was put to the side.
What does your list look like? Many people are out of work or in fear of losing their job due to the economy. The change in the economy is affecting many people with small businesses. Serious life threatening illness seems to be epidemic. Already strained relationships are crumbling under the various pressures. Yet, Jesus says to not worry.
I love the verse: Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Matthew 6:27
Captures our Thoughts
Actually, worry causes us to lose hours of our lives. It creeps in as a thought – what am I going to do about…… soon I find the thought takes on a life of its own. New thoughts arrive. What if ...
… I have to take care of my Mom forever and can no longer work.
… the stock market doesn’t rebound before my daughter goes to college.
... I become so grouchy and stressed my husband can’t stand living with me.
Like I said, I can worry with the best of them. These thoughts turn into obsessing and it is funny because once this train starts it never stops at a positive depot. We just don’t seem to run through the good things that may happen.
Self Fulfilling Prophesy
Usually our worries that turn into “obsessing” have not happened yet. We are dealing with the actuality of our circumstances; yet, the worry part follows the circumstance into a future that we cannot clearly see. Typically, if all we do is turn our worry into anxiety and obsession, we can create a path that is worse than the present circumstance.
- Our fear can paralyze us so that we do not take positive steps to improve our situation.
- Our worry can create such a negative attitude in us that we quickly alienate friends and family.
- We can actually impact our physical health from the worry creating new problems to contend with.
- We can put a wedge in our relationship with Jesus because we are focusing on this world and not Him – our faith becomes shallow.
Impacts to Health
There is volume of research that associates health issues with stress and worry. A cycle emerges fairly quickly.
- Our worry manifests itself into heart palpitations, numbness and tingling in our extremities, shallow breathing and dizziness – is it a heart attack or a panic attack. Many people end up in doctor’s offices or the emergency room to be told that there is no physical problem. A panic attack can’t feel like this…. can it?
- We can’t help thinking about our jobs, relationships, etc before we go to sleep and then we lay there tossing and turning as our mind races through all of the negative scenarios that could happen. After several nights of not sleeping we are grumpy, less rational, and we feel bad. Soon we are run down and more susceptible to germs, colds, etc.
- Anxiety also makes its way into our muscles in the form of neck pain, back pain, TMJ. I have shared before that in a prior stressful career I remember driving from New Orleans, a whole hour to obsess, when I began to feel my jaw actually locking up on me. The anxiety may be what we imagine but the result is real physical pain.
- Many times when we have created a hopeless web of entangled negative consequences our mind goes into overload and we just want to hide. Depression sneaks in and soon we are blocking out all of our concerns and just hiding under the covers in hopes that we can just disappear from our reality.
Now are you starting to see why Jesus doesn’t want us to worry? It’s a path we get lost down and it leads to dismal places. He knows our basic make-up and how we will let worry manifest itself in our lives. He is asking us to choose Him instead. He is asking us to trust Him.
He is saying if we can’t trust Him because of His faithful evidence in creation –
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. Matthew 6:26
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Matthew 6:28
Can we embrace His Wisdom?
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Matthew 6:27
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34
And trust His promise?
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:29-33
In practice what can we do?
- Seek God – lean on our Father in Heaven. He wants us to depend on Him. As we seek Him we will see the hope we have in Him. Hope replaces despair. Any time you start to worry or obsess, read scripture, pray or journal. This activity will bring you closer to our heavenly Father and replace some of our wasted worry and despair.
- Wait a little while – 80% of what we worry about never happens. If you can try to make it a rule to put aside your worry for 24 or 48 hours; whatever is appropriate. I am not saying to ignore it, but many times the issue will quickly resolve itself and we will have saved ourselves the time, energy and discomfort of worry. Pray that God will give you peace to wait ….to see if anything actually materializes, to give time for clarity, or to give time for God to work.
- Objectively analyze what is worrying you – sometimes we have unfavorable circumstances that we can positively impact. If we could channel our energy to looking at what positive steps can be taken then we can do our part. An example – my grades are suffering or my business is slow. What positive things can I do to improve things? Write them down and begin doing them. When we are taking positive steps, even small ones, we are replacing some of the negative worry with positive actions.
- Get help – as Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 1:9
What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
What is overwhelming us, someone else has already conquered or survived. We are not alone in the world. Find other Godly people to share your concerns with or experts who have solutions to your worries. That is why God reminds us in 1Corinthians 12:27
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
We all have different gifts that come together as one body. We are created to help each other.
Summary
If you feel that worry and stress are distracting you or someone you know I hope that these ideas will help. If anxiety has increased to the point that it is significantly affecting your functioning in your relationships, your work, school or other area of your life, seek counseling. Worry can quickly turn into anxiety disorder and counseling or medical assistance may be required.
For me I am looking forward to 2009. Although 2008 was stressful my experience remains consistent:
- By God’s grace both of my parents survived and are recovering together at their home.
- My private practice allowed me the flexibility to take care of my Mom for two months– a true blessing.
- With all of the trees we lost with Gustav, not one fell on our house.
- God provided for us financially to cover our expenses, take care of my parents, and not make any drastic changes so far.
- And even with the changes at our church, God has brought me closer to Him, reaffirming that He will always be here and He is the church – not a job or a pastor or a building.
The cup is still half full. If you take your list and see it from a “half full” perspective does it change your rear view of 2008? My prayer is that 2009 will be a year of spiritual growth and personal health for each of you.
Sue Miley, LPC, MA, MBA, owner of CrossRoads Professional Services, is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Life and Business Coach. For more articles, or information about products and services, please visit www.crossroadcounselor.com and www.crossroadcoach.com.
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