“Do not worry about tomorrow, tomorrow has enough worries of its own, sufficient for the day is its own trouble“
~Jesus
Worry is your life’s thief. Worry provides no benefit to anything that you do. In fact, worry is not only a thief, it’s your jailer. Worry robs you, then locks you up and throws away the key. Worry has imprisoned you with the bars of your own construction in a prison of your own design–worry is also the architect.
Aren’t you tired of being robbed? Aren’t you tired of being held captive in a prison of your own making? Aren’t you tired of shaking the bars of worry? Don’t you want to be free?
But, yet, worry still rules our lives. We feel like life has dealt us such a poor hand and difficult circumstances. It feels like everyone else is free to go about their business and be happy. When you worry you feel like you are not in control, but worry means you are exactly in control. But, the control is coming from your damaged flesh, your flawed view of the world and yourself, and the wrong view of God.
“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.”
~Corrie Ten Boom
In case no one told you, you have work to do. All worry does is sap you of the strength to accomplish some really great things in life. In case no one told you, the world needs you–your world needs you. But, not the you that wears the lenses of worry on all that you see. Worry is a burden you are not supposed to carry. Worry is a clouded lens that you are not supposed to look through. Worry is a chain you don’t have to wear. Worry is a bog you don’t have to step in.
Tim Elmore said there are two kinds of people in life: settlers and pioneers. Settlers are those who move ahead only when they are safe. Settlers are worriers, controllers and self-absorbed. Pioneers are those who explore and pave the way for others. Pioneers are seekers, risk-takers and map-makers. Pioneers are the kind of people Christ calls to follow him. Those who are willing to risk it all. Forsake it all. Go for it all.
Worry is really about where you find your security. If your security is in your ability or the ability of human convention or construction , then your security will always be misplaced, resulting in debilitating doubt that produces worry. But, if your security is placed in God, then you are trusting in the ability of the Almighty, resulting in the ability to go into places where others would never dare.
Eagles soar, chickens roost. Eagles are fearless and free. Chickens are fearful and flighty. Pioneers are eagles. Settlers are chickens. Eagles go where chickens would never dare.
“But they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31
Stop worrying and grow some wings. Waiting on God means you stop worrying and start trusting. If God wants to get you over something He’ll supply you with the wings to do it. If God wants to take you through something, he’ll give you the strength for your two legs to carry you through it. If God’s deliverance is to come from you out-running something, then you will sprint forward.
Worry makes you wobbly: But, first, those who learn to wait must learn to walk. As your faith grows, you grow. Have you ever watched an infant learn to walk? First, they crawl. Then, they learn to pull themselves up. Then, they stand. After, they learn how to stand still while attached to the earth spinning on its axis, then, they discover they can take a step. But, it’s not a confident step. It’s a wobbly step. Worry makes you take wobbly steps. Wobbly steps cause you to stumble. Stumbling causes you to fall. All worry does is create a bunch of uncertainty in your life, so that as you seek to take the next step, you are scared, timid and weak. With that approach of course you will take the wrong step.
Worry is the where your fears exploit your fragility: People can be fragile. You are physically fragile. Try jumping off a 40 foot roof and landing on solid ground. But, I am speaking more of spiritual and emotional fragility. People are fragile until God strengthens them. Stop thinking you are strong. Stop thinking you have the ability. Start trusting God by waiting on Him. He will strengthen you if you allow him, if you wait on him. You can’t outrun God nor get left behind by him. Worry is like a steroid for your fears. Give your fear a big dose of worry and watch those fears grow at an uncontrollable rate–this is why worry freezes, immobilizes and paralyzes you.
Worry makes you wish you were somewhere else: When you worry, you start thinking about escaping. You are not sure what you are escaping, but you want out, away and without delay. But, this is silly. You can’t escape worry, you have to kill it. Worry is a leach. And the Bible is clear about the leach. “The leech has two daughters: Give! [more] and Give! [more]” (Proverbs 30:15). All worry does is suck the life out of you and demands more and more of which you don’t have any more.
Worry warps your relationships: When worry dominates your thought process, you receive an unintentional filter about how you see the world and others in it. This is a warped view of reality. It’s like wearing a pair of glasses that have tinted lenses in a room where everyone else is wearing clear glasses or no glasses at all. You can’t understand why people don’t see it the way you do. It’s because they don’t see it the way you do! Your worry has warped your view of reality. You are seeing things that don’t exist. Stop blaming them and take your worry-Ray Bans off!
But, you say, “Hold on just a minute, I’m a cautious person and I’m accounting for all the possibilities.” WRONG. You are a worrier. A prudent person is different than a worrier. A prudent (caution born of wisdom) person receives their caution from a position of clarity, not a position of anxiety. A prudent person sees the possibilities of failure and success, not just all the probabilities of failure. The Bible is clear, “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it” (Proverbs 22:3). The prudent person is saved from needless suffering. The worrier is subjected to needless suffering.
“Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?“
~Luke 12:25
(c) Redwall, LLC. 2016.