What? Me Worry? Yep...

 

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t there more to life than food and more to the body than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky: They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you more valuable than they are? And which of you by worrying can add even one hour to his life? Why do you worry about clothing? Think about how the flowers of the field grow; they do not work or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these! And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, won’t he clothe you even more, you people of little faith? So then, don’t worry saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the unconverted pursue these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But above all pursue his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own."

- Matthew 6:25-34 (NET Version)

  

For years a woman had trouble getting to sleep at night because she feared burglars. One night her husband heard a noise in the house, so he went to investigate. When he got there, he found a burglar. "Good evening," he said. "I am pleased to see you. Come upstairs and meet my wife. She has been waiting 10 years to meet you."

How many of us are waiting for something bad to happen? How many of us continually worry about things that may or may not occur? I would say all of us are, at some point in our lives, in that same boat. To misquote Shakespeare, “To worry or not to worry, that is the question.”

To the followers of Jesus at Philippi - during Roman occupation - Paul the apostle quipped: “Never worry about anything. But in every situation let God know what you need in prayers and requests while giving thanks. Then God's peace, which goes beyond anything we can imagine, will guard your thoughts and emotions through Christ Jesus.” That’s a great statement - but oh the difficulty in actually placing that truth into action.

Seriously - can we actually live a life free of worry? Is that even possible? In all honesty it seems to be complete and utter nonsense. After all, can anyone live a worry-free life? Anti-anxiety if you will…

The Greek word for worry/anxiety is μεριμνάω (merimnáō) which means, literally, “drawn in opposite directions,” "divided into parts." Figuratively speaking we might use the phrase "to go to pieces" because continual worry and anxiety pull us apart in different directions. Hence, as we can see, in the New Testament it is invariably used in a negative light. So, what are we to make of this?

Well, a couple of things. First - when the Bible speaks of worry it does so in a sense that means to be a constant worrier - ie; someone who NEVER has any faith or who NEVER trusts that things will work out. It DOES NOT MEAN that we won’t ever have anxiety or fear or worry. It simply means that it will not cripple us or pull us away from Christ. Anything that pulls you away from Jesus is sin...continual worry is just that. Not everyday-going-through-life worries and concerns - that is not sin.

Secondly, the Word of God is actually trying to not focus on the negative (worry/anxiety) but rather on the positive (faith/trust). Many people (believers in Jesus and non-believers) read the scriptures and focus on the negative aspects rather than the positive. These people also have the same mentality in their normal lives - the culmination leading to depression, all types of disorders, and even psycho-somatic conditions (I’ll let you google that so you’ll feel smarter).

Yet, God’s word is about healing, hope and wholeness. God is NOT a divine being who is bent on destroying your life and making everything cumbersome… God IS the Divine Being Who gave his own Son’s life in order that you might have joy - and that your joy would be complete.

Some of you are really struggling right now. We are really struggling right now. Smiles and lies aside, we feel that most of us are dealing with multiple issues and at times unbearable weight. We miss one another. We long to embrace one another. We hurt incredibly over the loss of loved ones. We weep over our children being sick. We are broken over our parents and their isolation.

We worry about tomorrow. We are anxious about paying our bills. We are stressed over going into more debt without any relief on the horizon. We are worried about jobs. We are anxious about vaccinations working or not working.

Yes, it is okay to worry. It’s not a sin. Just don’t be pulled away from your faith by your worry. Don’t be divided in your love for Jesus by your anger against your neighbor. That is sin.

We are anxious to hear how you are doing and join with you in worrying what tomorrow might bring. But, we are trusting the hand of the One who holds tomorrow. Are you?




Steve and Missy