“And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?” (Matthew 6:30).
Do you tend to expect the worst? Do you panic when you get a letter with IRS stamped on the envelope or when you hear a rumor about layoffs at work?
The word worry comes from an old English word meaning “to choke or strangle.” Of course, that’s exactly what worry does to your productivity and happiness. It’s a self-defeating waste of time.
In his famous Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:25–34), Jesus gave four reasons for not worrying and the secrets of overcoming it:
1. Worry is unreasonable. To worry about something you can’t change is useless. To worry about something you can change is foolish! And every time you review a worry in your mind, it just gets bigger. Worry amplifies problems out of proportion.
2. Worry is unnatural. You weren’t born a worrier. It is a learned response to life. In fact, you have to practice to get good at it. Fortunately worry can be unlearned. The only species in God’s creation that worries is human beings. We don’t think God will take care of us.
3. Worry is unhelpful. It doesn’t work. It can’t change the past. It can’t control the future. It only makes you miserable today. Worrying about a problem never solves the problem.
4. Worry is unnecessary. God has promised to take care of you if you’ll trust him with the details of your life. As a child, if you asked your father for lunch money you never worried about where it would come from. That was his problem. Let God be God in your life! “God will take care of you, just have faith.”
How can I break the worry habit?
First, trust God with every area of your life: “But your heavenly Father already knows perfectly well that you need them, and he will give them to you if you give him first place in your life and live as he wants you to” (Matthew 6:32).
Second, live just one day at a time: “So don’t be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time” (Matthew 6:34).
“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life” (Philippians 4:6–7).
Two businessmen were talking about the economy:
Jack: “I’m about to lose my job and our house is in foreclosure, but I don’t worry about it.”
Bob: “How can you not be worried?”
Jack: “I’ve hired a professional worrier. He does all my worrying for me. That way I don’t have to think about it!”
Bob: “That’s a fantastic idea. How much does it cost to hire a professional worrier?”
Jack: “$50,000 a year.”
Bob: “$50,000! Where are you going to get that kind of money?”
Jack: “I don’t know. That’s HIS worry!”
Worry is something you learn to do.
There is no such thing as a “born worrier.” It is a learned response to life. You learned to worry from two sources:
1. You learned to worry from experience. After years of mistakes, failures, and unfulfilled expectations, you’ve discovered that things don’t always turn out right. Out of these experiences you formed the habit of worrying.
2. You learned to worry from examples. There are many models around you. Studies show that children usually pick up their parent’s worries. Anxious parents raise anxious kids.
Since worry is a learned response to life, it can be unlearned!
The starting point for overcoming worry is to realize it is useless. It does you no good to worry. It is “stewing without doing.” Worry has never changed anything. Worry cannot change the past. Worry cannot control the future. Worry only makes you miserable today.
Worry has never solved a problem, never paid a bill, and never cured an illness. It only paralyzes you so you can’t work on the solution. Worry is like racing a car when its engine is in neutral; it doesn’t get you anywhere, it just uses up gas.
The Bible teaches, “An anxious heart weighs a man down” (Proverbs 12:25).
On top of that, worry exaggerates the problem. It plays on your imagination. Have you ever noticed that when you worry about a problem it gets bigger? Every time you repeat if over and over in your mind you tend to add details, amplifying it so you feel worse.
What’s the solution? Instead of worrying, talk to God about what’s worrying you. He is someone who can do something about it.
“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life” (Philippians 4:6–7).
“So don’t get tired of doing what is good. Don’t get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time” (Galatians 6:9).
There are many things that work to keep us from completing our life-missions. Over the years, I’ve debated whether the worst enemy is procrastination or discouragement. If Satan can’t get us to put off our life missions, then he’ll try to get us to quit altogether.
The apostle Paul teaches that we need to resist discouragement: “So don’t get tired of doing what is good. Don’t get discouraged and give up” (Galatians 6:9).
Do you ever get tired of doing what’s right? I think we all do. Sometimes it seems easier to do the wrong thing than the right thing.
When we’re discouraged, we become ineffective. When we’re discouraged, we work against our own faith.
When I’m discouraged, I’m saying, “It can’t be done.” That’s the exact opposite of saying, “I know God can do it because he said . . . .”
Ask yourself these questions:
• How do I handle failure?
• When things don’t go my way, do I get grumpy?
• When things don’t go my way, do I get frustrated?
• When things don’t go my way, do I start complaining?
• Do I finish what I start?
• How would I rate on persistence?
If you’re discouraged, don’t give up without a fight. Nothing worthwhile ever happens without endurance and energy.
When an artist starts to create a sculpture, he has to keep chipping away. He doesn’t hit the chisel with the hammer once, and suddenly all the excess stone falls away revealing a beautiful masterpiece. He keeps hitting it and hitting it, chipping away at the stone.
And that’s true of life, too. Nothing really worthwhile ever comes easy in life. You keep hitting it and going after it, and little-by-little your life becomes a masterpiece of God’s grace.
The fact is, great people are really just ordinary people with an extraordinary amount of determination. Great people don’t know how to quit.
Having Patience in the Midst of Discouragement
“You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, ‘He who is coming will come and will not delay’” (Hebrews 10:36–37).
If you’re discouraged because of God’s delay in answering your prayers, understand the delay is not a denial. Just because the answer or the miracle hasn’t come—yet—that doesn’t mean God isn’t going to answer, or that he’s forgotten you, or that he doesn’t care about you. It simply means “not yet!”
Spiritual maturity is knowing the difference between “No” and “Not yet,” between a denial and a delay. The Bible tells us, “He who is coming will come and will not delay” (Hebrews 10:37).
The delay may be a test of your patience. Anybody can be patient once. And, anybody can be patient twice. And, just about anybody can be patient three times. So God tests you patience over and over and over.
Why? To see how patient you are?
No, he does it to show you how patient you are. So you’ll know what’s inside of you, and you’ll be able to know your level of commitment. God tests you so that you can know he is faithful, even if the answers you seek are delayed.
If you’re discouraged, turn it around by remembering God teaches you patience during delay. Ask him to transform your discouragement into patience.
You may be going through difficult times right now and feel like dropping off the planet. You’re discouraged because the situation you face seems unmanageable, unreasonable, or unfair.
It may seem unbearable and inside you’re basically saying, “God, I can’t take it anymore. I just can’t take it anymore!”
But you can.
You can stay with it longer because God is with you. He’ll enable you to press on. Remember, you are never a failure until you quit.
Don’t quit. Resist discouragement and finish the race God has set before you.
"[The boy's father said,] 'If you can do anything, do it. Have a heart and help us!' Jesus said, 'If? There are no 'ifs' among believers. Anything can happen.' No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the father cried, 'Then I believe. Help me with my doubts!'" (Mark 9:22-24).
Is it possible to be filled with faith and doubt at the same time? Yes! You can have faith that God wants you to do something and still be scared to death. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is going ahead and doing what you're called to do in spite of your fear. You have to begin with the faith you already have; it may be just a little, but you start there.
A beautiful example of this is the story of the man who brought his sick son to Jesus in Mark 9. Jesus looked at the man and said, "I can heal your son. If you will believe, I will heal him." The father then makes a classic statement: "Lord, I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief." Have you ever felt like that? "Lord, I have some faith. But I also have some doubts." This man was filled with faith and doubt, yet despite his honest doubts, he went ahead and asked Jesus for a miracle. And he got his miracle - Jesus healed his son.
Mustard seed faith moves mountains. No matter how weak or how frail you think your faith is, it's enough to get you through what you're facing because your "little faith" is in a big God. Matthew 17:20 says, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed . . . Nothing will be impossible for you." That's not a lot of faith; in fact, it's just a little faith. But what else does that verse teach? "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move,' and it will move" (NIV). Mustard seed faith moves mountains.
Don't get this reversed; we tend to read this verse backward; we want it to say, "If you have faith like a mountain, you can move a mustard seed" - as if it takes enormous faith to do a very little task.
Everybody has faith. You had faith this morning when you ate your cereal - faith that your spouse didn't put poison in your granola! You had faith when you sat down in your computer chair - faith that it wouldn't collapse. Everybody has faith; the difference is what you put your faith in. Sometimes people will tell me they don't want to surrender to Jesus until all their questions are answered; they don't want to make a commitment until everything is understood.
God wants you start with the faith you have, and based on the example of the mustard seed, you don't need a whole lot of faith to do great things for God. You just need a little. So here's a trustworthy equation: Little Faith + Big God = Huge Results! - You take your little faith; "Lord, I believe! Help me with my unbelief!" - And you place your faith in our big God. And then he'll show you how he works out huge results.
"'Woe to me!' I cried. 'I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips . . . and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.' Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal . . . which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, 'See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.' Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!'" (Isaiah 6:5-8)
One of the most effective tools the enemy will use to keep you from serving God is convincing you that you've either messed up too much to serve God or that you must clean up your life before you can get God's attention. When these thoughts pop into your head, sniff the air for the scent of sulfur, because they are lies straight from the fires of hell!
God's intention when he convicts us of our sins is not to condemn us; rather his breath of life disperses that satanic smoke the father of lies uses to keep us on the run from God.
If you follow the sequence of Isaiah 6, you'll see how God initiates the process that brings you into his holy presence and purifies you to remain in his presence, and that your new guilt-free, sin-atoned status will compel you and prepare you for the unique mission God sets before you.
Yet God's intention when he convicts us of our sins is not to condemn us; rather his breath of life disperses the "fog of war"—that satanic smoke the father of lies uses to keep us on the run from God.
Isaiah reports that God's fire is a cleansing fire that burns your guilt away and purifies you from sin, sealing within you the work of Jesus Christ. The prophet also suggests God's ultimate purpose for cleansing us is to prepare us for mission: "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!'" (Isaiah 6:8).
Prior to God taking the initiative to cleanse Isaiah, the prophet felt overwhelmed and unprepared for any mission on God's behalf.
After the cleansing, Isaiah is energized with a desire to serve God.
PurposeDriven.com by Rick Warren
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