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Jul 07, 2024 06:00am

Are You A Worrier?

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Do any of you consider yourself a “worrier?” Come on now, don’t let me be the only one who raises their hand on this one!

At the risk of sounding “sexist,” women are, more often than not, the designated worriers! Someone has said that’s probably because women often feel things more deeply and take things to heart more than men do. That may or may not be true, but it does make me feel better, and it surely doesn’t mean men aren’t worriers, too.

There is a big difference between concern and worry. For instance, if your teenage daughter is two hours past her curfew, it’s time to be concerned and start checking on her whereabouts. If your daughter is only three and you’re fretting about whether she’ll get a scholarship, that’s worry!

Concern usually deals with a real situation; worry usually deals with an imagined situation… what if? Legitimate concerns become worry when they begin to dominate our life and lead to fear, destroy our perspective on life and cause us to forget that God is real, that He cares and that He is in control.

We live in a fast-paced world, so we often allow small things to throw us into a tizzy and cloud our vision. We need to remember that worry won’t change anything (except our mental well-being) and it won’t solve any problems.

What worry does do is drag us down and cause us to forfeit God’s blessings and peace. It also dishonors God because we are, in essence, telling God, “I don’t think you’re big enough to handle this problem.” It can even make us physically ill — doctors tell us about 70% of all illnesses are caused by mental stress or worry, and it is the #1 cause of heart trouble!

So what can we do? How do we overcome our tendency to worry? Here are a few pieces of advice, in reverse order!

Do what you can to make the situation better. God expects us to do our part in any difficult situation. Are you worried about your bills? Set up (and stick to) a budget, cut corners, get an extra job, etc. Are you worried about your health? Go to the doctor and get a checkup, then take the medicine he prescribes and follow his instructions.

My two-part life verse says it all: “I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength… and without Him, I can do nothing” (Phil. 4:13, John 15:5b).

Concentrate on your needs, not your wants! God never promised to supply our wants, but He did promise to supply our needs. “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19 ESV).

Concentrate on today. Don’t worry about yesterday… it is gone and it isn’t coming back. You can’t undo anything that was done and you can’t unsay anything that was said. Learn from it, make amends where you need to and let it go.

Don’t worry about tomorrow because it may never come! And even if it does, you have enough to be concerned about today. “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matt. 6:34 NKJV).

Trust in and depend on God. He is fully capable of doing anything that needs doing and, no matter what happens, God will still be in control. Even if you have accepted Christ as Savior and are a child of God, bad things may still happen to you and worrying won’t change that — it will only make matters worse.

No matter what, God has made a promise to every believer in Christ: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5 ESV). He will help us get through every difficult situation we face and will teach us the lessons He wants us to learn as we go through it.

Refer to the Manual (God’s Word): Here are just a few of the verses that might help: Matt. 6:25-34 (God has your back; He has you covered); Psa. 37:1-4 (our job is to obey God; His job is to take care of evildoers); Psa. 77:3, 11-13 (remember the times He has helped you in the past); John 14:1 (a recipe for a troubled heart) and John 14:27 (we can have peace, even in times like these.)
Pray! Ask God to handle the problem for you. Ask Him to give you peace and tell you what you need to do, if anything. Ask, above all, for His will to be done and His name to be glorified. Then thank Him before your needs are even met.

The bottom line is this — worry comes straight from Satan and God not only has the answer to our problems, He is the answer to our problems. The One who gave you life is capable of providing your needs.

I can’t imagine facing life’s problems on my own, and since I accepted Christ as my Savior many years ago, I will never have to! Nor do I have to worry about them. Like I once heard it said, “I’m going to give God all my problems and go to sleep. After all, He is going to be up all night anyhow!”