Worry is a condition that is common to mankind. Children and adults, men and women, professional and artisans, are all known to suffer from this malady. However, as Timothy Lane reminds readers in Living Without Worry, the problem with worry isn’t primarily the resulting symptoms. At the root of worry is a spiritual problem.
Lane writes, “While these various factors and components [biology, psychology, life, history, and social and natural environments] are very important, the Bible cuts deeper, because it say that worry is a deeply spiritual issue. This is not to say that the Bible ignores or disputes the mental, psychological, historical, social, or environmental aspects of worry, but that it seems them as a part of a spiritual issue – that worry, ultimately is a response to life lived in God’s world. Worry is, therefore, a response to God Himself.”
After reviewing Jesus’ teaching on worry in Matthew 6:25-34, Lane continues, “Jesus is not telling us not to be concerned about things. He it is telling us not to be over-concerned. The two are not the same, and you can recognize the difference because concerns takes wise action and prays dependently. Worry, or over-concern, thinks and acts as though everything is up to you, or completely out of control, and prays desperately, if at all.”
Precious saint – when we are tempted to justify our worry as “just being concerned,” we need to ask ourselves, is our concern overamplified? Are we anxious that we need to handle things ourselves and we don’t know how we will do so, or are we appropriately emulating Jesus who lived and ministered in dependence on His Heavenly Father? Are we bearing the weight of the world, or are we bringing our cares to the One who created it? Is our concern focused on self – the abilities, time, and conveniences that we think we possess? Or is our attention focused on God – relying on Him to complete the work He has started (Phil 1:6) in His good time?
When the temptation to worry comes, may we make sure that we are responding to God in the right way. May we recognize that our worry is evidence of a lack of dependence our good and gracious Heavenly King. Make we confidently rely on Him to work all things together for the good of His children (Ro 8:28) and may we eagerly anticipate how He will use the situations we face and the concerns we have, to make us more like our Savior (Ro 8:29).
