Growth Hope

No Worries

“It’s o.k – no worries.”

That’s a phrase I find myself saying often. It’s my way of minimizing a potentially contentious situation.

The problem is that when I say it, oftentimes it is an inaccurate descriptor of what I’ve been doing. I’m focusing on how the person didn’t respond according to my timetable, or how they behaved in a way that I didn’t anticipate, or even how they failed to do what they said they would. I’m stressing over my inability to control their behavior, and the cataclysmic outcomes that I envision as a result of that. In short, worrying has been my exact response. I just don’t want them to know this. Because when it does get resolved, worrying seems like such a futile activity. And of course, that’s because it is.

The Bible makes this clear. In His longest recorded sermon, Jesus takes up this topic precisely. He reminds us that worrying doesn’t accomplish anything and that worrying is a sign that we lack trust in God’s sovereignty. Similarly, Paul writes in Philippians 4:6:

[D]o not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. [emphasis mine].

We might try to rationalize what’s “acceptable” to worry about – money, our kids’ future, issues in the church – but God doesn’t leave any room for negotiation. He says we aren’t to worry about anything – and when He states that – He means anything.

This of course is hard. Not because God isn’t trustworthy – because He certainly is. And not because God can’t handle the situation – because He certainly can. But because we fool ourselves into believing that control is in our hands. And the truth is, if it was up to us – we should worry. But it’s not – so we shouldn’t.

I hope that in the future when I say “no worries” that I’ll be able to fully mean it. I hope that I won’t be saying it as a way to make myself or the other person feel better, but I’ll be saying it as an acknowledgment that I trusted in God and not man, and therefore, there really wasn’t any reason to worry.

 

How do you fight the temptation to worry?

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Being Content

Predicating Factor

Human beings don’t have a hard time thinking about themselves.  Children often learn “mine” as one of their first words, and using that word frequently, whether verbally or just mentally, usually continues throughout adulthood. It must be why Scripture is replete with the command to “humble yourselves.” After all, if we are thinking of ourselves too highly, we aren’t thinking of God highly enough.

One of the things that we don’t often consider is how much thinking highly of ourselves, pride, is a predicating factor for worry. I Peter 5:6-7 helps makes this so clear. In verse 6 is the oft-repeated command to humble ourselves. The very next verse tells us outcome of doing so – we cast all our anxieties upon Him. The opposite is true then as well. When we don’t humble ourselves, when we are prideful, we keep our cares under our own control. Essentially, we worry.

This is a hard truth to swallow. After all, in today’s culture worry is considered the right and privilege of doting parents, concerned teachers, and a thousand of other roles that we think have the “right” to feel anxious about the future. However, God’s Word says that this is wrong. None of God’s children have been given the right to worry. Instead, we have all been given the privilege of reliance on Him.

Therefore, next time we are prone to worry, we must first recognize that the likely culprit is that we are thinking too highly of ourselves. We think that we are the ones in control, when the truth is that we are far from it. Instead, we need to cast our cares on the One who has the cosmos in His hands. To do so, we must start with humility.

 

Now it’s your turn….

How have you seen pride turn to worry? How can we practically humble ourselves so that we are relying on God and not our own abilities?

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