The Bible encourages us to
engage in a variety of activities in order to improve our spiritual health. We
are called to things like faith, hope, love and prayer. We are also told to
desist or limit other activities for the same reason. We are not to be greedy,
haughty, lascivious or rude. These things we understand, and they make sense to
us.
But one restriction the
Bible has is difficult for many of even the best Christians I know. Over 20
times the Bible tells us not to worry. That’s actually quite a lot.
In the Sermon on the Mount,
Jesus spends about 10 verses telling us that we should not worry, whether about
what we should eat, or drink, or wear (Mt. 6:25-34). Why does he spend so much
time on this? Why is it so important?
I think it is because worry
is one of those things that can get in the way of our trust in God. When we
worry, we are getting ourselves “out of joint” mentally and spiritually. Most
often it means spending a lot of energy thinking about things we have little or
no control over. And it demonstrates how little faith we have that God truly is
in control. If we really believed that, there would be no cause for worry.
Instead, the Bible
encourages us to a different activity. Psalm 37:7 says, “Rest in the Lord and
wait patiently for Him.” Those words are easy to say, and fairly easy to do,
until something happens that turns our world upside down, and we have to face
the same agony and confusion that so many other people have to face all around
us. Is it possible for us to “rest in the Lord” when our world seems to be
crumbling around us? When we face the loss of a job, or a loved one; when we
realize how little control we have over our lives, can we really “rest in the
Lord” in those times?
That’s where the rubber
meets the road, isn’t it? If we can’t trust God and not worry when things are
difficult and uncertain, we are only fooling ourselves that we really trust him
during the peaceful times. If it doesn’t work in one case, it will not work in
the other. It turns out that resting in the Lord is not dependent on external
circumstances at all, but rather on your relationship with God Himself.
One of my favorite
devotional writers, Oswald Chambers has this to say,
"Worrying always results in
sin. We tend to think that a little anxiety and worry are simply an indication
of how wise we really are, yet it is actually a much better indication of just
how wicked we are. Fretting rises from our determination to have our own way.
Our Lord never worried and was never anxious, because His purpose was never to
accomplish His own plans but to fulfill God’s plans. Fretting is wickedness for
a child of God."
I don’t know about you, but
that made me stop and think. Do I really trust in God? Am I really willing to
let his will be done, or do I merely want his stamp of approval on the plans I
already have in mind?
Maybe we think our problems
are too big for God or that God is too big for us; that he doesn’t have time to
pay attention to all the things that are going on in my life. Jesus said that
God pays attention even to the tiniest of sparrows, and that he cares very much
for each and every one of us.
If you are worried or
afraid, tell God about it. He is not too busy to hear us. Let your worry draw
you closer to God, not drive you farther away.
