Can any of you add a single cubit to his height by worrying? And why do you worry about clothes? Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow: they don’t labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these! If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t He do much more for you-you of little faith? Matthew 6:27-31 HCSB
Do you realize it’s a sin to worry? Worrying proves our lack of faith. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith we cannot please God. What good does worrying do for you? Our scripture passage says that we can’t grow any taller by worrying. The English Standard Version says that we can’t add even an hour to our life by worrying. But still we worry. What are some of the things you worry about? Have you been worrying about it for a while now or did you just start?
If you have been worrying about it for a while, has that worry helped in any way? If you are just starting to worry about it, do you envision your worrying will change things? I can honestly say that I have never made any situation better by worrying about it. Now those of you who are chronic worriers are probably responding with things like, “But I can’t help but worry,” or “You just don’t understand.”
Well, I do understand. For years, I worried. I worried about all kinds of things. I worried about my job. I worried about my relationships. I worried about money. I had all kinds of things on my worry list. I never ran out of things to worry about. But I grew tired. Worrying is exhausting. It will wear you out. It has also been shown to cause long term health issues like ulcers, headaches, high blood pressure, heart attacks, and dementia just to name a few. Worrying was not producing any good results. I was just suffering with terrible migraine headaches and was under constant stress.
I had grown weary from worrying. In Matthew 11:28 Jesus said that we can come to Him when we are weary, and He will give us rest. He goes on to tell us in verses 29-30 that we can take his yoke and learn from him. This means we can put him in control and learn how to have peace in our lives. He is gentle and lowly in heart and provides rest for our souls. He tells us that his yoke is easy, and his burden is light. When we give it all over to Him, we can rest easy.
Again, I want you to think about what you are worrying about right this minute. Can you see any possible way that worrying about it can make it better? Why not stop worrying and start praying. When we pray, we have to give it over to God. We have to give complete control over to Him. The reason many of us worry is because we are control freaks. We are fixers. We feel we have to handle it. We have to do something. So, this may take a lot of practice for you, but you can do it.
Philippians 4:6-7 tells us that we should not worry about anything, but that we should pray about everything with thanksgiving and let God know what is troubling us or what we want. Verse 7 tells us that the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Jesus Christ. We were not meant to worry; we were meant to trust in God. We were meant to give all our troubles over to Him.
God wants us to focus on Him and the devil wants us to worry. Who do you want to please? When we worry, we please the devil because we are distracted from focusing on God. When we focus on God, He takes good care of us and handles our problems.
It seems like a no brainer to me, but you will have to decide for yourself. I have learned that worrying produces no results but praying with faith in God can move mountains. I pray you will learn the same. Let it go. Give your troubles over to Him and trust in Him. All this worrying will only bring harm to you, no good can come from it. Just let it go and let God handle it. It’s too big for you anyway.
Have a great day!