What is Worry?

“Worry is assuming a responsibility God never intended for you to have.”

I don’t know about you, but I am a worrier. I worry about anything and everything, and if you let me I will worry about your problems just like I worry about mine. Its miserable. I am always in a state of survival. I am never at rest. I am always stressed. Why do I worry? Because I don’t trust God. Why don’t I trust God? Because I don’t believe that he really loves me. 

Let that sink in.

When we worry about things we are telling God that we don’t trust him to take care of us. We don’t believe that he loves us more than we could ever imagine or think. And thats not true. He loves us more than life itself (he died for us). He loves us more than anything in this whole universe. And we don’t accept it. I think we think its to good to be true. We say things like, “Well you don’t know what I’ve done” And you’re right…I don’t know your whole life story and all the mistakes you have made. But God does. He knows every single one of them. And he loves you anyway. No exceptions.

Matthew 6 is an amazing chapter to read in regards to worry, and I mean the whole chapter not just the verse about the birds. God tells us exactly what to do in order to stop worrying.

1. Give to the needy. When you help other people your problems don’t seem so bad. God knew that if we would talk to each other about our stories (not in a judgmental way) that our problems would in turn not seem so bad. OR we could see the way God moved in someone else’s life and be encouraged.
2. Prayer I could write forever on prayer and how important it is, but what God wants us to see here is that when we find ourselves worrying or being anxious that we give that to him. When I was a little girl (and sometimes even now) when something bad would happen I would run to my mom and dad. Why? Because I knew they would take care of it. I knew that if I told my dad that my car had a light come on that he would take care of it, and I didn’t need to worry. I had given that problem to him. How much more powerful is our Father? He is begging us to trust him and to bring him our worries. He WANTS to handle our problems. He WANTS to provide for us and take care of us. So what do we do when something bad happens or we are anxious about something? We take it straight to our Father and we say “Ok God. I can’t handle this. You have to.” and we leave it there. DON’T give it to God in prayer and then pick it back up. LEAVE IT with him. Walk away in total trust that your Father is going to take care of it for you.
3. Fasting Fasting shows a dependence on God. When we fast we sacrifice something, and we replace the time we would spend doing whatever it is we are fasting with prayer. Most people when they fast have some “withdrawal symptoms.” For example, a few years ago I fasted caffeine and I had headaches from hell. When we go through these “withdrawals” we are trusting that God is going to take care of us. This causes us to press in. This causes us to find our dependence in God.
4. Treasures in Heaven Earth is not your home. I know you hear that a lot, but really think about it. We are born, we live, we die. This is all very temporary. So why are we worried about stupid things? Worry shows that you have all your stock in this earth. But God says to have all our stock in heaven. God says that heaven is our home, and we are to store our treasures there because they will last forever. So how do we do that? We can’t literally take our storage boxes full of stuff up to heaven and put it in a golden garage. So how do you store things in heaven? You have an intimate relationship with your Father. You put your trust and faith in him, and then the most important thing (your heart, soul, and spirit) is in heaven. So if thats the case, then what the heck are we worried about?

God has given me so much grace in learning not to worry. I’m by no means great at this, and I still have times when I am anxious; however, the part that has changed is that I am allowing God to have access to my life. When I allow that access he can work, and he can fix my problems. I just have to let him. God is never going to force himself into your life. But allowing him access is the best thing you will ever do. Now this doesn’t mean that I don’t have my moments because I definitely do. There are times when situations happen and I have a really hard time taking them to God and leaving them. But the good thing about God is that he knows this is hard for me, and he loves me. Whenever I try to pick it back up he gently reminds me that that situation is no longer mine to handle. So what am I supposed to do? Rest. Rest in the fact that my Father has this under control. Rest in my trust in him. Rest in his unending love for me.

I pray that God show you a revelation of love and trust. I pray that he make himself so real to you. I pray that you will rest in his love for you.

Katie