20 How To Overcome Worry?
Worrying is nonproductive, we can become upset, frustrated and sometimes angry when we worry. Worry and anxiety never mend the problem. Worry also hinders our ability to be all that the Lord intends us to be! When we are under the nervous tensions that worry causes, we are often short with other people. Later we feel bad about our behavior, or perhaps about something we might have said, this of course, only compounds our problems.
How Does God Want Us To Handle Worry?
The Lord created us and knows what makes us tick; therefore He has a great deal of advice for us that oftentimes goes unheeded. I want to share with you some of the Scriptures that best suit this situation; Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. The word “anxious” in Philippians 4:6, is the Greek word “merimnao” Mer-im-nah-o (Strong’s reference # 3308) and has the same approximate meaning as the following words; “worry,” “anxiety,” “distress,” “uneasiness,” and “care.”
The Promise
Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
If you obey verse six, verse seven will always come to life in you, but you must truly obey verse six from your heart! When you do, a wonderful peace will settle upon you.
What Is God’s Instruction For Us On The Subject Of Worry?
I have outlined the principle points listed in Philippians 4:6, and here they are:
1) Don’t worry!
2) Pray with supplication
3) Pray with thanksgiving
4) Let your request be known to God.
1) Don’t Worry!
What I am about to say might sound strange to you at first, but bear with me. Worry is always the fruit of self-will! Worry is the proof that you have plans of your own, and are unwilling for whatever that is happening to happen. Whatever this problem is, it is not in your plans, nor is it your will. When we want to control every situation in our lives, and something comes up that we can’t control, we worry, and try to figure out a way to overcome the problem. This is self-will to the max. You might not understand what I have just said, or you might not agree with it, I will try to explain. To start with, you might want to ask the question, what is wrong with me having my own way, my own will? My answer is found in, Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” We can’t see around corners, let alone know what is going to happen tomorrow, but God knows all of this, He can see around corners. Before you were born, God knew you; He saw the start and the end of your earthly existence before you were born! It’s nice being Eternal.
Another important Scripture; Romans 8:14 “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” God intends to lead us, not follow and pick up the broken pieces! Since He already knows all of the problems that you will ever encounter in this life, doesn’t it make sense to follow Him? Notice in this last Scripture it says “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God.” It doesn’t say, “were led” or “intend someday to be led” God is telling us here that if we don’t follow His Holy Spirit we aren’t His sons! Only those that are “being led” are His sons! We must be in the process of being led! Notice the difference, it is present tense.
God Is On The Throne!
When we commit our lives to the true and Living God He watches over us for good. At times I admit it is difficult for us to see the “good” in the problem that seems to be attacking us at the moment, but, this is where our faith and trust in the Lord become indispensable. When we commit our lives to the true and Living God, He places us in the center of His hand and no problem can come into our lives except if He deems it best for us. Remember the great and awesome job that the God of love undertakes when He receives us into His Kingdom. Romans 8:29 “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren.
God is telling us that He will conform us to the very image of Jesus Christ! Do you understand what is involved in His doing this for us? He must remove every attitude and every habit that does not conform to Jesus Christ, and He must add all of the missing attitudes and proper habits to our lives!
God uses circumstances that sometimes, in our limited way of perceiving things, seem to be bad, or even hurtful to us. But the Lord, like a good doctor, always gives us the proper medicine, sometimes it tastes good, but sometimes it tastes bitter. When God gives you His medicine it is always what you need, regardless of whether it is sweet or bitter, trust Him! Always remember that it is a very difficult thing for God to truly convert us, so that in the end we may be truly saved. He doesn’t simply atone for our sins and put up with our repeating the same sins day in and day out. He regenerates us, and turns us into a brand new creation! I will make this obvious with another Scripture; Matthew 1:21 "And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins."
Yes, Jesus came to bring about this very important change in our lives; He came to set us free from the bondage to sin! If this sounds “off the wall” to you allow me to show you a few confirmation Scriptures on this point; 1 John 3:4-5 “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.” As Christians where are we supposed to be? Also 1 John 3:8-9 “The one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” These Scriptures, while going against most notions that are preached today, are true and indeed the will of God for our lives. This is what I mean when I say God has a very difficult job truly bringing us into salvation! If you don’t believe that God is capable of bringing us into a state of walking obedient to Him without a practice of sin, then you must believe that Satan is just as powerful as God, and can stop God’s will by having as much power in and over us as God has! Remember, God is all-powerful, not the devil!
Listen as the Apostle Paul, the grace teacher, explains this to us; 1 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
Notice that the Apostle doesn’t say we are going to become a new creature, but that we are a new creature!
Until we become a new creature we are not yet in Christ, for is this not the very thing that 1 Corinthians 5:17 is saying? Look at the Apostles before their experience with the Baptism of the Holy Ghost.
1) Matthew 9:34-35 But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest. And sitting down, He called the twelve and said to them, "If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all."
2) Matthew 9:54-55 And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what kind of spirit you are of.
Here we have two examples of the Apostles behavior before they were endued with God’s power from on high. In Matthew 9:34, pride was still very much alive and well. In Matthew 9:54 they were ready to kill anyone who didn’t conform to the Lord, by calling down fire upon them. Jesus patiently dealt with them, but before He left them, knowing that they were ill equipped to be His witnesses on this earth, He gave them some important instructions. Luke 24:49 "And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." Even after three years of living, eating, and sleeping with the Lord, and having been given the power against all of the outward enemies: Satan, demons, sickness; yes, and even the power to raise the dead, they still didn’t have the power to overcome their own proud nature! The power Jesus gave them was wonderful power, but it didn’t help them to fight our greatest enemy, and that enemy is always ourselves! They still needed this power from on high in order to overcome their own nature, so that they could truly become new creatures in Christ, which is to say a fountain of God’s love!
Another Reason To Trust The Lord
Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. ”Here we have the Lord of Glory giving us another precious promise that regardless of what the Lord allows to come into our lives He will cause it to turn out for good! Notice how this Scripture starts out, “And we know” Do you KNOW this? Do you believe this? If your answer is yes, then nothing stands in your way of being happy continuously, regardless of what circumstances God allows to enter your life! You can’t lie here and get away with it, because if you believe this Scripture it will change your life, if not, you will still have many things that you will worry about in this life.
Self-will is the most destructive force in our life, I know of no other force that can cause the pain and unhappiness in our lives that self-will can cause.
When we choose to worry, we testify that we have more confidence in ourselves, and our ability to reason, than we have in God! We are saying, “Lord I don’t need your help, I can handle this myself!” On the other hand watch what happens when we pray and trust God instead of worrying.
First, we truly acknowledge the Lord in our life.
Second, we demonstrate our confidence in God.
Third, we open up the power of the Living God in our lives, and can now expect that the God of all love will aid us in the solution to our problem, and henceforth with all of our problems!
2) Pray With Supplication
When we pray with supplication we are entreating our Heavenly Father. We are showing Him that we know we must depend on Him. The Lord likes us to be dependent on Him, for when we depend on Him we are truly showing that we have learned that apart from Him we can do NOTHING! (John 15:5) This is why it is good for us to acknowledge our dependence on Him, and put away our self-will!
3) Pray With Thanksgiving
When we pray with thankfulness in our heart, we are demonstrating our faith. We can only be thankful when we have the victory of God in our hearts. We know that the problem is licked, even when things look on the outside to be the same. There is the problem, staring us in the face, but we know that we have already overcome; this is faith, victory in our hearts, before we see the evidence in our lives! We can have so much confidence in All-mighty God that we can smile even in the midst of the storm! As we pray in this way, our hearts are lightened; we begin to realize that our problems with the things of earth just aren’t that important, especially when compared with eternity.
How To Test The Strength Of A Problem
If the problem won’t be able to affect you five hundred years from now, it really isn’t much of a problem. Only Eternal choices affect us five hundred years from now! Make the right choices!
A few more facts about Romans 8:28.
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Do you know this? All things work together for good; if you believe this, you can rest! In fact, you are resting! If you can’t rest, allow me to ask another question, “Do you love God?” Remember, the promise is “to them that love God.” Read John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him. Do you “keep His words,” if your answer is no, this may be the problem. Jesus said this is the proof of our love to God, Keeping His words!
4) Let Your Request Be Known To God.
Even though the Lord knows all things, He expects us to make our requests known to Him. In this way, we acknowledge the Lord as our Heavenly Father. We let Him know that we trust and depend on Him. Praying gives us a close communion with the Living God! What a privilege it is to be able to carry our problems to a God who loves us, and is able (unlike Idols) to help us! If you choose to worry instead of praying, you only cheat yourself! If you obey Philippians 4:6, then you can expect to see the reality of Philippians 4:7 in your life. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.“ Watch this, the problem is still laid out in front of you, it didn’t change, but somehow you have a deep abiding peace that is guarding your heart and mind. It is difficult to understand this peace from the world’s point of view; in fact you can’t understand it. This peace that passes all understanding is flowing all over you, it is from God, it is the result, (proof) of your trusting in God as your Father. If after getting up off of your knees, you do not sense this peace, and you are still worried about the problem, you didn’t exercise faith! You are not believing, but doubting!
Worrying is the proof that you do not trust the Lord, because you do not believe His promises! He always keeps His promises. He never goes back on His word; He never has since before this Earth was formed! This peace is like a thermometer; it will show you just how much you really trust in the Lord and His word. If you fail the test, repent and believe God! Remember; always leave the problem with The Lord.
Here is a test for the thoughts that you allow to be in your mind. Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.”
Here is another wonderful piece of advice from the One who created you.
1) Only allow thoughts that are true to be in your mind, if what you are thinking on is not true, but, perhaps a fantasy or an imagination, put the thought far from you instantly. This is where all sorts of things are born that can only bring harm and destruction into your life.
2) The thought must be an honorable thought, if not, do not think about it. If it is not honorable, it
doesn’t belong in the mind of someone that wants to walk upright before the true and Living God.
3) If the thought is not a right thought it will lead you into other thoughts that also are not right and this too will bring about destruction for you.
4) If the thought is not pure it will lead you into other thoughts that also are not pure. We must be pure in thought if we want to be pure in our actions.
5) If the thought is not lovely it doesn’t belong in your mind. Our minds are to be beautiful gardens where God can dwell continually.
6) If the thought is not of Good repute, (the phrase “good repute” means good reputation,) then they can only be of bad repute. Remember, God wants to dwell with us, and our mind happens to be one of the places that God dwells.
7) Excellence, and praiseworthiness are characteristics that must be present in all of our thoughts in order for God to dwell with us continually.
If the thoughts in your mind do not pass the test of Philippians 4:8, then reject them. Remember, we as children of God are to take every thought captive to Christ. If you will do this, Satan is defeated in his ability to plant the seeds of sin in your life!
Joy will be in your life if you will only exchange the practice of worrying for the practice of taking EVERY problem to God instantly, every time.