Few Christians understand that the sin of
worrying is a serious hindrance to their
spiritual growth.
Do you sometimes lie awake at night worrying
about what might happen to you and your
loved ones? Worrying may be defined as being
concerned about things over which we have
little or no control—those things which are
not our responsibility. In this first
segment of a series on anxiety, Dr. Debbi Dunlap reminds readers that God is our
source, and he urges us to trust Him for our
every need.
Few Christians understand that the sin of
worrying is a serious hindrance to their
spiritual growth.
Are you a worrier? Do you sometimes lie
awake at night worrying about what might
happen to you and your loved ones? Worrying
may be defined as being concerned about
things over which we have little or no
control—those things which are not our
responsibility. In this first segment of a
4-part series on anxiety, Dr. Debbi Dunlap
reminds readers that God is our source, and
he urges us to trust Him for our every need.
Few
Christians understand that the sin of
worrying is as serious a hindrance to their
spiritual growth as are sins such as lying,
cheating or stealing. Worrying may be
defined as being concerned about things over
which we have little or no control—those
things which are not our responsibility.
Conversely, when we concern ourselves with
those things that God has defined as our
areas of responsibility, we are not guilty
of the sin of worrying.
Worrying
gets us nowhere and it shuts our hearts and
minds to God’s promptings.
Philippians
4:6,7 is a direct command for every
Believer:
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known to God. And
the peace of God, which surpasses all
comprehension, shall guard your hearts and
your minds in Christ Jesus.
The sin of
worrying may be compared to rocking in a
rocking chair. It keeps us busy but it
doesn’t get us anywhere. Worrying is
counter-productive. When we occupy ourselves
with the job of worrying, we fail to
maintain an attitude of prayer. Our hearts
and minds grow unreceptive to the promptings
of the Holy Spirit.
We are
tempted every day to worry about situations
that we face.
Christians
face many situations in which they are
tempted to worry and to fear. Someone who
experiences the loss of a job or a reduction
in income worries that he may not be able to
pay his bills or to provide food for his
family. A person who sustains a crippling
injury or who must endure a prolonged
illness, fears that he will be unable to
fulfill his daily responsibilities. A change
in employment or a move to a new home often
causes an individual to be fearful and
worried. People who must cope with their
children leaving home or with the death of a
loved one commonly respond by worrying.
A certain
amount of worrying may be inevitable at
times, but excessive worrying is sinful.
Instinctive
responses to certain life situations do not
qualify as worry. If, for example, we stand
in the middle of the highway during rush
hour traffic we should feel worried. When
Jesus instructed us not to worry He was not
forbidding us to have a valid concern for
our God-given responsibilities. God wants us
to work diligently at our jobs, take care of
our families, maintain orderly homes and be
dependable members of the Body of Christ.
The writer
of 1 Timothy 5:8 warns,
If any man does not provide for his own, and
especially for those of his household, he
has denied the faith and is worse than an
infidel.
God does
not prohibit His children from having proper
financial foresight. Christians should be
prepared to provide for unexpected needs by
regularly saving money. In Proverbs 6:6,7 we
read these instructions, “Go to the
ant…consider her ways, how she stores up.”
Yet, we must be careful to remember that God
is our source. We should trust Him to “give
us our daily bread.”
John Wesley
once said, “I would as soon swear as fret.”
When we face difficult situations, the only
biblical response is to place the
responsibility for our problems on our
Heavenly Father. We should flee to Christ in
prayer. We must not allow ourselves to
become discouraged or to waste time worrying
needlessly. When we cast our burdens on Him
He will not fail us.
God is in control of every detail of our
lives and He has commanded us not to worry.
Worrying is a sin because it denies the
sovereignty of God. When we are worried or
anxious we demonstrate lack of faith in God.
In this 2nd part of a 4-article series, Dr. Debbi Dunlap explains that worrying not only
wastes God-given time, but also has damaging
effects on our bodies. He urges us to be
confident of the fact that God is in control
of every detail of our lives, both good and
bad.
God expects
His children to obey the command that He
gives them in Philippians 4:6, “Do not be
anxious for anything.” Disobedience to this
command is sinful. When we are worried or
anxious we demonstrate our lack of faith in
God. We are actually saying, “God cannot
handle this situation in my life.” The
writer of 1 Peter 5:7 assures Believers that
the opposite is true:
Cast all your anxiety on Him because He
cares for you.
God is in
control of every detail of our lives and He
has commanded us not to worry.
Worrying is
a sin because it denies the sovereignty of
God. God speaks of His sovereignty in Isaiah
45:7,
I form the light and create darkness, I
bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the
Lord, do all these things.
We must
acknowledge the truth of this claim if we
desire to maintain calm and quiet hearts in
the face of adversities and trials. When we
are confident that God is in control of all
of the details of our lives, both good and
bad, we do not waste time and energy
fretting over the outcome of our problems.
Instead, we are secure in the knowledge that
God will work all things out for our good
and for His own glory.
Worrying
wastes time and God wants His children to
redeem the time.
Being
anxious is sinful because it wastes time.
God entrusts the precious commodity of time
to each of His children and He expects them
to use it wisely. In Ephesians 5:16 we read
this exhortation, “Make the most of your
time because the days are evil.” Someday we
will all give an account to God of how we
used our time. We are guilty of
irresponsible stewardship when we squander
the time that God gives us in needless
worrying. We should make a consistent,
diligent effort to “redeem the time.”
Prolonged,
excessive worrying damages our body.
Anxiety
causes physical damage to our bodies, which
are temples of the Holy Spirit. Paul asks in
1 Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know that
you yourselves are God’s temple and that
God’s Spirit lives in you?” Some physical
consequences of worrying are muscle tension
and aching, fatigue, restlessness, shortness
of breath, excessive sweating, cold and
clammy extremities, and hot or cold flashes.
Other physical manifestations of anxiety
include dizziness or light-headedness,
chronic nausea or stomach distress, numbness
or tingling sensations and tightness in the
chest area.
People who are prone to worry
often have difficulty falling asleep or
staying asleep. They may also experience
irritability or edginess and they may find
it hard to concentrate.
The
greatest antidote to worrying is a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ.
Someone who
has not repented of his sins and placed his
faith in Jesus Christ has a legitimate basis
for worrying. If he is not a born-again
child of God, he has a good reason to be
anxious.
We will
never find security and peace until we have
a personal relationship with God, through
Christ Jesus. Only then can we appropriate
the biblical principles of overcoming worry
and anxiety. Once we belong to Him, He
becomes our Heavenly Father and we can “put
away” worry and anxiety. He will teach us to
rest confidently in Him and to trust in His
Word.
We must believe God’s promise that, by His
grace, we can win the war against worry and
anxiety.
God calls each of us, as Christians, to face
various trials in order to teach us
obedience and trust. If we live to please
ourselves, however, we will view those
difficult circumstances as reasons to worry
and to fear, rather than as opportunities to
grow in our faith. In this third article of
a four-part series on anxiety, Dr. Debbi Dunlap explains that if we want to stop the
sin of worrying, we must develop a strategy
for success.
God calls
us, as Christians, to face various trials in
order to teach us obedience and trust. If we
live to please ourselves, however, we will
view those difficult circumstances as
reasons to worry and to fear rather than as
opportunities to grow spiritually.
If we want
to stop the sin of worrying we must develop
a plan for success.
The writer
of Ephesians 4:22-24 reminds us,
You were taught, with regard to your former
way of life, to put off your old self, which
is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
to be made new in the attitude of your
minds; and to put on the new self, created
to be like God in true righteousness and
holiness.
This
passage encourages every Christian to
develop a specific plan to overcome the sins
of anxiety, worry and fear.
The first
suggested step in this plan is to express
genuine repentance before God for any
anxiety or fear that we have allowed to
creep into our lives. We must not try to
justify our reasons for being fretful or
fearful. We should simply ask God to forgive
us.
We must
believe God’s promise that by His grace, we
can win the war against anxiety.
Next, we
begin a war that we expect to win against
worry and fear. In Hebrews 12:3,4, we find
the command to fight sin wholeheartedly:
Consider him who endured such opposition
from sinful men, so that you will not grow
weary and lose heart. In your struggle
against sin, you have not yet resisted to
the point of shedding blood.
If we truly
desire to resist temptation and to attain
victory over sin, we must yield our minds,
our bodies and our hearts to Christ’s
Lordship, whatever the personal cost may be.
As we grow stronger in this
battle the Lord will use small defeats to
show us our utter need for Him. These losses
should serve to increase our determination
to be victorious. We may lose some minor
battles but we will win the war. If we do
not expect to win, however, every small
defeat will discourage us rather than point
us on to God and to victory.
We should
acknowledge the fact that we are engaged in
spiritual warfare.
The battle
against anxiety and fear is far more than a
physical or mental struggle. It is spiritual
warfare. Paul explains in Ephesians 6:12,
Our struggle is not against flesh and blood,
but against the rulers, against the
authorities, against the powers of this dark
world and against the spiritual forces of
evil in the heavenly realms.
It is
helpful to memorize key scripture passages
that address the sins of worry and fear,
such as Deuteronomy 6:13, Proverbs 1:7,
12:25, 22:4, Luke 21:34, Romans 8:15,
Philippians 4:6,7 and 1 Peter 5:5,6.
God renews
our minds as we memorize His life-giving
Word. He wants us to win the battle against
worry and fear and He lovingly uses the
pressure of the battle to motivate us to
seek Him. We are dependent upon God’s grace
and strength every hour to overcome the
sinful habit of worrying.
When we
worry excessively we are focused on
ourselves.
In 1 John
4:18 we find these words, “There is no fear
in love; but perfect love casts out fear,
because fear involves punishment, and the
one who fears is not perfected in love.”
When fear and worry begin to consume us we
can be certain that our focus is turned
inward. If we are committed to following
Jesus’ example we will choose to focus our
love, our concern and our attention on other
people rather than focusing selfishly on
ourselves.
If we develop a plan for consistent prayer,
we will have a weapon to fight the
temptation to worry.
Do you use praise as a weapon to fight the
temptation to be anxious? God promises us
that when we present our problems to Him
with a thankful heart, He will give us peace
to guard our hearts and minds from needless
fear and worry. This supernatural peace
defies human understanding. In this 4th
article of a 4-part series on anxiety, Dr.
Dunlap reminds us that praise is an antidote
for worry. We cannot praise God and continue
to worry at the same time.
God
promises us that when we present our
problems to Him with a thankful heart, He
will give us peace to guard our hearts and
minds from needless fear and worry. This
peace transcends our human understanding. It
is an abiding peace that the world cannot
understand.
We should
learn to recognize the sins of anxiety and
fear as soon as they occur.
If we
develop a plan for consistent and
comprehensive personal prayer, we will have
an effective weapon with which to fight the
temptation to be anxious and fearful. We
must learn to commit difficult situations to
God in prayer as soon as they occur. We
should also be alert to recognize the
symptoms of anxiety and fear when they begin
so that we can deal with them immediately.
We find a glorious promise in Isaiah 26:3,
You will keep in perfect peace him whose
mind is steadfast, because he trusts in You.
God has
promised to give us grace one day at a time.
It is
helpful to make a commitment to live
joyfully one day at a time. God has promised
us sufficient grace only for today.
Yesterday can never be recovered and
tomorrow is out of reach. We can be certain
that today God expects us to live
obediently, abundantly and victoriously in
His strength.
Jesus
instructs us in Matthew 6:33,34,
Seek first His kingdom and His
righteousness, and all these things will be
given to you as well. Therefore, do not
worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry
about itself. Each day has enough trouble of
its own.
It is
foolish to dredge up misery by regretting
the irretrievable past or by fretting about
the unknown.
We cannot
praise God and worry and fret all at the
same time.
As we “put
off” worry, we “put on” praise. Praise is a
marvelous remedy for the sin of worrying. It
is good idea to listen to music that focuses
our hearts and minds on the glory and
provision of God. Each time we are tempted
to worry, we should sing praise choruses and
hymns aloud to God. It may be helpful to
begin a Journal of Gratefulness in which we
write down every blessing of God that comes
to our minds. As we ask the Lord to remind
us of His specific acts of goodness and
mercy toward us, our hearts will likely
overflow with thanksgiving.
Another
practical suggestion is to think through the
areas of our lives that tend to be the most
worrisome. Then we can use biblical
principles to strategize practical solutions
to those problem areas. When we find
ourselves falling into the old patterns of
fretting and being fearful, we implement our
plan to combat the temptation.
We will
find victory if we are willing to humble
ourselves and become accountable to other
Christians.
Finally, we reinforce our
wills by a bond of accountability. We ought
to make a commitment to contact a particular
Christian friend to request prayer each time
that we are tempted to worry.
The thought
of having to tell him will powerfully
motivate us to resist the temptation to
worry when it arises. Additionally, his
prayers for us will spiritually reinforce us
in our quest to achieve victory over
anxiety. We need not go into details each
time that we ask for prayer. However, we
should ask him to check with us later to
find out whether or not his protective
prayers were effective.
When we are
accountable to someone, the temptation to
worry is a double opportunity for growth.
The writer
of James 5:16 instructs us, “Confess your
sins to one another, and pray for one
another, that you may be healed. The
effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man
avails much.” When a Christian faithfully
obeys this command through a bond of
accountability, both he and his
accountability partner have an opportunity
to grow spiritually every time he is tempted
to be anxious or fearful.
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