What a world of worry ours is! Worry is driving people mad and is largely responsible for the alarming increase of mental illness and suicides. Trouble, anxiety, vexations of mind characterize our life, and worry seems to be the most common and natural thing to do. Yet it is the most useless, unnecessary, and harmful way out of our anguish. Worry can whiten the hair before time, fill a life with misery, fatten the doctor’s purse, and extract an almost greater toll of life than all the physical diseases put together. Let us thank God that there is victory, even over worry. Jesus came that we might have peace.
The Cause of Worry
As a gifted physician strives to get at the root cause of a disease before applying an efficacious remedy, so let us examine some of the sources responsible for the worry robbing our lives of so much peace and pleasure. And of this we are confident, that there is no reason why multitudes should live in the dark shadows where fears haunt them like ghosts.
The cares of life. Home cares, business, health, money matters, and loved ones produce a great deal of present-day worry. Every fluctuating, threatening circumstance is a signal for fresh indulgence in worry. But as I once saw in motto form, “Don’t worry. It may not happen.” What we seem to forget is the fact that worry, once formed as a personal habit, is so difficult to check. Like ruts in a road that become deeper with usage, so worry makes inroads upon our own and others’ happiness. A good slogan to keep before us reads: “Why worry about tomorrow? It is always a day away.”
The atmosphere of the world. Is it not true that often we worry because others worry? Like a fever, worry is contagious. Worry is of the world, and we are apt to fall into a worldly way of looking at things. The world worries and it has every right to, seeing that it is away from God. Christians however, breathe a different atmosphere, and should be free from the way of the world. Worry-stricken souls ought to be segregated as the fever-stricken are to prevent their troubles from spreading.
Ignorance of God! Another evident reason for such a malady is ignorance regarding the exact nature of God and His care. Faith fails to grasp the reality of a living Heavenly Father. He is not appropriated as “the hidden source of calm repose.” We forget that while there is need of grace there is also grace for need. Jesus corrects undue anxiety when He tells us to take no thought of the morrow. Of course, He does not mean that we are to have no provident thought such as we manifest when we put something away for a rainy day. Not to do so is to be worse than an infidel, Paul reminds us. What our Lord had in mind was a carefree life made possible by the surrender of each day with its needs, into the hands of our bountiful Father above. When troubled about food, raiment, and other necessities, we are to remember the birds and flowers.
The Curse of Worry
Worry is never a blessing, but always a bane; never a comfort, always a curse. And that it is senseless and foolish can be proved in a threefold direction. Yes, and these three reasons likewise indicate why, if we are His, we should not be guilty of such a sin.
Harmful to ourselves! Worrying never changes our circumstances in the least degree. As our Lord expressed it, anxiety cannot add one bit to our stature. How can worry possibly benefit those who indulge in it? Why, it ruins one mentally, physically, and spiritually. A load of care or anxiety on the mind upsets the digestion process, produces undernourishment, and thereby unfits one for the responsibilities of life. Worry deranges the nervous system, robs a person of sleep, and often causes heavy doctor bills. Doctors, however, can do little for one who worries. The only cure as we shall later see, is a right relationship to God.
Harmful to others! One who worries imparts a depressed feeling. It is harmful and annoying to have about us those who rob us of our joy. If we are the Lord’s we must realize that the world waits to see how we bear our trials and losses. When the reaper robs our heart and home of some treasure, how do we act? If those around notice that we worry and mope, lose heart, go to pieces, as if we had no source of succor, they have every right to doubt the reality of our faith and of God’s care. It is imperative for the sake of others to be brave, peaceful, and trustful when the sorrows and adversities overtake us.
Harmful to God! A worrying Christian contradicts the sufficiency of divine grace, and damages the reputation of God as a Father who really cares. When such a mental habit is practiced, we proclaim to others that God is not able to undertake for us as He promised to do. Worry sends off deadly gases, destructive to faith. Fretful doubt obscures God’s face. And worry certainly hurts His loving heart. It must grieve the Lord to know that although He is almighty and beneficent, His children persist in worrying over little things. Faith in the dark pleases and honors Him. The couplet has it: “When worrying we are not trusting, when trusting, we are not worrying.”
Worry produces doubt in a threefold direction:
1. God’s love is doubted. Worry implies that He cares little for His blood-washed children.
2. God’s wisdom is doubted. Worry indicates that He is not able to plan for His own, that He does not know what is best for those who belong to Him.
3. God’s power is doubted. Worry declares that His grace is not sufficient for our needs.
Thus, as we have seen, the spirit of worry is calamitous. A surgeon knowing something of the peril of this sin, had placed in his operating room the words, “Don’t worry—it is wicked.” And wicked it is! Many, agreeing that worry is a useless, senseless habit, are slow to admit that it is a sin. And yet, “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” God has promised to care for us at all times. Worry, however, makes Him a liar. Whittier’s beautiful lines are ever a corrective, if our tendency is to worry and doubt.
I know not where His islands lift
Their fronded palms in air,
I only know I cannot drift
Beyond His love and care.
The Cure of Worry
If there is a life without worry, surely all of us will want to know and experience such a carefree existence. If there is a cure for this ravaging disease, then, let us proclaim it near and far in this vexatious, worry-driven world.
Unfortunately, there are those suffering under this slow form of self-inflicted suicide, who turn to various cults for relief. But such sources, as well as psychology, do not work.
The word “worry,” we are informed, is from an Anglo-Saxon term meaning “a wolf,” an animal who harries, worries, and harms. And, if such a wolf as worry is to be destroyed, it will never be by our own power or self-thought. Unless the Lion of Judah takes it in hand to destroy our carping care, then we are without hope. Thank God, there is a relief for those who are harried by the wolf! Would you have a life without worry, and victory over lurking fears? Well, here are the ingredients in a Divine cure.
Peace through trusting. The miracle of being without worry in this modern age is a miracle the Holy Spirit makes possible through the impartation of a divine peace. With a mind stayed upon the Lord we can be kept in the experience of a continuous, uninterrupted peace (Is. 26:3).
Alas, however, we know Jesus as our Sin-Bearer but not as our Burden-Bearer. We give Him our sins but not our sighs. We stay our minds on trouble, rather than on the Lord. Trial is magnified, and the Master’s grace belittled. But when the reverse process is practiced and the Lord fills our horizon, then the things of earth grow strangely dim. If stayed upon Jehovah, then not a surge of worry can touch the spirit there.
Peace through loving. Another sword effective in the slaughter of the wolf of worry is to be found in Romans 8:28, where we discover that if we love God, then all things, even the untoward experiences of life, work together for our good. Things not good in themselves can, under the hand of God, produce peace of heart. Because the love of God stands between us, and all possible harm, our love to God ought to rest in the joy of His ability to undertake for us even in the dark hours we may face.
Peace by casting. Peter gives us another avenue of victory over our fearful moods. An appealing translation of his exhortation has been stated thus, “Casting all your care upon Him, for it matters to Him about you” (1 Pet. 5:7). Another interpretation of this passage is likewise suggestive, “Throw the whole of your anxiety upon Him, because He Himself cares for you.” If we trust some of our care to Him, why not let Him have it all?
Sometimes we find ourselves saying that we are happy under the circumstances, but as Christians we have no right to be under our circumstances. We should be on the top of them reigning over them with Christ.
Peace through looking. A right understanding of Hebrews 12:1-2 imparts peace to careworn hearts. We are to look, not merely to Jesus, but away unto Jesus, that is away from all else—to Jesus. Not a glance, but a gaze. The Master is able to keep us in perfect peace, seeing that He faced every kind of test and emerged Conqueror. Nothing ever disturbed Him. He could never be robbed of His spiritual possession of tranquility as an antidote of worry and despair.
Peace through protection. In Philippians 4:6-7, 19, Paul offers a further corrective for the disturbing forces of life. We ought to be happy, seeing the Lord encamps around His own. He promises to keep or garrison our hearts and minds. Do you want to stay the wolf of worry? Well, look at this threefold avenue of destruction.
1. Anxious about nothing. And nothing means no thing. Surely this excludes even the slightest reasons for unrest and disturbance of peace.
2. Prayerful for everything. How different our lives would be if only we could adopt the prayer attitude as we come up against the untoward experiences of life! This is ever the way to victory.
3. Gratitude in all things. What the Lord has been, He will be until traveling days are done. And with such a bountiful God, why would we charge our souls with care? Do you live on “Thanksgiving Avenue”? The houses are no dearer here than they are on “Worry Street.” Pack up and leave such a gloomy quarter where the sun seldom shines. The next time you are tempted to sit and brood, take a pencil and set down a list of all the mercies you enjoy, and then say to your soul, “Why art thou cast down? Hope thou in God.”
So dear, so very dear to God,
More dear I cannot be;
The love wherewith He loves the Son,
Such is His love to me!
Why should I ever careful be,
Since such a God is mine?
He watches o’er me night and day,
And tells me, “Mine is thine.”
Written by Herbert Lockyer