Don't Worry
Norwich councillors are worried about their citizens – so much so that they have removed chestnut trees from the main streets – in case a conker falls and hits someone on the head. You wouldn’t have thought that would do much harm to people in Norfolk.
Some people worry a lot, worry is as much a part of their existence as breathing. If there weren’t something to worry about, they would be worried about that.
Joyce Meyer said, “Worry is spending time today trying to solve tomorrow’s problems.
I am not a worrier by nature (although I am a planner) but nevertheless there have been periods in my life when I have worried. I know it is happening because I wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat or I get grumpy with those closest to me. When I am really worried I sob – at points I can’t predict and usually in ways I can’t control.
All sorts of things make me worried:
• Money
• My children – they have left home
• My parents – they are getting older
• People working for me
• People in this community
• My clients in my business
We are all living through a time of economic uncertainty – times are tough for many of us:
• Money saved with the Bradford and Bingley?
• We have lost jobs
• High interest rates are stretching mortgage and debt repayments
• Careers are on hold or threatened
• Some are faced with health worries
• We fear the future and what it holds
• Children growing up, some leaving home
• Our marriages and friendships are not going well
• We are worried about not finding a husband or wife
Matthew 6: 25 – 34
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But 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.
Imagine Jesus were here, right now, among us, saying these words. In what state of mind do you think he would be? Well for a start he wouldn’t be worried. Even when he knew really horrible things were looming he didn’t seem to worry about them, despite the pain and sorrow.
It is quite possible that when Jesus was saying these things he was speaking out in the open air:
• Look at the birds: waders, plovers, gulls, swans, geese, ducks, warblers, thrushes, chats, eagles, vultures, hawks, buntings, falcons; the way they seem not to have a care in the world. How do they manage to fly like that, swooping up and down, round and round? They must have a great view of what is going on down here. They don’t seem to be worried about anything – just having fun and yet living perfectly well.
• Look at those fields. Can you see all those different flowers? Autumn crocus, anemones, gladioli, roses, lilies, chrysanthemums. Aren’t they gorgeous? Each one could go in an art gallery in its own right although delicate and temporary. They manage to look fantastic without spending any time at all doing their make up.
Looking at his track record you get the impression he is about to say, “Don’t worry, let’s enjoy life!” In fact, people hanging round him probably found themselves worrying less and enjoying life more. You get the impression that Jesus wasn’t worrying but cheerful, wasn’t anxious but content. A bounce in his step, a smile on his face, a glass of wine in his hand and joke on his lips.
John 10: 10
“I came that you may have life and have it in abundance” he said, “it is the enemy who tries to make you miserable”.
Yes there are concerns and worries each day – Jesus says as much – but what he is telling us is not to get trapped thinking about tomorrow’s concerns today, not to give the enemy the opportunity to continually whisper in our ear, “but what about the mortgage payment, what about your children’s health. What if you never get married, what about your pension fund, what about your image, what about your career…?” That is a recipe for a miserable life.
If you are listening to those poisonous questions your reaction is probably going to be:
• Saving and hoarding money
• Trying to control outcomes and other people’s situations
• Depression
• Drugs, alcohol, food, shopping, addictions
• Self-pity, comparing yourself to others
• State of tensions and anxiety, overflows in anger and tense relationships
• Striving to be better, to work harder
That is a recipe for a miserable life. Worry is the fuel of the rat race and far from helping actually cuts short your life. Just stand on the corner of the Headrow some weekday lunchtime and look at the faces walking past.
Jesus says, “Everyone else is chasing after stuff, trying to solve their worries and anxieties – and they don’t look happy about it!”
Jesus talks about worry because he knows you will worry. He wouldn’t need to say this if it weren’t a problem.
Yesterday, Alison and I stopped at a pub in London for some supper on our way back to Leeds. There was a sign outside the toilets which said “Mind your head”. Why did it say that? Because there was a low ceiling. You have a choice – you can ignore the warning and bang your head or you can heed the warning and do something about it. You can change your posture.
Was there a sign coming into this hall today? No, because there is no low ceiling. But Jesus gives us a warning sign – you will get worried. So here is what to do. And no, it isn’t easy. If it were easy he wouldn’t need to say anything. It is a difficult thing to come to grips with. You wouldn’t be worried if there were no things to worry about – but there always are. A very difficult thing for many people.
His solution is,
Matthew 6: 33
Seek first his kingdom and his righteous will.
This is not a deal – you do this, seeking the kingdom, and I will take away your worry. God is not our sugar daddy to be sweetened up so he gives us what we want. Seeking the kingdom is not just another way of trying to control the outcome, sort out tomorrow. It is not that we do one thing and then the circumstances change and we don’t have worry.
Joyce Meyer puts it like this: “We are seeking God’s face not his hand.” Our eyes are not on our troubles and circumstances but on him and his kingdom.
What Jesus is asking you to do, to seek the kingdom of God, requires a decision of your will – what the bible calls repentance. A decision to change direction, to change your way of thinking. Instead of chasing after things you hope will deal with your worry, you turn and face the other way and pursue the kingdom of God.
What does this look like?
Worry
|
Kingdom |
Me, my worry, fears anxiety
|
Him and his people |
My world
|
Others and their world |
Trying to control the result
|
Trusting him with the outcome |
Worry about ill health
|
Healing and an eternal perspective |
| Worry about money |
Different needs and sources of provision |
Fear, anxiety, whinge and complain
|
Love, hope, joy and sharing |
Everything known and planned
|
Uncertainty, spontaneity, trust |
Goodbyes
|
Welcome and hullo |
Fear and death
|
Life and abundantly |
Temporary, life time
|
Eternal, forever |
When Jesus comes, the kingdom comes, with him we experience what the kingdom is like. What it is like to live under God’s rule. We taste something of the heaven of tomorrow today.
Let me give you two examples:
1. When Alison and I first felt the call of God to join the Vineyard it meant we had to uproot from the North and move to London – with our first baby just born. I had to start a new business, we had buy a property at the height of the market in late 1980s.
On the one hand we had a tough time. Financially, business was not easy, raising the boys in London away from their grandparents was a challenge. Our young family life did not perhaps turn out as it could have done.
On the other hand, we knew we were where God wanted us. We have seen his kingdom come in our lives and around us. And although our circumstances were very difficult and sometimes painful – he has indeed provided for us, we have learnt to trust him, have known Jesus as our companion and guide, have experienced his Holy Spirit using us for his kingdom.
2. One of my best friends was seriously ill during the last year. We were all very worried that he might not survive surgery and treatment. Alison and I chose to drop some of our other priorities and gave time to being with him and his wife, to pray with them (though they were not in the frame of mind to have much faith), spend time with them, make meals, visit in hospital.
That raised fears and anxiety in us: having to watch a good friend in awful pain, the worry that he would die, the potential loss, the reminder of loss and pain in our lives, the opening up of that thought trail that it could easily be me next. We could have managed that worry by staying away, focussing on our own health, going for a medical check up, checked our life assurances, put up defences around the family.
And they told us that is indeed what many of their friends did – they disappeared.
So, many times we have had circumstances around us where we had cause for worry, where the enemy had good cause to whisper in our ears, “what about food for tomorrow, what about clothes, what about health, what about money…”
But we turned our faces toward the father’s face, not his hands, not all the time, but when we got our act together, and sought to worship him and change the way we think.
He gives you the choice. Which way are you going to face?
You can carry on worrying if you like and walk into the low ceiling. Or you can change direction, change your posture. You can say you are sorry for facing the wrong way, for not trusting him, for not seeking his face, for listening to the lies of the enemy. And you can say: “Instead, I choose to follow you and listen to your voice and believe it when you say you will provide for me.”
Look first for what God wishes you to do, seek to obey his will.
What happens then?
The worries begin to recede, you start to enjoy life more and then God looks after you. You may not get the million pounds in the bank account or the luxury car or the perfect body or the finest wines and tastiest food or the most fashionable clothes. You may well not get even enough savings to make you feel safe. Your way of planning to manage the worry will probably not be the way he deals with it.
But you will grow an abundant life and you can learn to worry less and less. You will begin to learn that your heavenly Father can and will look after you.
I know men and women of great promise in the kingdom who have bruised and bloodied foreheads. Who, when words of worry are whispered, have responded by pursuing financial security, successful careers, trappings of success. They have fallen for addictions and have compromised. Although they are in the kingdom they have chosen not to pay the cost of trusting their lives fully to Jesus and they have not been able to forcefully take hold of the kingdom. They have stayed in the realm of worry and anxiety. They have stayed in the place of needing to control, and lived a life of perpetually banging their heads against low ceilings.
You can’t solve your worries yourself (if you could, Jesus wouldn’t have said this). We turn first to Him and his kingdom and learn his perspective and then we deal with the problems of the day. One day at a time. Get this day right, and then tomorrow right, and then the next day and before long you have a lifestyle of living in the kingdom.
Once you have his perspective, an eternal perspective where following him and doing his business is the driving and dominant dynamic of your life, you can then sit down and look at the financial situation, the health situation, the relationship situation – whatever it is that could cause you worry – and you pray.
I have some premium bonds and when finances have been rough I have often prayed, “Now would be a good time Lord”. But that is simply me trying to control the outcome to my predicament. When the Lord has a completely different plan. Wildly different.
So my prayer has become, “Lord, as best I can I am choosing to follow you. As best as I know how I am where you want me to be, doing the job I am doing, in relationship with whoever it is, with these dependants. Please provide for me as you promise and give me wisdom as I now seek to deal with the situation that faces me.”
Jesus, surrounded by worried people, just like us, is cajoling and joshing them into seeing the wonders of God’s creation and provision all around them.
He sees your worried faces and frowns. He knows your current circumstances (and he has seen much worse). And he says, “Hey, don’t worry … go after the kingdom, give your whole life up for that treasure, one that lasts, become a citizen of the king. And you know what? That king, our heavenly, loving, caring, all-powerful father; will provide you with everything you need. Not necessarily everything you want – but everything you need and enough so you won’t have to worry.”
David Flowers, 28/09/2008