I have always had a problem with calling worry a sin. It seems to me that it is natural and normal to want to take care of my basic needs – that it is common sense to take thought for the future. I was raised to be responsible, and to prepare for a rainy day. My parents believed in savings accounts, in insurances, in budgets and in planning for tomorrow. I was told that God helps those who help themselves. Taking care of yourself, being independent and not being a burden to others was seen to be a virtue. We worried if we could not take care of ourselves and our loved ones. Surely this kind of worry is part of being a responsible Christian. We tried to teach our children to be responsible and to be careful, to take thought for tomorrow and to be concerned about their future. There are often conflicts between those who believe in planning carefully and responsibly for tomorrow, budgeting their resources to take care that they do not end up in trouble, and those who believe that God is going to take care of them and are willing to take risks and go forward in faith and imply that any reluctance to do so signifies lack of faith. So what does Jesus mean when he teaches that we should not worry? What is the difference between worry and responsible concern?
We must see what Jesus says in its proper context. He is talking about worshipping Money rather than God, being so preoccupied with making money, and taking care of ourselves, that we forget that God gives us that ability, and fail to give God the credit. We can be so focused on taking care of ourselves, so proud of our independence, that we think that what we have is due solely to our own efforts, and not the result of God’s blessings.
“You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.” (Deut.8:17,18) What God gives he can also take away. Job cried out, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” (Job 1:21)
So what is the difference between being responsible, taking care for tomorrow and the worry Jesus is talking about? Worry is preoccupation with material security at the expense of recognizing the providence of God. It is thinking that all depends on you and that it has nothing to do with God. It is to totally rely upon yourself and not trust God.
According to Jesus, to worry is to anxiously care about something over which we have assumed total responsibility. It is the natural human reaction to concerns like poverty, disease, hunger and other troubles that can befall us or loved ones in daily life. We are oppressed and experience emotional pain when we imagine ourselves or them in danger of suffering over which we have no control. We try to protect ourselves and them as best we can from what confronts us. It can become an excessive obsession with imagined fears, expecting the worst, and bracing for catastrophe. We agonize about what we can do to solve the problem by ourselves and alleviate the suffering. What will it cost us to make it right? But perhaps money cannot solve the problem.
“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 life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?” (Matt.6:25) Jesus is warning us against denying God’s care and love by supposing that we can secure our own future by temporarily securing what we need for our daily lives. Worry is foolish because life is more than food. Anxiety cannot make life secure. We cannot add a single hour to our life by worrying. In fact, such excessive worrying can shorten our life. Charles Mayo co-founder of the Mayo Clinic made the observation that worry adversely affects the circulatory system, heart, glands, and the entire nervous system. You can worry yourself to death, but you’ll never worry yourself into a longer life. Worrying does not solve anything. All too often we worry about extending our own life and the life of our loved ones beyond reasonable expectations. Gilbert Meilander has written a recent book, Should We Live Forever? The Ethical Ambiguities of Aging on this important topic.
Worry is doubt about whether God can take care of us. If God has made the world so that he feeds the birds and makes the flowers beautiful, he will do much more for us. He knows what we need before we do. He gives us hands to work and minds to think about how to provide for ourselves. In other words we can never leave God out of our thinking. If God has priority in our thinking then there should be no place for worry. In fact, such worry is a symptom of little faith. Where there is worry there is little faith. Where there is great faith there is little worry. We are of much more worth to God than many sparrows. (Matt.10:29-31) Pagans, unbelievers, people of little or no faith, are great worriers because they are consumed with their needs and they do not know that they have a heavenly Father who provides for them
Instead of worrying about tomorrow, Jesus said, be concerned for the kingdom of God and his sovereign righteousness. Be concerned for, seek first, what God wants you to do rather than what is going to happen to you tomorrow. Today’s concerns are enough to take care of. A study on what people worry about found that 40 percent of our worries are about things that never happen. Thirty percent concern things that are in the past, that can’t be changed. Twelve percent of our worries are about our health. Ten percent of our worries were designated as petty concerns that were not worth worrying about. That left a total of 8 percent for real, legitimate concerns.
Jesus recognized that there are legitimate concerns we have to take care of in our lives. “Each day has enough troubles of its own.” Take one day at a time. “One day’s trouble is enough for one day.” (JBP) When you do the planning to take care of your sensible concerns, do it prayerfully seeking God’s guidance and direction. Responsible concern is not worry if you seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness.
Oswald Chambers: “The one thing that keeps us from the possibility of worrying is bringing God in as the greatest factor in all our calculations. In our religion it is customary to put God first, but we are apt to think it an impertinence to put him first in the practical issues of our lives. Don’t calculate with the rainy day in view. You cannot lay up for a rainy day if you are trusting Jesus Christ.” (My Utmost for His Highest, p.187)
“Notion your mind with the idea that God is there. If once the mind is notioned along that line, then when you are in difficulties it is as easy as breathing to remember – Why, my Father knows all about it! It is not an effort, it comes when perplexities press! God is my Father, He loves me, I shall never think of anything He will forget, why should I worry?… Nothing happens in any particular unless God’s will is behind it, therefore you can rest in perfect confidence in Him.” (op.cit. p.198)
It is a matter of priorities. Put God and his will for your life first, and you will live responsibly. Put God first today, and you will not have to worry about tomorrow. God will direct you to make responsible decisions. Trust in him.
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