A few months ago, I flew to Orange County, CA. On my return flight, I experienced turbulence somewhere over the Colorado Rockies. Sensing my nervousness, my seat mate looked at me and said, “Do not be worried, if it is your time, it is your time.” Really? You mean to tell me that is the best thing you can say?
He gave me absolutely no comfort! I have never received comfort from people who say, “If it is your time, it is your time.” It does not matter if you are in a car, or on a bus or plane, if it is your time, it is your time. What if it is the pilot’s time? It may not be my time but it is the pilot’s time. The truth is, at some point, we all worry.
We All Worry About Something
The fact is, we all worry about something. Worry is essentially a control issue. Worry is trying to control the uncontrollable. We cannot control our health, yet we worry about it. We cannot control our jobs, yet we worry about them. We cannot control the economy, yet we worry about it. Contrary to what we believe when it comes to having control over our children, we cannot control them. Yet we continue to worry about them.
The truth is, worry never solves anything. All it does is make us miserable. The root English word for “worry” literally means “to choke or strangle.” That is what happens when you worry. You choke off the life. You strangle the joy out of your life every time you worry. The Greek word for worry literally means a divided mind. It is a tug of war that is going on in your mind. That tug of war should prompt you to ask, “How do I stop worrying?”
How Do I Stop Worrying
It takes more than willpower to stop worrying and you already know that because you have tried. How do I stop worrying? Jesus gives us incredible insight during His Sermon on the Mount. He gives us the necessary steps we need to take to stop worrying. The solution is not just telling yourself you should not worry. That does not work. That just makes you more miserable. Again, it takes more than willpower to stop worrying. If you constantly worry, maybe you have a connection problem.
Check Your Connection
If you do not know God and have a personal relationship with Christ, you ought to worry. This is foundational. In Matthew 6:25-34 (Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount), Jesus was continuing to highlight kingdom priorities—the attitude toward life that His disciples should exemplify. If you do not know God and you do not know Jesus, you are on your own. You are out there in that big bad world, living on your own power and strength.
Worry presents us with the dual temptation to distrust God and to substitute fear for practical action. Worry means paying attention to what we cannot change instead of putting our energies to work in effective ways. Jesus made it clear that worry takes away from life rather than adding anything to it. We can counteract worry by doing what we can and trusting where we cannot. When we work for God and wait on his timing, we will not have time to worry. When we seek first to honor God as king and conform our lives to his righteousness, worry will always finds us otherwise occupied.
There is plenty in the world to be worried about. If you do not have any outside external hope or power or source to handle all the problems and pressures you are going to face your entire life, you ought to be worried. Honestly, if I were trying to live my life without God’s help, I would be very worried. Again, if you constantly worry, maybe you have a loose connection or no connection to the right source – God.
Ask yourself:
- How can I spend less time worrying about my bank account and more time serving the church?
- How can I spend less time worrying about mortgages and more time visiting the sick?
- How can I spend less time worrying about kids’ college tuition payments and more time learning the Bible?
