The Common Ways of Worry
Most worry creeps in because we lack the faith that God is able to perform what He says He will.
He says He will never leave us, nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6). But, in our lack of trust, we become mentally preoccupied with where we have failed to believe God. And in the failure of that trust, we simultaneously enlist ourselves as ambassadors of our own problems.
What I mean is, when we worry, we take our problems on all by ourselves. We own them. Only, they actually end up owning us, because let’s be honest, action and worry are really two separate things. Its not like saying, “Oh, I need some eggs.” So, you go to the store and buy some eggs. Or to say, “Hey, someone left the water running.” So, you turn it off. No, worry stems from that powerless feeling you get when you wish you could prevent something bad from happening. Now, there’s no guarantee that this bad thing will happen. Like getting struck by lightning (the odds of which are 1 in 700,000), it will probably never happen. But for some, just knowing that the possibility exist is enough.
Despite the fact that this issue can or will likely have any effect on you, the mental preoccupation remains. This is worry. It’s pretending to solve a matter by asserting effort towards a problem that ultimately, you can’t do anything about. I wish I could ____________________, you might say, but you can’t. So, you worry.
Worry is feigned control.
You imagine that you’re accomplishing something on behalf of the problem you’re concerned for, when in fact, you’re actually doing nothing. You’re worrying. Sure, you can pretend that your in control, but if you really were, you wouldn’t be worrying would you?
And now, the problem is yours in it’s entirety. You’re consumed and eaten up by a hypothetical world of “what ifs” and maybes. You’re drowned by a ceaseless slurry of thoughts that give credence to situations which will probably never happen. “What if my child marries the wrong person?” a parent might say. “What if my dad loses his job? What will my family do?” a kid might say. “What will we eat? Where will we live? How will we manage?”
So, the pattern continues in an endless, onslaught of slamming thoughts, envisioning whatever self-conjured hell might come raining down on you at any any moment.
Want the Truth?
Worry is stupid.
No, really. It’s a mental deposit on a problem that doesn’t presently exist.
Worse yet, worry is predicated upon fear, motivated by the potential for loss.
And yes, I’ll say it again, this fear of loss stems from a lack of trust in God.
When you worry, you fail to trust that God is as capable to care for you as He says He is.
But remember, just because the potential exist for something to happen, doesn’t mean it’s actually happened. When you give power to hypothetical situations, you’re actually surrendering your control to everything THAT HASN’T HAPPENED. There’s a greater likelihood that it won’t ever happen.
In fact, in the menagerie of everything that could happen, only one thing is actually going to take place.
And whether you can or can’t control it, it’s most likely beyond your control anyway.
When you make yourself the solver of all of your own problems, you’re saying “I’m in control. I can manage it. I can solve this and I intend to do this all by myself.”
You’re stepping into pride…and pride is sin.
Well, how do you like that?
You’ve put yourself in the driver's seat to solve what you know you can’t, and now it’s eating at you from the inside out like some proper disease of the mind. Meaning to resolve the matter, you’ve fallen into sin in the process.
Helping Your Worry
“But all I wanted to do was help,” you might say.
If REALLY want to help yourself, learn to pray.
Seriously, that’s the solution?
Trust God. Have faith. He is supreme. He is greater than your problem. And you can start, by offering the situation to Him.
God isn’t asking you to battle the cares of this world on your own. He commands that we surrender our worries to Him.
