Don’t Worry, Be Happy

Philippians 4:6 - 7 in The Message reads, "Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life."

Worry is destructive. The word translated anxious, worry or fret in Philippians 4:6 means to be torn apart. It is the picture of a ship being tossed in a storm. Our English word worry comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word that means: to strangle. “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow,” said Corrie Ten Boom; “it empties today of its strength.”

Worry is also deceptive. It gives us a false view of life, of self, and of God. Hugh Blair wrote, “Worry not about the possible troubles of the future; for if they come, you are but anticipating and adding to their weight; and if they do not come, your worry is useless; and in either case it is weak and in vain, and a distrust of God's providence.” The great cartoonist Charles Schultz, “Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia.” Plato mused, “Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.”

Worry is de-formative. It keeps us from growing and it makes us like the unsaved in the world. In short, worry is unchristian; worry is a sin. How can we witness to a lost world and encourage them to put faith in Jesus Christ if we ourselves doubt God and worry? It is inconsistent to preach faith and not practice it? The late chaplain of the United States Senate, Peter Marshall, once prayed “that ulcers would not become the badge of our faith.”

How does worry begin? It begins with a thought or an imagination. It begins with negative feelings, all of which are contrary to God and His Word. Instead of rejoicing, praying, supplicating, and giving thanks, a person asks questions:
“Why is this happening to me?”
“What am I going to do?”
“Where is God?”

We read in Isaiah 26:3 - 4, “You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, For in YAH, the Lord, is everlasting strength.”

Peace,

Stan