by Dr. Lester F. Ayars

Scripture Text: Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matthew 6:25-34

What is worry?

The Greek word that is translated "worry" (in the NIV) or "to take thought of" (in the KJV) is a word which means to divide, to pull in different directions, or to tear apart. When a person is in a state of worry or anxiety, they are no longer focused because they are pulled in different directions and are being torn apart through this dividing pull.

The second thing that you need to know about worry is that it is always about the future. No one worries about the past. You may regret the past, you may feel sorry about the past and you may worry about the consequences of the past but you don't ever worry about the past. You never worry about the present. You may have fear, apprehension, guilt or conviction of sin in the present, but you don't worry about the present. Worry is always future tense. We always worry about something that has not happened. Therefore, worry always deals with some imagined fantasy of events, circumstances, interactions or reactions. But worry always take place on the level of fantasy because, if it has not happened, it's not real.
I once heard the story of a lady who was mourning the tragic death of her son who left a young widow and three small children. She was expressing this grief to a friend and her friend said to her, "Why you don't even have a son!"
She answered, "Yes, I know, but wouldn't it be awful?"
Isn't that foolish? Her overactive imagination produced a dead son, a young widow and fatherless grandchildren. Well, that's what worry is: imagination. It is looking in dark unbelief to the future and painting dark scenes of things that never happened and acting upon them as though they are real. That is worry.

What is wrong with worry?

1) Worry does not help.
Matthew 6:27 reads, "Which of you, by worrying can add one cubit unto his stature?" Some scholars have suggested that one of the disciples had an inferiority complex about his height and Jesus subtly addressed this when he asked this question. I don't know about that. Do you know how sometimes you can be doing something serious and some crazy though flies through your mind. I was giving the message at the Vandermeersch/Padgett wedding and I thought, "This whole marriage is a conspiracy against short people." They were all tall. The bride and groom were both taller than me. Bob's sisters are all tall. The shortest guy there, besides me, was Pastor Mike. Now, of course, it was not a conspiracy but Jesus makes an important point by asking this question: Which of you, by worrying, can add one cubit to his stature? Suppose we did a study of ten short people. We assign five of these people to worry every day for one month and then chart their growth. Their job is to worry morning, noon and night about their height. The other five will also be measured but we are going to tell them to accept themselves just the way they are and not to worry at all. At the end of the month, they are all going to be the same height whether they worried or not because worrying does not help. It is as simple as that: it doesn't help. It doesn't matter how much you do it, how often you do it or how intensely you do it, worry will not change anything. What's wrong with worry? It doesn't help.

2) It reveals a lack of faith.
Matthew 6:30, "Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" Worry reveals a lack of faith.

3) Worry produces ungodly character.
Matthew 6: 32. "For after all these things do the Gentiles seek" Unbelievers worry and if you live like an unbeliever, you are becoming like one and your character is being molded by your unbelief. The power of the Christian life is not that the Christian life stands apart, it is different from the world. The world is fearful of the future, but kingdom people should be confident and at peace with the future.

4) Worry has consequences, that affect the body, the soul and the spirit.
Worry can cause physical fatigue. A famous doctor said, "Worry, not work makes us weary." Worry can cause hives and allergic reactions. There was a little boy who, every time he had to go to his aunt's house, would develop hives. His aunt was a clean nick and always hollered at him so he was worried himself into having hives. Asthma can result from worry. There was a young man who was waiting at the altar for his bride. Finally someone came and told him that she was not coming just as the church bells rang. From that point on, every time he heard the church bell ring he had an asthma attack. High blood pressure, insomnia, loss of appetite. There are also emotional consequences of worry...Those who worry experience fear and depression. The spiritual consequences of worry reflect a lack of faith and lead to un-Christlike character. Worry diverts and distracts us from lasting spiritual achievement. Worry about the future renders an ineffectual present and keeps us from the Word of God.

Five Steps to Living Worry Free

Have faith in the love of God and the value that God places on each of His children.
Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
The birds of the air do not sow or reap or have a place to store their grains; God provides for their needs. Not one sparrow falls without His knowledge and permission. Our Heavenly Father regards us more than the lilies and the grass of the field. And Jesus asks, "Are you not much better than they?" The first step in conquering worry is to realize who we are and what we mean to God. Although God cares for the birds and clothes the lilies and grass, humans are more valued than these things. God did not send His Son to die for the grass. Jesus wasn't nailed to the cross for the lilies. God sent His Son into the world because we, who are made in His image, are worth so much to Him. The Psalmist writes in Psalm 8:3-6, "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?"  Although man is so small compared to the vastness and infinity of the universe, God places such enormous value on man "that thou visitest him". If you are that important to the Ruler of the Universe and way down below you he cares for the birds, lilies and grass, then what are you worrying about? How much more will God take care of you, provide for your needs? That is what Jesus is saying.

Have faith in God's providence for the future.
Remembering that all worrying concerns the future, we need to trust in God's providence and faithfulness. We study history in order that we may be able to understand and deal with future things when they happen. David, at the end of his life said in Psalm 37:25, "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." David is saying that if you are a child of God, then you will be provided for. "I have never seen the righteous forsaken." Hebrews 13:8 says, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday" (throughout history), "and today" (the present), "and for ever" (the future). Realizing that He is the same helps us to see that if He provided for His people in the past, is providing for His people in the present, then he will provide for His people in the future.

Have the right values and right priorities.
Because your values determine your priorities, we must establish our values first and then determine our priorities. Matthew 6:25. "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not life more than meat and the body than raiment?"
The things that Jesus lists are what we call essentials: food clothing and shelter. We spend about half of our time worrying about nonessentials, the extra things that we don't really need. Jesus is telling us that worry is so fruitless that we should not even worry about the essentials. Worrying about the nonessentials is ludicrous if you don't even have to worry about the essentials. This is why He says (verse 25b), "...Is not life more than meat, and the body than raiment?"
My mother-in-law fell and broke her hip and had to have surgery. It was injured badly enough that she was not able to get up and put any weight on it. She had been staying in Senior Quarters, a beautifully appointed adult home, which provided assisted living. It was evident that she could not return there because she needed around-the-clock care and rehabilitation. So my wife and I had to go and clean out her room. It took us about an hour. It was raining that day and Grandma didn't have any luggage so we put all of her things into large plastic garbage bags, a box and one shopping bag. I pulled the car into the garage and because it was raining, I didn't even take the bags into the house, I just unloaded them on one side of the garage. They sat there for two or three weeks and when I would pull into the garage and see those bags lined up against the wall, I thought, " Is this all there is to Grandma, nine bags of stuff? Is this it? Probably all together it isn't worth $500." No, life is more than clothes. Life is more than food. Those nine bags of stuff, are not what Grandma is about at all. We are all going to leave our bags of stuff. Grandma was a person who trusted Christ as a relatively young person, who lived for Christ and prayed for the work of the Lord for many years. Her life is more than food and drink and things that can be put into plastic bags and stored in the garage. Let me tell you something, your life is more than that too. We need to stop living for stuff in plastic bags.

We need to get our values right. We need to live, as the old chorus says, "With eternity's values in view." We then need to prioritize our life based upon correct values. How do we prioritize? It means this in the words of Jesus, Matthew 6:33, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness". You can't put that in a plastic bag and it's not going to stay behind when you go. It's going to go with you.

Live one day at a time.
Matthew 6:34: "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself, Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." The secret to living right is to live one day at a time. If you live in the past you will stagnate. If you live in the future, you will fantasize and worry. Live in the present. "This is the day the Lord hath made, I will rejoice and be glad in it."

Pray the prayer of faith.
Philippians 4:6-7 is another significant and powerful passage on worry: "Be careful for nothing: But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus."
This last point, praying the prayer of faith, is the key for everyone who knows that worry does not help and realize their worth and have the right priorities and values but are still unable to stop worrying.
My wife and I woke up very early one morning and as we are lying in bed, my wife said, "Would you pray for me that I will not worry about which nursing home my mother goes into?" We had five or six options, some closer and some farther away. So, the enemy used that to cause her to lose sleep, to be anxious, to experience all the physiological effects and psychological effects. So that morning when she said, "Would you pray for me that God would release me from worry?", she was choosing the alternative to anxiety. "¦but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." Why should we pray with thanksgiving? Can you thank God for something before you have it? Yes, if you believe it's coming, if you believe He is faithful. So, we prayed together and just said, "Lord, we are putting this into your hands. We know that you know what is best for us and for Grandma. Although we have our preferences, we surrender them to your perfect plan. Lord please make us worry-free." We were released from our worry because of our prayer. We are all released when we release our anxiety through a prayer of faith. We are released when we give Our Father our worry. When we place it on the One who said, "Cast all your care upon me for I care for you." And that is how to live worry free.