Worry Abuse “You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Matt 6:24, 25, 34 The Lord is speaking about what we would call the bare necessities for life, and most of the time we are not really concerned about these, but instead concerned about things that are much deeper into what could be referred to as the comfort zone as compared to the survival zone. Whether we are worried about having a car or worried about having a certain monetary/social “need” met or worried about a perceived area that we just feel we must live in (or can’t live in) or worried about having cell phone that is as smart as everyone else’s….the list can seem to be endless. We worry because we are sinners. Adam and Eve originally did not worry, or even know what that meant, at all. We will absolutely not worry in the kingdom of heaven. The fundamental sin we all suffer from is “self” (pride); self-awareness, self-consciousness, self-importance, self-preservation, self-protection, self-pity, etc. All other sins, I believe, arise out of this. Our parents in Eden before the fall had God-awareness as their center and the blessed fundamental nature of their entire being; their “self” (if that is even a reasonable way to describe it) was certainly not like ours is. So, the Lord of life comes and tells us, commands us, to not worry. This is like so many of the other impossible commands He resolutely gives us: “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back. And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise. But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.” Matt 5:48, Luke 6:27-36 He would not have commanded us so if He knew that we could not obey the commands, so for the help we MUST HAVE to obey His commands we must be born from above and allow Him to live through us; live for us. This means that our old “self” has to die and self-awareness has to yield completely to God-awareness, and this has to happen repeatedly, it seems. Worry has a way of reviving the old sin nature in us to live again as the controlling influence in us off and on. Sometimes it can seem to be the case that is always on and never off. This is worry abuse, or us being abused by the worry we submit to. Worry can seem to have a mind of its own and won’t seem to listen to the voice of the Spirit in us. Are we willingly worried or are we seemingly subjected to it against our will? Worry can sometimes be so persistent and strong that both can seem to be true simultaneously, but if we can see with the Spirit of the Lord in us that if we are willing to be subjected to worry, we can also see by the Spirit that He can help us to choose to not be willing and thus trapped by it; both alternatives (unwillingly subjected to worry and/or able to choose not to worry) can seem true together, but the divine in us is stronger when we let it be stronger. This whole thing is definite work and a definite fight and sometimes it takes all we have. “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.” John 14:1 This verse also commands us to not worry, but it clearly attaches belief in the One who gives the command. I don’t know about you, but I am really hurt by the reality that I don’t believe in Jesus when I worry. I tell myself that I do really believe in Him but my unbelief needs help. I believe He will help me and He will take me to heaven without fail, but I can’t deny that worry about anything, especially imaginary future events, is my pride taking over for Him and what He commands. I decide I will exercise my right to figure out what I can’t actually figure out and worry about it, if that what’s going on. This shows me just how stiff-necked I am. This sounds harsh, but spiritually, worry abuse is very, very damaging, “Do not fret, it only causes harm.” Psalm 37:8 The commandment of Christ, when we subject ourselves to His control in us, yields what seems to be the opposite, “Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him.” Psalm 37:3-7 The Bible refers to yielding to Jesus in many ways. One of the more well-known verses is, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Rom 12:1, 2 We may love this and by our willing spirit truly desire to dedicate our whole being to doing just what these verses say. Being transformed by the renewing of our mind can only occur when we choose to let Christ do so, without worrying about it. Being conformed to this world means, among many things, being ruled by our “self” and that ruler does so by utilizing worry in obvious and hidden ways. Not worrying, but trusting the Lord with all our hearts and not leaning on our own understanding (our “self”) sounds like, and is, “Righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Rom 14:17 We much rather like the second option in Rom 14 better than worry, but the verses in Rom 12 also command a sacrifice, and a living sacrifice at that. As our willing spirit also desires to truly offer that living sacrifice, we often place a certain amount of spiritually romantic thinking to the idea of a sacrifice and may forget, or not even realize, that sacrifice essentially hurts. One of the first things in us to react to this pain is the “self”; self-preservation. Our pride overrules our obedience, no matter the cost to us, and usurps the willing spirit saying, “I must get off this altar of sacrifice, withdraw my sacrifice of trust in the Lord (“Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD.” Psalm 4:5), take control, and take MY action to avert this worrisome imaginary sacrificial future.” Is it imaginary? God knows, but we won’t wait for Him to show us whether our imaginations are reliable or not. We can take over and worry a lot or a little in our striving for a worry-free outcome we imagine to be the best, or at least one which sobers us up from worry abuse. Worry is unbelief and idolatry. Israel, like us, had seen too much in their deliverance from Egypt and their life in that inhospitable wilderness to worry and then complain against the Lord that He would not do what He said He would, that is, take over the management of their lives as He took them to the land which He had promised them through the Patriarchs…if they believed Him. “Oh, that we had never left Egypt!” All this that we hold on to, struggle to make happen, struggle to try to figure out, hover over in our corner by ourselves and worry about; all this can be seen and given away to the Lord in our prayers and we’ll find release in the haven from our unbelief which is Jesus and His words, “Let not your heart be troubled. Your Father in heaven knows that you need these things. Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you. I and my Father are one. Come to Me and I will give you rest, rest for your souls. There is no real rest and peace in things.” I know of no one who wants to actively and consciously impair and block the blessings and the holy transformations of the Lord by any means. Tear down the walls of unbelief that our worries build. Come out of ourselves to the rest of confession before the Lord Jesus. Maybe our spiritual struggle with worry has tenderized us and the act of letting go of the hurt that worrying has caused us produces more hurt; sacrifice of our life and the illusion of our control over it all can be a painful and even worrisome sacrifice. It is not really. When by the Holy Spirit we finally manage to let go, it is not the Lords healing work in you that hurts, it is the old sin nature’s infection of selfish isolation dying out that causes us to hesitate or even recoil at releasing our grip on what worries us. We have to, like just about everything else in our life, choose to practice trusting our trustworthy Master so that new spiritual pathways in our minds and hearts supplant the ones from the old nature we long to be free from; worry-free. Sew a thought, reap an action. Sew an action, reap a habit. Sew a habit, reap a character. Sew a character, reap a destiny
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 03:36:35 +0000
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