Confession: I worry. I didn’t think I was a worrier, but I do lean in that direction. Maybe you could lay the blame on inherited character traits and say I’m just like my grandmother, but that’s a cop-out. Worrying may be an inherited weakness, but sin is still sin no matter what label you put on it. I know it’s sin, because sin, as one theologian (I can’t recall who, though) has said, “sin is wrong thinking about God.”

What does that mean? When I worry about something, I am acting on the belief that God is not able to handle this, that He doesn’t care to do me good, that He does not really know what I need or what’s best for me, or that He’s out to do me ill. All of that is a brazen affront to His name and His proven character—why should I listen to any of that garbage? I must wrestle with truth and fight to live like I really believe that He is good and sovereign and my Savior.

Elisabeth Elliot comments on the silliness of worrying, saying:

“When you look over what it was you worried about this time last week, did it happen? Was it worth the worry? If it was—if the worst thing that you could imagine actually did happen—where did the worry get you?”

It’s easy to worry and to fret, but is it really worth the cost of my peace of mind and a steadfast trust in God? I need to fix my eyes on the Savior and be transfixed by the truth I know about Him, rather than my circumstances, needs, desires, hopes, plans, etc. Listen to Christ as He speaks to the crowds:

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious 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? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? . . . Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” – Matt. 6:25-27 & 31-34, ESV

This is the truth I must be speaking to my soul when I struggle with anxiety. And I can go further than this, and use another tool to combat my worries. Peace must replace my worries, and Paul wrote to the church at Colossae, saying,

“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.” – Col. 3:15, ESV

Why does he add “and be thankful” at the end of a command to let peace rule their hearts? I would argue that the Christian’s best defense against worrying is not just correcting one’s thoughts about God, but going further and recounting to oneself over again His mercies and blessings. That’s the difference between us and unbelievers—because we can see Christ rightly, we have many reasons to recount, with a thrill of unashamed delight, His goodness to us. My roommate likes to say that if God tells us not to worry, then we ought to do just that.She often follows up on that by noting His kindnesses to her and others. We’d be wise to follow in her example—I know I want to delight in His faithfulness and to rejoice in thanksgiving over all He has done and promised for me. In order for that promised peace to rule in my heart, I must think rightly about God, and respond to His truth in an overflow of gratitude to Him.

And be thankful.

Filed under: Attributes of God, Faith, Thankfulness, Uncategorized, Worry