Is Worrying Wrong?

I'd have to say yes, worrying is wrong. Do I worry, yes. But I try not to worry. The problem with worrying is that it takes the emphasis off of God and puts it on you. This does not mean you can't plan ahead or think through a decision, but worrying is a slippery slope because it makes it difficult to determine where your faith begins and your faith ends - I will trust God with my salvation and my family's safety, but not my finances, my illness, etc.

I often hear people say that God won't give you anything you can't handle. That's not entirely true. People crumble all the time under the weight of their issues. God won't give you anything you can't handle as long you seek His guidance and embrace His grace and sovereignty. I have a friend who lays awake at night thinking about the problems of the economy and the doomed structure of our current credit system. I'm not saying be fatalistic, but worrying about issues you can't control doesn't stop the future from happening, it just gives you a pink mustache.

If find yourself worrying, try praying and giving your problems or concerns to God, He can handle it much better than you or I. Will God fix every problem, make sure your bills get paid on time, or heal your sickness? Maybe, maybe not. Ultimately, God is working for His glory, not our comfort (we'll discuss in future posts). Believe me when I say I know that relying on God is easier said than done, I fall short of perfection just like you. But if you don't listen to me (which I completely understand), please listen to the guy who delivered these words from the Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 6:25-34

25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.