THE CHRISTIAN AND WORRY

Pastor Rodney A. Gray

If you ever wanted to argue in favor of something on the basis of the fact that "everybody does it,"
worry would give you a good case to argue. Worry is sometimes referred to as the "Christian sin"
because Christians so freely indulge in it while they speak out stridently against other sins. We
worry about everything under the sun, even though Solomon wisely and repeatedly said that it is all
just vanity and chasing after the wind. Nevertheless, worry or anxiety is the driving force behind
much of what many of us do in our day- to-day lives. We are driven by the cares and desires of this
present life. We want to be successful, popular, prosperous, and powerful. We live in a culture that
subjects our children to the constant pressure to excel and achieve, always with a view to "the
future." Young people who have scarcely started out in life are already conditioned to think about
"the future" and to begin to make preparations for it. Post-modern people do not have time to get
married and raise families. They are career-oriented and their motive is to work in order to play.
They work in order to have things. They work in order to take a vacation. They work in order to
retire. The ultimate goals in life are selfish and self-gratification is the end for which work and self-
denial are only temporary inconveniences. Television presents to us as normal a lifestyle that
pursues leisure and pleasure as lifelong ambitions. Even Christians succumb to the enchantment of
the “good life” without protest and many are bent on pursuing it at any cost. And the cost is often
astronomical, not only in terms of the abandonment of godly values and priorities, but in terms of
the toll it takes on our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well being. Many of us will
literally worry ourselves to death this year. We know that Christians are not immune to this
problem. If you are indeed a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will no doubt have to confess to
a great deal of worry and anxiety in your own experience. But more to the point, the Bible goes to
some length in dealing with this problem as a specifically Christian concern. We speak of worry as
a problem in the Christian life simply because the Bible does. Let us consider this “Christian sin”
from the perspective of the word of God.

What is worry?

One of the fascinating things about the Bible is the surprising variety in its use of words. It is truly
remarkable that it can, and does, use the same word to describe action that may be either good or
bad. You have to look beyond the action word itself to find out which way it is supposed to be
understood. For example, in the New Testament the same word can mean either "jealous" in a bad
sense, or "zealous" in a good sense. The word for "lust" may be used to refer to something either
good or bad. Another word may mean "to set free or turn loose," or it may mean "to destroy." It
depends on the context and the objective of the action in question. The same is true of our word for
"worry." It is not always used in a bad sense. Sometimes what the New Testament has in mind
when it uses this word is a good and praiseworthy activity. The apostle Paul used this word to
describe his legitimate “concern” for all the churches. In I Corinthians 12:25 he urged "that there
should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other."
Worry in the sense of legitimate concern or attentiveness is a commendable thing and it ought to
characterize our attitude toward what matters most to God. Christians ought to be concerned about
the glory of God, the testimony of Jesus Christ, the interests of the kingdom of God, the spiritual
health and vitality of the local church, etc. Indeed, many Christians would do well to manifest a
great deal more concern about these matters than they commonly do.
But we are going to concentrate on worry as a bad thing, and something that we ought not to be
doing. The trouble with most of us is that we worry too much about all the wrong things, and not
nearly enough about all the right things. In this negative sense, and from the point of view of the
Bible, "to worry" means to be drawn in different directions. It means that you do not know which
way to turn. Worry always has to do with the cares and concerns of life in the world. It is caused
by things that draw us aside, demand our attention, burden our minds and pull us in a dozen
directions at once. We cannot have a settled mind because we feel “torn apart” by worry. Jesus
took aim at this problem when he said,

“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?” (Matthew 6:25).

Worry means that life is becoming too much for us to handle. We feel that we are losing control
and that our problems are fast becoming bigger than we are. We are no longer controlling them;
they are controlling us. It was in view of this that our Lord gently but firmly rebuked Martha for
being "worried and upset about many things" (Luke 10:41). He went on to point out that “needful
and better” things can easily be neglected because of worry. Mary, on the other hand, had chosen
the necessary and better thing, and what was it? She “sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he
said.” People who sit at the feet of Jesus, and listen to what he says, do not worry about matters of
lesser importance. Worry is clearly detrimental to healthy and productive spiritual life. It keeps us
from being effective and productive Christians. Worrying about “things” results in missing the most
important thing. Countless missed opportunities for spiritual improvement may be traced to the sin
of worry. The apostles recognized this and addressed it without apology:

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6).

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (I Peter 5:7).

Worry, or "the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth," choke the seed of God's word
and make it unfruitful (Matthew 13:22). Worry by definition is a distraction from what should have
our attention. Prayer, reading the word of God, communion with God, a desire for his glory,
meditation on the gifts of his grace – all such activities are crowded out of the worrying mind. In
the parable of the sower, the one thing needful is that the seed of the gospel should take root and
become established in good soil. But lesser things crop up and dominate the ground and in the end
there is no fruit. The implication is that worry even has the potential of keeping us from becoming
Christians at all. This leads us to our next point.

Why is worry a problem?

The simplest answer to this question is this: Worry is a problem because worry is sin. In order for
us to deal effectively with this problem, we are going to have to become convinced of this
fundamental principle: Worry is sin. All that the Bible has to say about this subject, it says in a
disapproving way. The Bible never tells Christians that it is perfectly normal and honoring to God
to be plagued by worry. On the contrary, the Bible tells us not to do it. The inescapable conclusion
is that, when we worry, we are sinning against God.

We may state, therefore, that the first reason why worry is sin is that God forbids it. If we
engage in any conduct that God forbids, we are engaging in sin. It is as simple as that. Jesus said,
"Do not worry." Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ, said, "Do not be anxious about anything." Worry,
like any sin, can easily control us. When it begins to dominate our lives, it has usurped the place of
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why we must never trivialize it. We must not treat it as a matter of
indifference whether we worry or not. If worry is sin, is it any less consequential than any other
sin? When Christians who are constantly worrying about achieving a certain standard of living
consider themselves completely in the mainstream of biblical Christianity, they have lost their way.
They are in danger of surrendering to a life-dominating pattern of behavior that is no less
dishonoring to God than pride, self-trust, or moral failure. If “sin is lawlessness” (I John 3:4), then
worry is lawlessness because it is doing what God forbids.

A second reason why worry is sin is that it is a denial of faith. “Everything that does not come
from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). Worry shows that we are not willing to trust and believe God.
This was the great burden of our Lord's teaching in Matthew 6:25-34. We need to learn to trust our
heavenly Father, and we can take a lesson from the lower creation about that. God takes care of the
birds and flowers, and he is our heavenly Father. Are we not more important to him than birds and
flowers? Doesn't God know what we need before we even ask him about it? Worry and faith are
contradictory to each other, and God never called us to a life of worry. He called us to a life of
faith. What identifies a Christian is that he is seeking God’s kingdom and righteousness. In other
words, he lives for a better world. It is a world that is entirely oriented toward God. It is a world
that is exclusively the product of what God has done. It is a world in which the only thing that can
qualify anyone to live in it is the righteousness of God. The way to God’s kingdom is the way of
faith, believing God and trusting his word.

A third reason why worry is sin is that it does nothing to contribute to health, holiness or
happiness. Jesus asked, "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" Another
reading of the same text is, "Who of you by worrying can add a single cubit to his height?"
Whichever reading you prefer, the point is the same. Worry is unprofitable; it does you no good.
In fact, it can even be hazardous to your health. Worry, anxiety, and stress are known to contribute
to a multitude of health problems including hearth attack, stroke, high blood pressure, kidney
disease, hardening of the arteries, ulcers and various nervous disorders.

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have
received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with
your body" (I Corinthians 6:19,20).

Worry is sin because it is detrimental to the whole person. It is a hindrance to health, holiness, and
happiness. Adam and Eve had all these blessings in abundance, but when they sinned against God
they began to worry about their life, their bodies, and the world in which they lived. Worry is a
characteristic of separation from God. The more we increase that separation, the worse our
condition will be. If it is true that our sins have separated us from our God (Isaiah 59:2), the sin of
worry is no exception.
There is a positive note in all of this emphasis on the sinfulness of worry. The good news is that, if
worry is sin, there is help and hope to deal with it. If it were not sin, we would have no direction
from Scripture as to what to do about it. We would be left to despair of ever knowing what it
means to have a worry-free life. But because it is sin, there is a remedy for it. The gospel is the
good news that Jesus came to deal with sin. He came to save us from our sins, including the sin of
worry. Worry calls for confession, repentance, forgiveness, and cleansing. God has given us
everything we need for life and godliness (II Peter 1:3). He has given us the Holy Spirit to
empower us (Romans 8:5-17). He has given us the Bible to instruct us (II Timothy 3:16,17). So it
is absolutely necessary to recognize that worry is sin. This is why it is a problem that can be dealt
with in God's way.

What are the dynamics of worry?

How does worry work in order to become a problem for believing people? Where does it come
from and how does it dominate so much of our lives? In first place, worry is the result of a good
emotion getting out of hand. We learned earlier in this study that sometimes the same word is
used to describe good and legitimate concern. To be concerned is to be responsible. It means that
you have a personal interest in what is going on; it matters to you what happens. The apostle Paul
was concerned about all the churches in the sense that he cared about them, prayed for them, and
took an intense personal interest in their well being. Peter, for his part, was asking us to simply
acknowledge that our lives here in this present evil world will include "cares" or concerns (I Peter
5:7). But legitimate concern can become sinful worry when it is allowed to dominate our lives.
Paul did not want his concern for the churches to turn into a fretful anxiety that was sinful because
he was failing to trust God. Martha's concern for legitimate and good things became a life-
dominating problem for which Jesus had to rebuke her. Jesus taught that a proper sense of
responsibility concerning the daily tasks of making a living, feeding, clothing, and housing a family
may develop into the sinful monster of worry which will in turn devour our whole life.

Because worry arises from proper concern that is out of control, we cannot simply put a stop to it
by turning off a switch. It is the expression of an emotion. Emotions are responses to the
circumstances in our lives at any given time. They help us to know whether or not we are handling
things the way we ought to. Emotions are good and beneficial until they begin to control us. And
this is exactly what is going on in the dynamics of worry. Instead of exercising the right concern
for the right things, we are worrying about things that we cannot control. Therefore, it is not a
matter of looking for the switch to turn off our emotions. Rather, we must try to replace sinful
worry with the right kinds of concern and care for legitimate things. Christians are concerned for
the glory of God, the kingdom of God, the church of God, the word of God, the will of God.

In the second place worry is usually concerned about the wrong things. Jesus made this point
as the summation of his teaching about worry in Matthew 6:34. Productive concern becomes
unproductive worry when it begins to focus its energies on the things of tomorrow instead of today.
Today is always here, but tomorrow has not arrived yet. This is what makes worrying such a
frustrating activity. It is impossible to do anything with all of the accumulated worry about
tomorrow. You cannot release that energy until tomorrow comes, and then it will be today! The
dynamics of worry keep us living in a time that is not yet here. It keeps us concerned with
circumstances that have not even developed yet. It makes us focus on tasks that we cannot do,
simply because they belong to tomorrow and not to today. So what we need to do is redirect our
attention to today. Worry can be brought under control when we become content to concentrate on
the things we need to do today. We can be productive and successful about today, but tomorrow
has not come yet and it will leave us tired and frustrated until it does. "Therefore do not worry
about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

What can be done about worry?

Dealing with worry requires right praying. Two of our key texts (I Peter 5:7 and Philippians
4:6,7) stress the necessary role of prayer in dealing with the cares of this life. If we worry all the
time, it is likely that we are not praying all the time. If we are praying all the time, it is likely that
we are not worrying all the time. The thing to do with anxious cares is to cast them upon God, and
the way to do that is through prayer. We must know him as the God who has everything under
control, including those things that are causing our worries. We must be firmly persuaded that God
will use his sovereign power in the best possible way, and in particular that he will do that for us.
This is the God to whom we pray. He is the God who takes care of the birds of the air and the
flowers in the fields, and these creatures never ask him to do a thing for them! Will our heavenly
Father not take care of us (I Peter 5:7)? He is the same God who works all things together for the
good of those who love him (Romans 8:28). The Christian believer knows this God as his heavenly
Father. He prays on the basis of this knowledge. He prays with the confident expectation that all
that concerns him will be subservient to God’s kingdom purpose (Matthew 6:10). He prays that
God will do nothing less, nothing more, and nothing other than what he has promised to do.

Dealing with worry requires right planning. When we say that we should not worry about
tomorrow, this does not mean that we should not make plans about tomorrow. Consider the
teaching of James 4:13-17, a text that warns against sinful boasting about tomorrow in view of the
fact that we do not know what will happen tomorrow. Notice, however, that the Scripture here is
not forbidding planning with regard to tomorrow. The significant provision is that all such plans
should be tentative or provisional. Submit them to God, in other words, since he is the one who
holds tomorrow in his sovereign hands. Only his purpose is an everlasting purpose. Only his will
is a sovereign will. It may turn out that God will overrule our plans. And so plans should always
be submitted to God humbly and prayerfully. "If it is the Lord's will, we will do this or that." The
mistake we often make is to justify sinful worry as if it is nothing more than appropriate
stewardship of responsibility. The implication is that we are bound to worry because God has given
us a lot to worry about. If we don’t worry about it, who will? But prayerless worry and prayerful
planning are two different things. If we truly see ourselves as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, then
planning our lives for the glory of God will free us from worry.

Dealing with worry requires right priorities. Quite often we are operating according to our own
system of priorities rather than God's priorities. Jesus had something to say about this in his
teaching about worry. "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will
be given to you as well" (Matthew 6:33). Not much progress can be made in dealing with the sin of
worry as long as we have our own agenda of things that we think are more important than anything
else. How much attention do we actually give to living as citizens of God's kingdom? Do the
things that really matter to God occupy our highest thoughts and ambitions? Our priorities are
usually arranged so that we attend to God's business if we have time. Is it possible for a Christian
to be too busy to pray? too busy for church? too busy to help others? too busy to read the Bible? too
busy to be a faithful and responsible steward of what God has given him? Is it possible for a
Christian to be too busy to be a Christian? It sounds like a foolish question, but think about your
own priorities. Are they God's priorities? Does your heart beat with God's when it comes to things
that are important? Or do you find that you are worrying about all the wrong things, things that are
not even on God's list of priorities? Dealing with worry requires right priorities. All too often we
discover that our lives have been plagued with worry because we have been investing our lives in
things that cause worry, rather than investing them for the kingdom of God. We sacrifice ourselves
at the altar of possessions, vacations, investments, and retirement, and wonder why our lives count
for so little in things that matter for eternity.

Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ should be distinguished by the fact that they are constantly
outgrowing the sin of worry. We who seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness know that his
kingdom "is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy
Spirit" (Romans 14:17). The kingdom of God is not a kingdom of worries and anxiety. Right
praying, planning and priorities will flow out of our commitment to the gracious, wise and
sovereign lordship of Jesus Christ in whom God's kingdom comes to us. Sinful worry stems from
undue concern for and attachment to the kingdoms of this world. We worry about what they can
give us, what they can take away from us, and what they can do for us. May God enable us by his
grace to achieve victories over the sin of worry and over the world in which worry is so prevalent.

September 16 and 23, 1990