Don't Worry, God's Got This
I will be the first to admit that I am a worry wart. I just can’t help it, I’ve literally worried myself sick before. I overthink things, I replay things in my head, repeat conversations, recount scenarios. I am the Original Worry Wart. Well, at least I used to be.
I worried and worried and worried until I realized two things; first, worrying hasn’t helped me a single bit, and second, I usually end up doing better in the situation than I initially thought I would. Let me give you an example…
When I was a junior in college, I worried over an exam so much I broke into a sweat when the professor began handing them back. It was a cognitive psychology class where we’d been studying chemical reactions in the brain, more biology than psychology but whatever. I was so worried I nervously started a brief conversation with the girl who sat next to me. I told her I probably failed, maybe earned a D at best but we both laughed it off agreeing that we were doomed college failures.
I got my test back and just sat there staring at it, wondering how much red ink and checkmarks waited for me on the inside of the packet. I didn’t even flip through because I didn’t want the girl next to me to see all the errors so I just hurried to the backside to see my grade and get it over with. Just as I turned the paper over, the girl next to me asked what I got—she’d gotten a D-. Much to both of our surprised, I got an A+ and even answered every bonus question correctly.
And that’s just one of the many stories about my grades. In four years of college I only ever received a grade below an A six times, yet I nearly worried my hair out.
The reason I told you all that story is because we as Christians face similar situations in our faith. Maybe you don’t worry as often or as much as I did but we all do at some point in time and we have to ask ourselves, why? Why do we worry over things?—big or small.
Because it’s easy to encourage others but when we’re our own cheerleader we lose all hope and the world is doomed…right?
So how do we learn to encourage ourselves? How can we worry less?
By first trusting God more.
Worry is evidence of a lack of trust in God. If you truly believed that He could handle things then you wouldn’t think twice about your predicament, would you? When you put a Coke in the fridge, you don’t worry if the refrigerator will get it cold, do you? You don’t go back and check fifty times or ask your friends if they think it’ll work, so why do you still worry after you’ve put your problems in God’s hands?
Psalm 55:22 KJV says “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.”
Whenever I feel myself getting over anxious or too worked up about a situation, I just take a breather and focus on that scripture. There are plenty others that instruct us to give all of our problems to the Lord, if this scripture doesn’t move you then try these:
I Peter 5:7 KJV “Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.”
Matthew 11:28 KJV “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
See? We’re not supposed to be worried and anxious about anything. Jesus has us in the palm of his hand and He will never leave us nor forsake us [Deuteronomy 31:6 KJV].
The next advice I can offer for resisting that temptation to worry is cleaning out your closet. You need to get rid of that stinking thinking in the back of your head and replace it with positive thoughts—even further—you need to stay away from those friends who have such a hard time giving you any faith-filled encouragement. If your friends can’t imagine you succeeding then you shouldn’t be able to imagine them as your friend for much longer. It’s not wrong to cut ties with friends or family, sometimes God only shows up when we’re alone.
Worrying is bad for multiple reasons as a Christian, I already listed one in that it demonstrates our own lack of faith. But it also transfers our focus from our Father to our problem. You’re giving more thought and more credit to your problems than your one true solution. We’re supposed to praise God in every situation, even the bad—I discussed this issue in my last post, You’re in Trouble? Thank God… click here to read it if you missed last week’s discussion.
Every time you mention the problem you face you’re giving it power. Let’s stop praising our problems and start praising God. Sometimes the only way out of our predicament is through praise. Think of the passage from Psalm 67 verses 5-6 KJV, “Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God shall bless us.” In other words, as our praises go up God’s blessings come down.
So, even though you don’t see a way out of whatever situation you’re in, even though you may not believe you can accomplish your dreams, praise Him anyway. Sometimes you have to walk the walk even if you’re not even sure how to talk the talk. It isn’t lying, it isn’t being deceitful, it’s being faith-filled and encouraged. So next time someone asks how’s it going? You should say, just fine! Speak good words over your life. Speak blessings until they come and then keep speaking!
Do you honestly find it hard to imagine yourself succeeding? Is it really so hard to believe in yourself? Well then don’t, believe in God instead because He never fails.