Worry
John 16:33
In this world you will have trouble.
Trouble, trouble, trouble -you will have trouble
Have you ever had the trouble of worry? Worry is troublesome.
Definition: worry is to give way to anxiety or unease; allow one's mind to dwell on difficulty or troubles over actual, potential or imagined problems
HAVE YOU WORRIED IN THE PAST
ARE YOU WORRYING RIGHT NOW
WILL YOU WORRY IN THE FUTURE?
An illustration:
People were asked to take a survey and to record their answer to this question -
DO YOU WORRY- Here are 4 honest answers
Rod: Yes, I worry too much, and I admit that I don't really like it. Although I know worrying is useless, but I still can't tame my worrying nature! It all started when I was 9 and lost my dad, I was worried every single night because I was afraid to lose my mom as well and it scared me. Now I am 30 years old and sure life is much harder and that leads to more worry! Sometimes, I just try to calm myself down by wondering why I waste my precious time worrying about things that [are] totally out of my control.
Luci: I am a worry wart! I stress over everything. I wish I could just realize that nothing is perfect and to just let everything take its course. But I can't! I feel that everything needs fixing and I have to be the one to fix it. Knowing what a headache I'll get but I still go ahead and take the initiative to get it done. Even if it's not my responsibility.
Liquid: I worry ALL THE TIME about the stupidest little things: work, school, friends, relationships, family, home, ...everything you can think of, I've probably worried about it.
(lady) Silver: Bills, will I have enough money to pay them all and still get groceries? Kids, will I be able to raise them right? Will they grow up to be good, happy adults? My husband, is his cholesterol too high? Is he gonna die too young because he doesn’t take care of himself? My mother, will she ever give me unconditional love? Did I make some one mad by saying something wrong? Are my friends really my friends? Everything worries me. It always has and it always will. I am the epitome of a worry wart. So much for a stress free life.
I think that these folks and their thoughts and their confessions about worry sum it up well. We worry about a great many things. Our worry comes from many sources: fear of the unknown, the unpredictability of life, unmet and unrealistic expectations, and a whole host of issues. I think “worry” is one of those issues that if you have a pulse, then you have to deal with worry. That means robots, don’t have to deal with worry, just us humans.
We can also fool ourselves when we are worrying by saying, I’m not worrying, I’m just concerned, right, really -it’s worry
Which of the following worries worry you most? Survey said -18 top
(secular world survey)
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Meeting work targets or goals
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Whether I'm a good parent/ raising kids right
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A friend or family member I've fallen out with
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Whether I'll find the right partner
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Whether my current partner is right
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Whether my partner still loves me
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Whether or not I am attractive
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I need to find a new job
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I seem to be generally unhappy
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Paying my rent or mortgage
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Worried about my physique
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Wrinkles or ageing appearance
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Job security
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Financial/credit card debts
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My diet
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Low energy levels
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Worried about my savings/ financial future
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Getting old
Q -Does everyone worry? (mmmmm) yes -prone to worry
Q -How often do people worry? The average person reported three to four ‘testable’ worries per day
Some people worry a lot and we say they are
Worry warts, handwringers, nervous Nellies, Anxious Annies, worriers.
Worry is fear's extravagance. It extracts interest on trouble before it comes due. It constantly drains the energy God gives us to face daily problems and to fulfill our many responsibilities. Worry is therefore, a sinful waste.
Five hundred years ago, Michel de Montaigne said: "My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened."
97 percent of what we worry over is not much more than our fearful minds punishing us with exaggerations and mis-perceptions. BUT -Worry is no joke. The stress it generates causes serious problems. The stress hormones that worry dumps into your brain have been linked to:
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shrinking brain mass, lowering your IQ,
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have been linked to heart disease, cancer and premature aging,
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have been linked to martial problems, family dysfunction and clinical depression,
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and worry can make seniors more likely to develop dementiaand Alzheimer's.
Have you ever had the trouble of worry?
An illustration
A dense fog that covers a seven-city-block area one hundred feet deep is composed of less than one glass of water divided into sixty thousand million drops. Not much is there but it can cripple an entire city. Just like worry à not much of worry is real but worry can sure slow us down and trouble us.
Here are some sayings about worry:
Worry is wasting today's time to clutter up tomorrow with yesterday's troubles.
When I don't have anything to worry about, I begin to worry about that.
Worry pulls tomorrow's cloud over today's sunshine.
For worriers, the Scots have a proverb: "What may be, may not be."
Every evening I turn worries over to God. He's going to be up all night anyway.
God is a help in trouble but when you worry you are on your own.
An illustration
Arthur Rank, an English executive, decided to do all his worrying on one day each week. He chose Wednesdays. When anything happened that gave him anxiety and annoyed his ulcer, he would write it down and put it in his worry box and forget about it until next Wednesday. The interesting thing was that on the following Wednesday when he opened his worry box, he found that most of the things that had disturbed him the past six days were already settled or didn’t even happen. It would have been useless to have worried about them.
Opposite of trouble (like troubled water) is not calm -calm is no trouble, the opposite of trouble is peace -peace in spite of the trouble around, peace in the troubling storm
And the way to this peace, the way through this worry, is faith is trust in God
(illus)
If you can trust a puzzle company to include all the puzzle pieces in the box, than why can’t you trust God with every piece of your life. Jesus à why do you worry?
When worry tempts you to not trust God (that’s what worry is -not trusting God) do what Paul wrote in
Philippians 4:6-7
6 Do not be anxious (don’t worry) about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
-there’s that peace again -the opposite of worry and anxiety is peace
-we get that peace through turning our worries, our anxieties, our fears over to God (whom we trust and in whom we place our faith) WITH THANKSGIVING (discipline of thankfulness)
-you won’t believe what peace God gives you when you do that -it’s beyond human understanding
An illustration:
I spoke with a middle aged couple who had ‘concerns’ in their lives -these ‘concerns’ lingered in their hearts, gave unease to them, it preoccupied their thinking and their lives. IT WAS WORRY – and some unforgiveness tucked in there as well.
They knew all the verses and could quote them. But this thing with worry is not one and done, you have keep turning it over to God, you have to keep believing, you have to keep trusting God and all of His promises. And be thankful. Do that and God’s peace will come.
Luke 12:22-26 NASB
22 And He said to His disciples, “For this reason I tell you, do not worry about your life, as to what you are to eat; nor for your body, as to what you are to wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens, that they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds! 25 And which of you by worrying can add a day to his life’s span? 26 Therefore if you cannot do even a very little thing why do you worry about the other things?
The trouble of worry
Don’t worry Jesus said to you, but pray, turn it over to God, petition God about it and be thankful and then trust God.
REPEAT AS NECESSARY. PEACE.
Oct 23, 2022
