Why Worry? – Part 2 — Morning Devotions

By Chris WittsWednesday 23 Sep 2020Morning Devotions with Chris WittsDevotionsReading Time: 4 minutes

In Part 1, I spoke about worry. What’s the point of worry? Jesus said, Can worry make you live longer? It really can’t. That’s taken from Matthew chapter 6.

• Read Why Worry? – Part 1

Actually, it can’t do anything much except giving you an ulcer, a stroke, a migraine, or even a heart attack—that’s the funny thing about worry. But the one thing worry can’t give you is a longer life.

A man can worry himself to death, but he can’t worry himself into a longer life. Only God knows when your time is up. That means you don’t have to worry about dying. That’s out of your hands. Therefore, you are free to relax, enjoy life, live each day to the fullest. And let God worry about how things turn out.

Worry Is Quite Senseless

Many have recognised the senselessness of worry at least with their minds. We reason something like this: There are only two things you can worry over—things you have control over, and things you don’t have control over. It makes no sense to worry about things you have control over. If you have control over them then you can do something about them and there is no sense in worrying about them. It makes no sense to worry about what you don’t have control over, because if you don’t have control over them there’s no use worrying about it.

We know worry doesn’t do any good. We know this because most of the things we worried about didn’t happen. Can you think of one good thing worry adds to your life? Worry is senseless.

Worry is also harmful. Jesus doesn’t mention the physical harm that worry causes. He doesn’t talk about poor physical health. He is more concerned about spiritual harm. Jesus said:

“Only people who don’t know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father in heaven knows that you need all of these.” Matthew 6:32 – CEV

Shouldn’t the Christian live differently than those who have no relationship with God?

How to Win Over Worry

Jesus also said:

“Look 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?” Matthew 6:26 – NIV

The rest of God’s creation does not worry, but God provides for them. Will he not do the same for us? This does not say we should not work, only that we should not worry while we work. In fact, work may be one of the natural helping stabilisers when we worry. It keeps your mind busy and you’re active.

There’s something I’ve noticed about birds. They sing. Their singing brings glory to God. Could there be something to this? Sing your troubles away—who ever saw a bird worry? I never saw a bird with worry lines. I never saw a bird with feathers gone gray. Jesus tells us the Father feeds the birds. Have you ever noticed the way he does this? He provides food as the birds go around looking for it.

The birds don’t just stand in one place and sing all day. They sing and they search. The way Jesus asks us to imitate birds is not all that difficult. Don’t worry, sing and search for God’s provision. Worship God and look for what he is doing.

Jesus continues on in his talk:

“Why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow. They don’t work hard to make their clothes. But I tell you that Solomon with all his wealth wasn’t as well clothed as one of them.” Matthew 6:28-29 – CEV

There is something I have noticed about flowers. They are beautiful when they bloom right where they are planted. If we concentrate on blooming in the midst of our troublesome situations, we might stop wasting our time labouring and spinning in ways contrary to what God intends for the situation in which we find ourselves. God wants us to bloom. There is something else I notice. A flower’s orientation toward the sun helps it to bloom effortlessly.

It is the blooming flower that is beautiful. There are many beautiful people in this world. We just have to stop and look. I don’t necessarily mean outward beauty, but the inner beauty. A sense of calm and peace that is very impressive, especially when there is trouble happening around them.