A Nugget from New Life Network
(partially reprinted from Dr. Larry Ollison)
Scripture for the Day (October 30, 2015)
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. (1 Peter 5:6-9)
Last week I was talking to a man who was really stressed out. He was concerned about his past and worried about his future. Every word out of his mouth was negative. Everything in his life worried him. The bad things worried him because they were bad. And the good things worried him because they might get bad. With him, everything was a “no win” situation.
Worry is a sin. It is not of God and we should not do it. Let me explain. In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus preached His famous Sermon on the Mount. This sermon has a tremendous amount of teaching in it, but one thing is often overlooked and that is this: Jesus commanded us, over and over again, not to worry. For instance, Jesus said in verse 25, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” I can guarantee you that you will not see this verse on a plaque in the clothing store at the shopping mall!
Jesus continued saying, “Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature.? So why do you worry…? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?'” (Matthew 6:27,28,31). Then we come to the verse we all know so well, Matthew 6:33, where Jesus said,”But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Usually when we read this verse we stop there, but we shouldn’t. In the original Greek language, there is no punctuation. The periods, commas, and other punctuation marks were added by the translators. With that in mind, let’s not quit reading with verse 33. Jesus said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you, therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:33-34, NKJV). Here in Matthew 6, Jesus said over and over again, “Do not worry.” Was He trying to make a point? I think so!
Some people feel that they have no control over worry. I have actually had people tell me that the only way that they could quit worrying would be if God would just take it away. Well, don’t expect God to do that. It’s our responsibility, not His.
Some things are spiritual and some things are the flesh. And, of course, they must be dealt with accordingly. However, let me say this. Worry is almost always the flesh. What I mean is, Jesus did not tell us to cast out worry (like a demon). He said, don’t do it. He said to quit worrying. He told us to take care of it. He also told us in 1 Peter 5 that we could cast our cares, or roll our cares over on Him, and that is usually the best way to handle worry. When the enemy tries to give you a worry package tell him no thank you and just pass it on to the Lord. Would Jesus command us to do something that we had no control over? Would He tell us to do something that was impossible for us to do? No, of course not! That would be cruel and it is not the nature of our Lord.
If Jesus told us to quit worrying, then we must be able to stop. And if He told us to quit worrying and we continue, that must be sin. Anytime we are commanded to do something and we don’t do it, or we are commanded to quit doing something and we continue, that’s disobedience and disobedience is sin.
So, today, In the Name of Jesus, quit worrying!!!! Roll all your cares over on Him for He careth for you!!!
Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up. (Proverbs 12:25, NLT)
