A Worry-Free Life
by Pastor Paul M. Sadler
“Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go
into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get
gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your
life?…For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live,
and do this, or that” (James 4:13-15).
The desire of James’s heart was that his readers would
humble themselves before the Lord and not be presumptuous when they
planned for the future, nor to worry about it. We might call it
worry-free planning! We all probably know someone who gets worried when
they don’t have something to worry about! Believers also struggle with
this problem, but the Scriptures state, “Be careful [anxious] for
nothing” (Phil. 4:6). In our contemporary language we would say,
“Don’t worry about anything.” The Greek root word behind the
term “careful” here is
merimna, which means to pull in
different directions or a distraction. This is exactly what worry will do
to you: it will tear you apart, both emotionally and physically. Worry always dwells on the
future in regard
to what may or may not happen. It mulls over every worst-case scenario
imaginable until you are tied in knots. We might say it this way: the
past belongs to the ages, the present belongs to us, but the future
belongs to God.
Worry is a
sin! It focuses on the future, which is divine
ground. The only suitable way to deal with it is to find a biblical
solution to the problem. Thankfully, the Scriptures provide for us the
key to living a worry-free life. This age-old problem that can be
traced back to the Fall has a simple solution. In fact, the antidote to
this venomous attack is the same in every age. We find it
noteworthy that the Lord Himself dealt with this matter as He prepared
the disciples to carry out the Great Commission.
“Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life,
what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what
ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body
than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither
do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them” (Matt. 6:25,26).
We are creatures of habit! We like the security of having a roof over
our heads and knowing where we’re going to have dinner
tonight. The
same was true of the disciples, with this exception: the Lord had
uprooted them from their comfort zone and transplanted them in His field
of service. When He called them, they left their families and
livelihoods to follow Him. At first it seemed the right thing to do, but
the more they thought about their decision, it left them with a
feeling of insecurity. In short, they were worried sick! What will we
wear when the weather turns inclement? Who’s going to provide
our meals today, and
tomorrow, and next week? Goodness gracious, we
completely forgot about our families! Who’s going to supply that need?
Worry always has a way of producing more questions than answers.
Sensing their apprehension, the Lord said, “Take no thought for your
life.” “Take no thought” is another way of saying, “Don’t worry
about what may or may not happen!” Life is more than food and drink and
clothing; they were to be more concerned about the spiritual things of
God. If God can provide for the birds that fly above, which neither plant
nor harvest, surely He is able to supply the needs of His laborers.
We must bear in mind that, if God foreordained the Cross in
His determinate counsel (Acts
2:23), and the Lamb was slain before the
foundation of the world (I Pet.
1:19,20) in accordance with
His foreknowledge, surely He knows
every need of the disciples,
not to mention ours, in advance (Matt.
6:32).
“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the
morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the
day is the evil thereof” (Matt. 6:34).
This passage is the Lord’s
solution to the problem of worry.
They were not to concern themselves with
tomorrow’s
circumstances, simply because those were beyond their control. It is
natural to be concerned, but they weren’t to allow their concern to
deteriorate into worry that consumed them because it would only serve
to disrupt their service for Christ. Our Lord speaks of two
days:
tomorrow, a reference to the future, which belongs to God,
and
today. While it is impossible simply to turn off
unwarranted concern, they were to
redirect it. “Sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof.” In other words, there were enough
troubles to deal with in any given day without concerning themselves with
tomorrow. The answer to the sin of worry is to trust in God and
focus on resolving the problems that are facing you today (Phil.
4:19).
Te simplicity of
the Gospel
Les Feldick
How
God Saves Men
Believing
Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing
Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
Read
Romans 1:16, Romans 10:9-10 and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4
(A
10 Minute Video)
