Brown's Daily Word 8/13/07

The Lord Jesus is our Wonderful Counselor. He is the Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince pf Peace. Knowing Jesus as our Lord and Savior we are doubly blessed, first when we were created and second when we were redeemed. Jesus, our Lord and Counselor, provides us with prescriptions for wellness and wholesome mental health. He gives us powerful prescriptions for dealing with worry. In fact, He teaches us how to worry. When we begin to worry, and we become emotionally strangled and suffocated, we are called turn our eyes on the Greatness of God, the Graciousness of our Lord, and the Goodness of our Lord.
Worry is the number one mental disorder in America. “The Mayo Clinic claims that 80-85% of its total caseload is directly related to worry and anxiety. Many experts say that coping with stress is the #1 health priority of our day. One leading physician has stated that, in his opinion, 70% of all medical patients could cure themselves if only they got rid of their worries and fears. We know that medical science has closely tied worry to heart trouble, blood pressure problems, ulcers, thyroid malfunction, migraine headaches, and a host of stomach disorders, among others. For example, 25 million Americans have high blood pressure due to stress/anxiety; 1 million more develop high blood pressure each year. 8 million have stomach ulcers. Every week 112 million people take medication for stress related symptoms.” [Craig Simpson. “Don’t Worry About Anything.” ] These persons live on the fringe of survival.
In Luke 12: 22 ff our Lord addresses not the crowd but the disciples. Verse 22, “Then He said to His disciples, 'Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on.'” Some translations render verse twenty-two “for this reason I say to you.” Since these words are addressed to the disciples the implication is that worry is one of the besetting sins of believers. Even as believers we are not immune to worry because we live under the same pressures of society as everyone else. It is even possible to worry about being a worrier. We know that we shouldn’t worry, but we just can’t seem to keep from worrying. We need to recognize that the Bible says worry is a sin. “It is, however, one of the socially acceptable sins in the Christian life. We would never smile at a Christian who staggered into his home night after night drunk and abusive. But we often smile at a Christian friend who worries. We would not joke about a brother or sister in God’s family who stole someone’s car, but we regularly joke about worrying over some detail in life.” [Charles Swindoll. Living Beyond the Grind, Book I (Dallas: Word, 1988) p. 176)
The primary New Testament word for worry is "merimnao", which means “to take thought of” or “to be careful about.” He is not calling for thoughtless existence or the absence of appropriate concern. It would best to understand that
it is this same word Jesus used when He said, “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….” (Matthew 6:25 - KJV). Paul used it when he wrote, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6). Those appear at first glance to be good things. But the Greek term actually gives the picture of a divided mind. The worrier has a mind that is torn between the real and the possible, the immediate and potential. He is trying to fight the battle of life on two fronts at the same time and so he is bound to lose the war. The worrier attempts to live the future today, but that is impossible. The future isn’t here and the future isn’t his. To worry is to be distracted or preoccupied. Worry means that no matter what else you do, part of your mind is worrying. Worry superimposes the future on the present. Worry is the painful preoccupation with the consequences of what “might” happen. The Lord forces us to think about why we are not to worry in the following verses.
First, he tells us that worry is foolish in verses 23-24. "Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. (24) "Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?”
Worry is especially foolish for Christian. To worry is foolishly to forget who we are – we are children of the King. McClaren, the great preacher of the 19th century said, “What does your anxiety do? It does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but it does empty today of its strength. It does not make you escape the evil; it makes you unfit to cope with it when it comes. God gives us the power to bear all the sorrow of His making, but He does not guarantee to give us strength to bear the burdens of our own making such as worry induces.”
Secondly, Worry is not only foolish it is futile. (vv. 25-27) "And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? (26) "If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? (27) "Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (28) "If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith?”
The Greek word translated “stature” can also mean “lifespan.” Worry cannot lengthen life but it certainly shorten it. In fact worry can rob us of two things in life. We won’t live as long and we will be unable to live happy and fulfilled lives. People get ulcers not so much from what they eat as from what is eating them. The alternative is not to be care-less but to be trust –full. “In his book Run Today’s Race, Oswald Chambers observes that all our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God.” [ Gary Inrig. The Parables: Understanding What Jesus Meant (Grand Rapids: Discovery House Pub., 1991) p. 105
Considering that worry is so futile an activity because it does not work, why do we consume so much of our time and our energy doing it? The raven demonstrates God’s provision of food and the lilies of the field of God’s provision of clothing. It seems pointed that though the Raven is not even considered a clean bird God still provides for his daily needs.
When I think of the lilies of the field, I think of the flowers that we have in our front yard, called “day lilies.” They are called this because the bloom only seems to last for a day. They are beautiful but they are very short-lived and they have no real purpose other than their beauty. If, then, two such unimportant and insignificant things as ravens and lilies receive such generous provision from the hand of God, will not God’s children fare much better? “Worry is wasting today’s time to clutter up tomorrow’s opportunities with yesterday’s troubles.”
Just telling us not to worry isn’t very helpful, however. People who tell us not to worry usually seem unrealistic, uninformed, or patronizing. A simplistic “don’t worry, be happy,” just won’t cut it. Then how can we attempt to overcome worry? In the text we find three great principles for overcoming worry.
Principle One: Trust God. (vv. 29-30). "And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. (30) "For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things.” Jesus literally says here that believer’s are to stop seeking and stop doubting or worrying. This is not a suggestion; this is in the imperative. This is a command.
We must choose to trust God for those things that are beyond our control. (Really, everything is beyond our control if we are totally honest in our thinking about it.) Whenever we start to feel anxious we can give our burden over to the Lord. We read in 1 Peter 5:7 the invitation of God to “Cast all your care upon Him for he cares for you.” Another translation of this verse (LB) puts it this way, “Let him have all your worries and cares, for he is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you.” Scripture says that God is a very present help in a time of trouble (Ps. 46:1).
Principle Two: Seek God's Kingdom, not our own. "But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.” We need to get our priorities straight. If we let the wrong thing be “number one” it will create an enormous amount of stress and worry in our lives, but when we put God first, it is amazing what will happen. Seeking the kingdom of God is the means to achieve the meeting of our material needs. Now wait a minute. On the surface that doesn’t make sense! However, the Christian life is often the opposite of what would seem right. We gain our life by loosing it, we lead by serving, and we have our material needs met by not worrying about them, but by seeking the kingdom as a priority.
Principle Three: Don’t Give In To Fear (v. 32) “Do not fear little flock for it is your Fathers’ pleasure to give you the kingdom.” In verse thirty-two Jesus really gets to the bottom line, WORRY IS REALLY FEAR! Jesus tells believers that they are to stop being afraid; it is this fear that manifests itself in our lives as worry.
The antidote to fear is faith. Dr. E Stanley Jones explained this many years ago when he said; “I am inwardly fashioned for faith, not for fear. Fear is not my native land; faith is. I am so made that worry and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life; faith is the oil. I live better by faith and confidence than by fear, doubt and anxiety. In anxiety and worry, my being is gasping for breath—these are not my native air. But in faith and confidence, I breathe freely—these are my native air. A John Hopkins University doctor says, 'We do not know why it is that worriers die sooner than the non-worriers, but that is a fact.' But I, who am simple of mind, think I know: We are inwardly constructed in nerve and tissue, brain cell and soul, for faith and not for fear. God made us that way. To live by worry is to live against reality.” [Dr. E. Stanley Jones, www.bible.org/illus/w/w-54.htm]
Jesus concludes this thought in verse thirty-four by saying, “For where your treasure is there your heart will be also”. The crucial issue in life is not the amount of our treasure but the location of it.

Sunita returned safely from South Africa, arriving in Washington, DC at about 6 AM. She and Laureen will be coming home for a couple of days this week to attend to some wedding business.
Last week Alice and I spent some days with Janice and Jeremy. Micah and Simeon are both growing well - and cuter by the minute, it seems!
Jessy attended the wedding of one of her college pals in Cleveland, Ohio over the weekend, and returned safely to Philly last evening.
Our friends Toby and Velly have returned to Toledo from a short-term missions trip to Switzerland.
Our friend Allan Burns had a successful knee surgery, and will return to his Virginia home today.
We are heading out to spend a couple of days with our friends, Linda and Warren Ayer, in Burlington, VT. We will return on Thursday.
In Jesus,
Brown