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THE SIN OF WORRY “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. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 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.” (Mat. 6:25-34) Our Lord here emphasizes the fact that if you are a child of God you ought not be troubled with the cares of this world. He says that even your food, your drink, and your clothing are in God’s care, so don’t be like the Gentiles and worry about such things. The world worries, but the righteous trust. Now, that doesn’t mean that God wants us to sit around and expect His full care for us while we do nothing. The Bible is clear that we must work and provide for ourselves. We must do what we know to do and can do, and then we are to trust God for those things that are out of our control. The way of the world is to try and do everything, trusting God for nothing, and then worry yourself sick over the things that you haven’t yet conquered. A story is often told of two men in a boat at sea. A storm comes up suddenly, and the men begin talking about what to do. The first man says, “I think we ought to start rowing.” The other one says, “Well, I think we ought to start praying.” “Okay,” said the first man, “you pray, and I’ll row.” That’s a good plan because neither man took time to worry. They worked and prayed, but they didn’t worry. It seems that the world has a special worry department where mad scientists and nutty professors spend all their time figuring out what we need to be worried about. They’re constantly either introducing us to a new worry, or they’re updating us on an old one. Meanwhile, the masses sit on the edges of their chairs with pain stricken faces, asking, “Oh, my, what’s this world coming to?” You’ve heard it many times: “Tune in at 10:00 for the latest developments in this breaking story!” Why should I do that? Is it so I can be tormented with nightmares for the next six hours? Is that the will of God? “Teenager kills thirteen in school shooting; stay tuned for the latest details!” Yeah, well, what else is new? Why should I stay tuned? Why do I need to know that? How does that edify my family or my church? I can understand being concerned about some local issues, but most of that stuff is generated just to keep you in a constant state of worry and fear. We need remember that, “. . . God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (II Tim. 1:7) If your heart is filled with fear, then the devil is the one who filled it, not the Lord. To not worry about a thing doesn’t mean you don’t care about it; it just means that you aren’t going to allow the devil’s crowd to rob you of your joy and peace. The world says, “We have to worry about this thing!” The Christian says, “You worry about it; I’ll pray about it and then go to sleep.”