Worrying
worry verb
worried worrying, worries verb, intransitive
1. To feel uneasy or concerned about something; be troubled. See synonyms at BROOD.
2. To pull or tear at something with or as if with the teeth.
3. To proceed doggedly in the face of difficulty or hardship; struggle: worried along at the problem.
Synonyms:
Care suggests a weighing down of the mind, by dead apprehension, or by great responsibility; [Worn out by the cares of the day.]
Concern suggests mental uneasiness over someone or something in which one has an interest; [I feel concern for their welfare]
Worry suggests mental distress or agitation over some problem; [His chief worry was that he might fail.]
Pain Attack - apprehensive panic; [An abnormal psychological state characterized by a feeling of being powerless and unable to cope with threatening events, commonly imaginary; accompanied by sweating or trembling.]
Matthew 6:25-34
25 "For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing? 26 "Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27 "And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life's span? 28 "And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29 yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. 30 "But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith? 31 "Do not be anxious then, saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall we drink?' or `With what shall we clothe ourselves?' 32 "For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. 34 "Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Luke 21:33-36
33 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. 34 "Be on guard, that your hearts may not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day come on you suddenly like a trap; 35 for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth. 36 "But keep on the alert at all times, praying in order that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."
Anxiety:
Proverbs 12:25
Anxiety in the heart of a man weighs it down, but a good word makes it glad.
Remedies For Worry:
I. Take Action:
* The Many Trips Syndrome: worry is like studying a road map; you go over every inch of the trip again and again in your mind. You invest a tremendous amount of time, energy, and emotion on imaginary problems i.e. trips. Satan torments you to take the trip again and again and the majority of these trips never occur in real life.
* There are only two kinds of things you can worry about:
- The kind of thing that you can't do anything about; so do not worry, pray instead!
- The kind of thing you can do something about; so do it instead of worrying!
Taking Action:
Acts 12:1-11
1 Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church, in order to mistreat them. 2 And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword. 3 And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. Now it was during the days of Unleavened Bread. 4 And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people. 5 So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God. 6 And on the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains; and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. 7 And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared, and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter's side and roused him, saying, "Get up quickly." And his chains fell off his hands. 8 And the angel said to him, "Gird yourself and put on your sandals." And he did so. And he said to him, "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me." 9 And he went out and continued to follow, and he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 And when they had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself; and they went out and went along one street; and immediately the angel departed from him. 11 And when Peter came to himself, he said, "Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting."
Matthew 9:20-21
20 And behold, a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak; 21 for she was saying to herself, "If I only touch His garment, I shall get well."
Matthew 20:30-32
30 And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, "Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!" 31 And the multitude sternly told them to be quiet; but they cried out all the more, saying, "Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!" 32 And Jesus stopped and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for you?"
2 Kings 7:3-9
Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, "Why do we sit here until we die?
Luke 10:41-45
41 But the Lord answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; 42 but only a few things are necessary, really only one, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her."
II. Pray Diligently:
Psalm 142:1-3
1 I cry aloud with my voice to the LORD; I make supplication with my voice to the LORD. 2 I pour out my complaint before Him; I declare my trouble before Him. 3 When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, Thou didst know my path. In the way where I walk they have hidden a trap for me.
Psalm 55:6-22
6 And I said, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. 7 "Behold, I would wander far away, I would lodge in the wilderness. Selah. 8 "I would hasten to my place of refuge from the stormy wind and tempest." 9 Confuse, O Lord, divide their tongues, for I have seen violence and strife in the city. 10 Day and night they go around her upon her walls; and iniquity and mischief are in her midst. 11 Destruction is in her midst; oppression and deceit do not depart from her streets. 12 For it is not an enemy who reproaches me, then I could bear it; nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me, then I could hide myself from him. 13 But it is you, a man my equal, My companion and my familiar friend. 14 We who had sweet fellowship together, walked in the house of God in the throng. 15 Let death come deceitfully upon them; let them go down alive to Sheol, for evil is in their dwelling, in their midst. 16 As for me, I shall call upon God, and the LORD will save me. 17 Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and murmur, and He will hear my voice. 18 He will redeem my soul in peace from the battle which is against me, for they are many who strive with me. 19 God will hear and answer them-- even the one who sits enthroned from of old-- Selah. With whom there is no change, and who do not fear God. 20 He has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him; He has violated his covenant. 21 His speech was smoother than butter, but his heart was war; His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. 22 Cast your burden upon the LORD, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.
Isaiah 37:14-37
14 Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD saying, 16 "O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, who art enthroned above the cherubim, Thou art the God, Thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. Thou hast made heaven and earth. 17 "Incline Thine ear, O LORD, and hear; open Thine eyes, O LORD, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to reproach the living God. 18 "Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated all the countries and their lands, 19 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. 20 "And now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that Thou alone, LORD, art God." 21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, `Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: "She has despised you and mocked you, the virgin daughter of Zion; she has shaken her head behind you, the daughter of Jerusalem! 23 "Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? And against whom have you raised your voice, and haughtily lifted up your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel! 24 "Through your servants you have reproached the Lord, and you have said, `With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains, to the remotest parts of Lebanon; and I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses. And I will go to its highest peak, its thickest forest. 25 `I dug wells and drank waters, and with the sole of my feet I dried up all the rivers of Egypt.' 26 "Have you not heard? Long ago I did it, from ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, that you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps. 27 "Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength, they were dismayed and put to shame; they were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb, as grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up. 28 "But I know your sitting down, and your going out and your coming in, and your raging against me. 29 "Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up to My ears, therefore I will put My hook in your nose, and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came. 30 "Then this shall be the sign for you: you shall eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 31 "And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 32 "For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of Mount Zion survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts shall perform this."' 33 "Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, `He shall not come to this city, or shoot an arrow there; neither shall he come before it with a shield, nor throw up a mound against it. 34 `By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come to this city,' declares the LORD. 35 `For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David's sake.'" 36 Then the angel of the LORD went out, and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, all of these were dead. 37 So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and returned home, and lived at Nineveh.
Daniel 6:5-10
5 Then these men said, "We shall not find any ground of accusation against this Daniel unless we find it against him with regard to the law of his God." 6 Then these commissioners and satraps came by agreement to the king and spoke to him as follows: "King Darius, live forever! 7 "All the commissioners of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the high officials and the governors have consulted together that the king should establish a statute and enforce an injunction that anyone who makes a petition to any god or man besides you, O king, for thirty days, shall be cast into the lions' den. 8 "Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document so that it may not be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which may not be revoked." 9 Therefore King Darius signed the document, that is, the injunction. 10 Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously.
Philippians 4:6-7
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Hebrews 4:16
Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 7:25
Hence, also, He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
III. Keep Believing
Hebrews 13:5-6
5 Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, "I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you," 6 so that we confidently say, "The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What shall man do to me?"
1 Peter 5:6-7
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you.