Are you the kind of person who worries all the time? Many people fall into this category and I know I’ve struggled with worry myself, down the years. Believe it or not, left unabated, worry can have a detrimental impact on our physical body. Anxiety disorders are on the rise in our society, and this should not be overlooked. In time, anxiety can lead to depression if we are not careful. Join Carl now, as he explores how worry gains access to our mind and the practical steps we must take, to overcome this habit…
Here is a complete transcript of the podcast (below)…
Friend, let me ask you, are you a worrier? Do you worry often? Are you always thinking about tomorrow and regretting the things of yesterday? Let me share some alarming facts and statistics with you about worry and the potential damage it might be having upon your psyche and ultimately your physical body. Now, according to the medical journals, 1 in 20 of us suffer from generalized anxiety order at some stage in our life and what’s interesting is that anxiety does not discriminate by age but can manifest itself in multiple ways in either gender or any race. In a recent study it found that as baby boomers get older, 66% worry about gaining weight, 30% worry about losing hair, 28% worry about getting facial wrinkles and 24% worry about getting gray hair.
What’s not commonly known to most people however is the hormonal effect, worry can have on the body. Excessive adrenaline, increased blood sugar levels and increased triglycerides or blood fat are all byproducts of people who have a tendency to remain in a state of anxiety over longer periods. Over the long term, prolonged sufferers of anxiety have difficulty in swallowing, rapid heartbeat, stomach ulcers, Adrenal fatigue, inability to concentrate, lack of sleep, frequent headaches and a whole host of other maladies that I did not mention. Worry can also impact our brain function, often disturbing our peace of mind, or even making us absent minded. The stress hormones that worry dumps into our system has been known to shrink the brain, lower IQ and even lead to heart disease! Along the lines of worry, anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the US, affecting 40 million adults or 18% of the population. Anxiety disorders cost the US more than $42 billion a year and people with anxiety disorder are 3-5 times more likely to go to the doctor and six times more likely to be hospitalized than the average person without anxiety issues.
If worry is not offset, it can eventually lead to depression if we’re not careful. So my question to you friend is, are you thinking about, what you’re thinking about? Are you relaying past regrets over and over in your mind, which you can do nothing to change or pontificating about tomorrow’s outcome, which the Lord has given you no Grace to address but Grace only for today. Someone once said, “No person can ever be happy until he has learned to enjoy what he has and not to worry over what he does not have.” and there’s so much truth to that statement. Friend, recently, I had become a victim of worry. I was not feeling myself, I even started to suffer from some of these symptoms I just mentioned and the Lord corrected me one day by saying, “You are worrying too much my Son, you need to cast your care on me as your body is now being impacted.” To be honest friend, in the past I wasn’t much of a worrier but it had slowly crept up on me and I hadn’t realized the impact it was starting to have on my mind and body.
Now what’s interesting is that generalized anxiety is not specific in the sense that one can feel a general disposition of uneasiness or evil forebodings about the future but it isn’t tied to anything in particular. And because it’s not tied to anything explicit, it’s not always easy to counteract. Someone once said 85% of what we worry about never happens anyway, so why worry about the rest? As the saying goes, “don’t sweat the small stuff”. Friend like I said before, peace is something that should abide with us Christians always, it’s actually something that Christ has deposited within us and if we have lost our peace, then we have messed up somewhere. If we read Psalm 91:1 in the Amplified version it says, “HE WHO dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty.” This secret place is a place of rest in God and it'[s something we should treasure at all times. To abide in Christ is to be at rest and there is no greater evidence of faith than resting, because in doing so you we are demonstrating our belief that God is taking care of everything. Remember that Heb 4:3 says, “we who have believed shall enter into rest” and we should stay there permanently.
I personally love the illustration that Jesus gave his disciples in Mat 6:25 and lets read that now….Matthew 6:25–34 (KJV) 25 “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? 26 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? 27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. “
Now right here friend Christ makes it plain that if he can take care of birds, animals and the flowers then he can take care of you. As a human being you are the pinnacle of God’s creation and his crowning achievement. We are the very highest order of God’s creation, created in His image and likeness. Remember he said, the fowls of the air, they neither sow nor reap and sing all day long without a care in the world, yet you friend, we who gives to God, and tithes your income and provides offerings as the Lord leads; you who are sowing into God’s Kingdom, how much more are you taken care of ? Friend, God has your back, he can take care of all your needs but it’s so important that you cast your care onto His shoulders because if you have the problem, He doesn’t and if He has it, you don’t…now lets read on in this passage…
30 “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? 31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34 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. “
Friend, God only gives grace for today not tomorrow. When we get to tomorrow there will be grace for it but it’s futile attempting to worry about tomorrow because there’s nothing we can do about it. Our focus should always be Christ and His kingdom first and foremost as it outlines in verse 33. We must seek Him above all other desires in this life and when we do so, our provision and providence is assured. We need to make our priorities align with Christ’s priorities and be confident of His provision.
Did you also notice friend that Jesus said we take a thought “by saying it”? He said, take no thought, saying, what shall we eat or drink? Friend, if Satan tries to send a fiery dart into your mind or interject his agenda into your soul, then if you start speaking it out, then you’ve agreed with him and friend we don’t want to be doing that because once we’re in agreement with the enemy, then we’ve given him place in our lives. We don’t want to be complicit with Satan’s agenda friend; we need to counteract this by speaking God’s word over the situation. So much of worry is merely carrying on a conversation with Satan in our minds. We cannot out think the enemy but we can out talk him. One of my good friends and mentors once described worry as, “Carrying on a conversation with the enemy in our mind.”
You see friend, so much of worry revolves around the postulations of tomorrow or the regrets of yesterday but in reality this is nonsensical because we can do nothing to change either yesterday or tomorrow. Yes we can plan for it but we can’t control the course of events. Our minds sometimes work like this…” well you aren’t going to have enough money for rent by the end of this month? How are you going to pay for that? What is going to happen on your job, you know how bad things are etc.” Quite often, worry comes in the form of a question and in Luke 4 and Matthew 4, in the time if Christ’s temptation, Satan threw fiery darts at Christ in the form of questions also. Friend, there’s no better way to end the cycle of worry than by speaking the truth over the situation and that truth is found in God’s word. We need to make a statement of truth to quench the fiery prognostications that come to our mind about tomorrow or the reminders of past failures and regrets.
Now let’s turn to a very famous passage that has helped me enormously down the years and I’m going to read it in the Amplified Version because I think it speaks to us more directly in our everyday language. Philippians 4:6–7 (AMP) – “6 Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. 7 And God’s peace [shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
Friend, did you know that many people are not effective in their prayer life because they are praying and worrying at the same time and that’s what I had begun to do. Praying and worrying well cause a net sum of zero in our prayer life but the word says here in this passage, we are to cast our cares firstly and then pray but if we don’t cast our cares, this is unscriptural. Worry is a sin, but few wish to talk about this, many people think worrying is a hobby or past-time but no friend…lol, worry will kill you in the long term, unless you get rid of it! Friend, I urge you to draw a line in the sand today and say “no more, I am casting my care upon the Lord today, his yoke is easy and burden light and I release any false yokes I’ve agreed to in my thought life“. In this passage it also says that the peace of God will come once we have cast our care and then prayed in that order. We must cast our care, then pray and finally peace will return.
Lets read 1 Peter 5:7 in the AMP – “7 Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully. [Ps. 55:22.] ” Friend, I sincerely desire you to cast all your care upon the Lord today, once and for all. We don’t need to be doing it over and over but make it a one-time decision. Jesus cares for you deeply, and affectionately. He knows the number of hairs on your head and forged you in your mother’s womb that He might enjoy an eternal relationship with you. We must relieve ourselves of the burdens and cares of this life. Some people think they should at least carry some of the burdens around but God doesn’t want us to carry any burdens around whatsoever.
Remember also in Matt 13:22 Jesus warned in the parable of the sower that the cares of this world can choke the seed of God’s word and cause it to become unfruitful in our lives. You see friend, worry had snuck up on me, and I didn’t think I was worrying but the Lord told me I was. It wasn’t something I had struggled with too much in my life but I was now practicing it daily. I was praying and worrying at the same time and my prayer life was becoming ineffective as a result. Friend, it’s time to cast your care, leave the weight of weariness and put it all on Christ’s shoulders, once and for all and never take it back. We are unique friend, we are in the Kingdom of God, we’re joined to Christ and co-heirs with Him. We are sons and daughters of God and how dare we even question God’s commitment to taking care of us daily or providing for our needs.
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