Why Do You Worry?

During a recent time of devotion, I came to a familiar passage in Matthew 6:25-33. As I read the text I was suddenly struck by a short yet piercing question that Jesus asked: “Why do you worry…?” The question gripped my heart and sent me on a quest to find a reasonable answer.

The word translated worry in the NKJV comes from the Greek word merimnao meaning “to be anxious about; to have care or take thought, through the idea of distraction.”[1] The word suggests that a preoccupation with life’s circumstances and problems will split our attention, divide our focus, and derail our faith.

Picture a beautiful garden infiltrated by weeds. While the soil contains everything for the plants to grow and be healthy, the unattended weeds begin to take root and consume the nourishment and hydration that was intended to feed the plants. So it is with worry. God has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness, but when the cares of this life take root in our heart, they begin to eat away at the faith and strength that was designed to nourish our souls and keep us rooted in the plan, peace, and purpose of God. But God’s Word provides some practical truths that help us fight against this enemy that tries to erode our faith.

First, we must remember that worry is unwarranted. If unemployed birds have confidence that they will be taken care of then we, the crown of God’s creation, must believe that He will provide everything we need. Second, we must realize that worry is unproductive. No matter how much we agonize, it will never change the situation that we are worried about. Anxiety only serves to deplete us of precious energy that could be used to find God’s solution to the problem. Finally, we must recognize that worry is a gross misrepresentation of God. When we fret about the issues in our lives, we are unwittingly telling the world that our heavenly Father is not aware of, concerned with, nor able to handle what we are facing.

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Live in the overflow,

Dr. D’

[1] Biblesoft’s New Exhaustive Strong’s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary, NT:3309.

Unpacking to Move

Several years ago, we seized an opportunity to build a new home. In preparation for this major undertaking, we put our residence on the market and, in very short order, found ourselves in escrow for the sale of our home. Over the ten years that we had lived in that house, we had been blessed to fill each room with precious treasures. In spite of our daily commitment to organization and cleanliness, as well as an exhausting cleaning overhaul performed some months prior, my husband and I agreed that there was still quite a bit that we would have to pack for our impending move. So, while the prospect of building our dream home was exhilarating, the thought of trying to pack ten years of memories and thirteen rooms of material was mind-boggling. But, we recognized that there was no other way. If we were going to move from one house to another, we had to pack.

“Why then,” you say, “would you entitle this devotional Unpacking to Move? After all, everyone knows that the requisite effort for any move is to pack, not unpack!” If this were solely about moving from one place of residence to another, I would agree with you wholeheartedly. However, the move that God is seeking to accomplish in most of our lives is not from house to house but from one place in life to another. For that kind of move, it is essential that we first do some unpacking. There must be a putting aside of the weight and sin that so easily besets us so that we can run with patience the race that is set before us (Heb. 12:1).

In his letter to the Philippian church, the apostle Paul spoke of his dedication to reach for a preferred future. “No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven” (Phil 3:12-14, NLT). Paul recognized that his concentration necessitated a forgetting of the past – an unpacking if you will. In order to reach forward, there had to be a letting go of what was behind.
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Too often we try to reach for the new that God is bringing to us while holding doggedly to the past we have experienced. But reaching in both directions simultaneously always results in stagnation! We must be willing to let go of the past – those things that are both good and bad – so that we can focus all of our energy on obtaining what is ahead. God does not call us to forget our history; that would be a tragic mistake. He does, however, require that we trust Him for our future and not live bound to what used to be. We must unpack past failures, prior successes, and previous dress sizes. What was…well, it was! It’s time to unpack the old so that we can move with freedom to the new opportunities of faith that are being presented to us.

Don’t be afraid. A good cleaning and reorganization of the heart can be immensely beneficial. You may even find that you have accumulated far more than you need and that discarding those old issues will truly lighten your load. The end result will be a weightlessness that enables you to take flight and be all that God intended and more than you ever dreamed. Go on, start unpacking…It’s time to move!