Worry is a sickness that attacks a person’s faith, hope, and joy.
There is a lot going on in the world this week. The number of those infected by COVID-19 is growing. The number of deaths as a result of the virus is increasing. The stock market has been in sharp decline affecting the income and retirement of many. Some people would say that we have a lot to worry about. Apparently many people are worried. There is a great deal of panic buying going on in the US, numerous events have been canceled, and a number of venues have been closed. This is not a post to tell you that we shouldn’t be concerned. Concern is one thing; worry is something completely different. Concern means that a person is aware of what is going on around them and they are taking the appropriate level of precautions. Worry is itself a sickness that attacks a person’s faith, hope, and joy. So how do we deal with worry?
We need to realize that worry does not come from God. As a matter of fact, worry is the opposite of faith. Paul reminded his young son in the faith Timothy that God had not given him a spirit of fear, but one of power and love and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7). So if we have worry in our life, it has been placed there by the enemy to distract us from the richness that comes through a relationship with God. The enemy is seeking to distract us from the power that God has to defeat any challenge. The enemy is seeking to distract us from the incredible love that God has not only for His children, but for the whole world. The enemy is trying to rob us of the self-discipline that is a hallmark of a life founded on a trust in the strength, power, and goodness of God.
We also need to realize that there is an appropriate way to handle worry: give it to God. Peter reminds us in his first epistle to humble ourselves before God, and one of the ways to do that is by “casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.”(1 Peter 5:7). It is interesting that Peter chose to use the word “casting” or “throwing.” By casting our cares upon God it shows our resolve to be finished with them. It’s not enough just to simply pray over our concerns. Instead, we must resolve to completely turn our concerns over to God and allow Him to deal with them according to His perfect will. “Casting” our cares on God also indicates the fact that we have rejected the claim that worry has upon our life. Just as when we throw something away because we want to be rid of it, we must throw our worries away to God so that we can be rid of it in our life.
But, it’s not enough just to get rid of worry. We have to replace worry with something else or it will come back. We have to replace it with faith. Jesus addressed worry in Luke 12:22-31. Jesus begins by telling His hearers and us to not be anxious about our life. He then goes on to remind us that God feeds the ravens, worry doesn’t extend anyone’s life, and that He even clothes the lilies. God does all of this and yet neither the ravens not the lilies are as precious to God as you are. Jesus reminds us to let God handle our needs while we focus on keeping His kingdom first in our lives. In other words, we trust God to take care of the things that have the potential to burden our life, and in turn, we focus on living in obedience to His will.
There is one other way that Christians should respond to worry. We should be ready to give an answer for the hope that we have in Christ (1 Peter 3:15). Because of the salvation that we have been given through the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, we can trust Him not only with our eternal destiny, but we can also trust Him with everything that comes up in our life now. We need to remind others that like every other form of sickness that we face in this world, the COVID-19 virus and the resulting burdens are a result of the presence of sin in the world. The only cure for sin is Christ. But, as we share this hope, we must do it with gentleness and kindness and not arrogance. We should do it with a desire to help others have the same peace that we possess.
If the Lord be with us, we have no cause of fear. His eye is upon us, His arm over us, His ear open to our prayer – His grace sufficient, His promise unchangeable.
John Newton
In closing, believers need to see disasters such as these not as an opportunity to behave as others who have no hope, but instead to demonstrate the faith, confidence, and freedom from worry that a person can have through Jesus Christ. Let’s show the world what a life that has been radically changed by a relationship with Christ really looks like. Let’s show the world how to live free of worry and full of faith. As John Newton, the writer of Amazing Grace, once said, “If the Lord be with us, we have no cause of fear. His eye is upon us, His arm over us, His ear open to our prayer – His grace sufficient, His promise unchangeable.”
Scripture-Driven Life 