Let's start in Matthew 6, Jesus is speaking Said I tell you do not worry about your life what you'll eat or drink or about your body what you'll wear Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? Oh you have little faith So do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear?
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well Therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself Each day has enough trouble of its own and then in Philippians 4 do not be anxious about anything But in everything by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving present your requests to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus Jesus said very plainly very repetitively do not worry I'm of the opinion that if Jesus says not to do something he has our best interests at heart He's not being meddlesome. He's not trying to limit us. He's concerned about our well-being and we've missed something Something has eluded us.
We have tolerated something in our lives in our thoughts in our emotions We've tolerated something allowed it to flourish that in reality is destructive that Jesus has said don't do that That we are so twisted and tied up and and melting down in our own Worries and problems and we forget that we have a Heavenly Father right there saying do you want my help? And we just got to say I want your help and trust that he can do what he needs to do Let him do the work that needs to be done. Look if you're counting on yourself to solve all of your problems Then of course, you're worried and stressed out.
It doesn't matter how strong or wise or capable how charismatic you are It doesn't matter how much wealth or influence you have You are not designed to be able to take on everything and handle everything you will have more problems Come at you than what you are capable of handling When you carry the responsibility of everything, then you have to do everything you have to find the solutions You have to choose the right direction. You have to power through problems. You have to plan for the future make adjustments And you have to do all of it at the speed of life.
Yeah, you're stressed out. You're worried. Of course But God does not want you to do it on your own He wants you to recognize that he is there to lead you to walk you through to guide you through every step of the way And here's the deal He doesn't want to just give you every resource that you need to get through your problems He wants to be what you need in every situation It's amazing the problems that are solved the moment that you decide to trust God in everything because when you trust God you don't have to try to figure anything out anymore As you lean on him, then you take the pressure off of yourself Because you don't have to try to figure stuff out You don't have to try to change things that you've already tried a million times to change and the more you try to change the more frustrated it makes you Because you can just finally say well God I'm trusting you with this And if you can't change it then I guess they don't need to be changed The only way you can learn to stop worrying and Stop trying to figure things out Stop being jealous of what other people have Is I just honestly think that in addition to studying the word I think that we just have to try it our way long enough To finally just get worn out enough To just say okay God I surrender.
You know that beginning, you know the end and everything in between You know every flaw that I have every fault that I have, you know, every weakness that I have as well as my strengths I surrender. So many times I have just said God I don't know what to do. God I'm overwhelmed or God I'm in over my head and you know, I've said this many times God help please It doesn't have to be long.
It doesn't have to be eloquent. I don't have to have the answers or the solutions I just need to go to the one who does have the answers Have you ever been on an emotional roller coaster I mean, you're just up you're down you're this way. And you know what God says, I'll take care of that You ever go to bed thinking about it Wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it.
In the morning you get up you're thinking about it Man it has captured your thinking God says I'll take your emotion and your thinking through Christ Jesus First Peter 5:7 says cast all your cares on him because he cares for you And what that means is that we take all of our problems and our worries and we choose to place it in God's hands And Say I trust that you will handle the outcome Are you confident that you can take your problems and your worries and place it in God's hands and that he can handle everything Worry is the anticipation of the negative In fact there's a relationship between faith and worry It's inverse faith diminishes as worry flourishes Or as your faith flourishes your worry will diminish Worry is the negative expression of what faith in God is One of them would be I don't want Jesus to ever look at me and use my name and person of little faith in the same sentence do you I want to be a man of faith Worry are you saying I don't think God can handle this So I'm gonna pick it up and I'm going to invest emotional energy and my thoughts and my anxiety I'm not gonna change the outcome a bit Jesus said you can't add one hour to your life God can add years God has the best solution for all of our problems. He sees and knows everything He sees the future. He understands every angle of what is going on in your life right now He understands how people are viewing it and perceiving it.
He sees the best solution to your problems He's incredibly wise when I worry I am basically saying I am afraid that my life is not going to be that I would the way that I want it to but when I trust that God has the best solution I am saying God I believe that you have the best way for me even if it's not the path that I chose or that I came up with And we can trust that if we follow God and if we trust him he will give us every resource that we need Every step of the way and that at the end he can turn that into something wonderful and beautiful And let me tell you if you have someone who loves you enough and who is strong enough and who has the best solution What do you have to worry about See the reason that worry exists so often is because we just think it's normal It's not normal. It's common, but it's not normal. It doesn't have to be in our life and it's robbing us of God It's robbing us of our family It distracts me from God in people it robs me of my joy and it exists because I allow it to exist Listen to what I'm saying Worry exists and anxiety exist because we allow it we are in complete control of our lives God would never command us to do something that we don't have the ability to do Worry is a choice and trust is a choice.
You can't do both at the same time You have to choose to put your trust in God Put the full weight of your problems and your life and your future into his hands and let him carry it Worry and anxiety means the devil has implanted something in your life that's just sitting there intimidating you And because of that you can't focus on God in the people that you love and that's the greatest problem with worrying anxiety it robs you Of your ability to worship to love the people that you love so it's an enemy The root of all fear worry and anxiety is an orphan spirit because orphans are on their own and they have to take care of their own problems And the devil wants you to feel as though that you're on your own and you have to solve your own problems You have the best father in the universe stop grieving over the father You didn't have and start rejoicing that you have the best father in the universe and he loves helping you process Anything in your life Nothing is too small. Nothing is too large. He just enjoys the ride He just enjoys the relationship and as we're sitting here obsessing about something what it means is we're wasting the relationship He does see your problems and he wants to help you God's love for you is so immense and that means that you can come to him with anything and everything We don't have to lead lives that are defined by worry and anxiety and fear Doesn't mean those things won't come and they may even come with justification But Jesus said we don't have to worry about that He is my provider he is my protector he is my promoter He is the person that I longed for in every relationship.
He is the place that I look to to find home He is my professor to reveal beautiful new things to me He is everything that I need and everything that I longed for when I go to him The key to peace is not being able to solve every problem.