“Will all your worries add a single moment to your life?”
Matthew 6:27 TLB
Some people just love to worry - and yet worrying doesn’t add any value to your life. In fact, worrying steals life from you – it won’t ever add life. WebMD tells us that “chronic worry and emotional stress can trigger a host of health problems.” Some of the effects of worry, or signs that you may be worrying, include: difficulty swallowing, dizziness, dry mouth, fast heartbeat, fatigue, headaches, inability to concentrate, irritability, muscle aches, muscle tension, nausea, nervous energy, rapid breathing, shortness of breath, sweating, trembling and twitching. If you don’t deal with worry and the stress that it brings, it could lead to more serious health problems including: suppression of the immune system, digestive disorders, muscle tension, short-term memory loss, premature coronary artery disease, depression, and it could even cause a heart attack. None of this is God’s will for you - He wants you to be healthy, happy and enjoy life! You can’t worry and be happy at the same time. That’s why Jesus taught and instructed us not to worry.
“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Matthew 6:25-30 NKJV
The only reason you ever worry is simply because you do not trust God. This is especially true in the area of finances and provision. When we come to know His heart for us as our loving Father, then we would never doubt His Word and that He will provide for us. Sometimes we pay more attention to the challenges we face than to the promises we have from God. Faith accesses the grace and blessing of God (Ephesians 2:8-9), and faith comes as a result of knowing God’s true nature as revealed through Jesus’ life in the Word (Romans 10:17; Hebrews 1:3). The more we know God (through the Word), the easier it is to trust (or have faith in) Him, the less we’ll worry, and the happier we’ll be.
“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.”
Matthew 6:31-32 NKJV
The unbeliever is consumed with making ends meet and getting more, and rightly so; they don’t have a relationship with God, but you do. So why act like the unbelievers? If we were convinced of our Father’s eagerness to provide for us, we would simply believe. One of the signs that you’re in faith is that you are relaxed; you know that God will be faithful to His Word. You are not the first person that God has ever called to trust Him just so that you can see Him fail. If you trust Him, He will supply all our needs according to His riches in glory (Philippians 4:19).
The Christian life should be worry-free! We shouldn’t be anxious about provision - or anything else for that matter. We have a loving heavenly Father who has promised us an abundant life in His Word, and if we choose to believe Him we will see the fruit of what the Word talks about.