Wednesday, May 7, 2008

The Negative Effects of Worrying

Everyone knows the ill effects of worry. Here are some that I read recently:

Jesus tells us not to worry about the needs that God has promised to supply, because of the adverse effects of worrying. [Mat.6:31-34] Yet people worry!
  • Worry will damage both your physical and mental health.
  • It will cause the object of your worry to consume your thoughts.
  • It will disrupt your productivity.
  • It will negatively affect the way you treat others.
  • It will adversely affect your emotions.
  • Worry will reduce your ability to trust in God.
[Taken from the Life Application Study Bible]

How many ill effects of worry you are experiencing today? Isn't it better to banish worry altogether and trust God?

Some confuse worry and concern. Here is the difference between worry and genuine concern: Worry immobilizes, but concern moves you to action. We should be concerned and not neglect matters of importance. We shouldn't worry about them and do nothing about it.

In Mathew 6:25-34, seven reasons are given not to worry:
1. The same God who created life in you can be trusted with the details of your life. [v.25]
2. Worrying about the future hampers your efforts for today. [v.26]
3. Worrying is more harmful than helpful. [v27]
4. God does not ignore those who depend on him. [v28-30]
5. Worry shows a lack of faith and understanding of God. [v31-32]
6. There are real challenges God wants us to pursue and worrying keeps us from them. [v.33]
7. Living one day at a time keeps us from being consumed with worry. [v.34]
[Taken from the Life Application Study Bible]

Since God's word is true, we can never fail when we live by it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Praise the Lord! Your comments about worry came at the right time.I made a copy to sent it to a 86 years old christian woman who worry about every thing and complain a lot , she is sick. I have been ministering to her lately. she can not go down the stairs with arthritis pain.
Will you remenber her in your prayers, thank you.

Elizabeth said...

Anonymous,
Yes, I will remember her in my prayers.

Anonymous said...

I had never stopped to think that there is a difference between concern and worry. Concern is constructive while worry is destructive. That is a huge dissimilarity. If we let this sink into our hearts we can probably save ourselves a lot of problems.
From: Anonymous C