Worry

I just hate this companion of mine. He crept up on me very slowly, and I never even realized we were friends until.... I realized that he was totally apart of all my life! The name of this friend\enemy is Worry. The worst thing about him is that he completely takes away all my joy and happiness for today, my hope for tomorrow, and instead replaces it with fear and self-doubt.

I never really felt worry was a sin until I read a chapter from Jerry Bridges book, "Respectable Sins." In this particular chapter, Bridges says that the opposite of trusting God is worry or anxiety. Bridges also goes on to say that anxiety is sin because "it is a lack of acceptance of God's providence in our lives." I guess this is true, because when I'm not trusting in God, who am I trusting in? Usually myself unfortunately; not a very reliable source of strength!

This reminds me of the old allegory of  'who's driving your car'. As a Christian, I try to relax and let God have the driver's seat. However, so often when I see cars coming my way or  hazards in the middle of the road, I find that before I even realize it, I've thrown myself on the wheel, and am yanking and pulling with all my might!!

However, I do believe everyone gets worried from time to time and that is not necessarily sin, but what do we do when we are worried? The Bible says, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." (Philippians 4:6). Do we go to God with our worry and trust Him to make, "all things work together for good" (Romans 8:28) or do we look to other things to cope with our worry?

A song that has really impacted me in my quest to fight Worry is "Come to the Well" by Casting Crowns. When I saw them live last year, I got to see the video clip of the 'story' behind the song. (If you haven't seen it, I recommend you go right now and you tube it! It's really great.) In this clip, Mark Hall talks about the woman at the well, and Jesus' claim that those who drink His water will never thirst again. So often though, instead of drinking out of THE Well of life, we drink from other wells; and the thing is... all though these wells offer great promises, we always finish drinking and yet still feel thirsty. The only way to find rest is to drink from THE Well.

Unfortunately, I often forget to go to God with my worry. For example, like today... I must say I've been a jolly good host to this friend\enemy!! I've entertained him all day and worried constantly about one thing or other. It's not even been anything really important, just my typical worries like, will I fail this next assignment, why did I ever bother starting uni if I'm not intelligent enough to finish it, I don't have many friends because I'm so unfriendly.... bla bla bla.

Oh, and the 'wells' I go to always leave me feeling thirstier than ever. Most often I go to depressing music, (which just makes me worried AND depressed) junk food, tv, movies, yeup the works, pretty much just junk food spiritually and physically!

I'm just so thankful that we have a loving and patient God who gently (and sometimes when we are extra stubborn, not so gently!) reminds us which Well we should be drinking from, and who should be in charge in the drivers seat. We serve a wonderful God!