When We Are Tempted to Worry

 

Waiting......

I am waiting to see if I passed my counseling certification exams.

I am waiting to see if I have life changing health-related test results.

I am waiting to see what God has in store for our future.

I am waiting on my article edits to see if I need to make corrections once again.

I am waiting on the school year to end so I can enter into the home school journey with my son.

So many things I am waiting on and this is not an all inclusive list. There are other things, lurking in my mind. I am sure you can relate too. For we are all waiting on something.

I can easily be tempted to agonize over these waits. It is tempting to worry or fret over these things. Some of the issues seem more worrisome than others, of course. Life altering test results can be a heavier burden than an article edit. But waiting seems to look the same for each one.

If worry could speed up the time process of the wait then I would say go for it! However, God says something different. Worry is essentially forgetting that God has promised the best for us.

Sometimes that is hard to accept when the test results come back less than expected or you are rejected by a peer. These things are painful, however, God promises that we will be more like Christ as we look to Him and His promises in the midst of them.

This is a great Scripture to meditate on when you are tempted to worry.

"You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you" (Isaiah 26:3, ESV).

When I feel myself losing my peace, I am not trusting in God. My worry is taking on the problem in my own strength instead of God's.

This happened after 40 days with the children of Israel. God was clearly present because He was on the mountain with Moses. Yet, Moses stayed up there too long for the people to stomach so they gave in to fear. Fear, worry and anxiety are all connected. When we give into these things we are not trusting God's best for us. We are saying that God is not good and I can figure out a better way. If we give into this worry, we will do stupid things.

The children of Israel did this. They thought God was taking too long with Moses. They forgot how God saved them from Egypt. despite the great miracles He performed for them over and over again. Not only the rescue but also sustaining them in the desert. But as they daily depended on their manna, they still forgot God's goodness.

After they deemed that God took too long with Moses, they decided to make something they could worship. Something they could control and make with their own hands. It was a golden calf. And Aaron, their leader went along with it, in fact he oversaw it. 

 It is devastating that we would ever forget God. Just thinking of the fact that Jesus came, lived the life we could not live perfectly and then died for our sin on the cross is enough for us to not ever worry. God was so good to send His son to take the punishment for sin that was owed to us. Jesus stood in our place. That is enough for us to know His goodness. 

Yet God does so much more in His goodness toward us through all of the promises He gives us in His word.   God poured His love out on us so that we never need to fear. Yet, we forget. We try to make our own idols to worship. Idols that we can control. Things like a impenetrable schedule, or anger that continually bugs or harasses the people with the answers we need, or impatience so we step in front of God in stepping on others for that new position. There are many subtle ways we do this that we do not consider idolatry but it is idolatry. 

Do you think of worry as a subtle form of idolatry? Have you ever considered it to be sin? What are some ways you cope with worry?