What Are You Worried About by Maxie Dunnam

There have been a few occasions in my life when, almost immediately after meeting and greeting a person, they asked, “What are you worried about?” Persons often wear themselves on their faces.
In my last article I reflected on Tennessee Williams’ image, violets cracking rocks. In his teaching, Jesus used an equally powerful image: “Consider the lilies… how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” This was a primary teaching of Jesus. He closed a section of the Sermon on the Mount with his lesson about God’s care for us, “Don’t be anxious.”
Ours is a jittery age. We are terribly worried about success and prestige, but we’re not worried half enough about what we’re doing to ourselves. We ought to be bothered about ulcers and heart attacks that we bring on ourselves. We ought to be bothered about the fact that our friendships are superficial. We ought to take note of the fact that no amount of money can compensate for the way we rob ourselves and become slaves to ourselves.
We have a right to be anxious. Conflicts and upheavals around the world are moving nations deeper and deeper into a war mentality. That’s a part of the big picture, and it is anxiety-producing. We don’t have to think at that level. Our day-to-day living brings enough. Jesus knew that, so he said, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day” (Matt. 6:34).
One of the important things Jesus is saying is this: Don’t borrow trouble. I don’t know the history of that phrase, but we know what it means. So did Jesus. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.”
Look at that issue from two perspectives. One will immediately strike a chord in us; the other, we have probably thought too little about.
First, don’t borrow trouble by taking on excessive anxiety about things you cannot change. Excessive anxiety about things we cannot change is one of the biggest issues in our life. There are some burdens that we cannot handle for ourselves, and there are some burdens that we were never meant to handle. Those burdens are to be turned over to God.
A second perspective on hearing Jesus’ word, “Don’t be anxious,” is Don’t borrow the trouble of worrying about your ability to live the Christian life. This is something most of us have thought little or nothing about. Yet, I think it’s a big problem in many of our lives. We worry about our ability to live the Christian life. This expresses itself particularly in anxiety about the fact that we will fall into sin again.
We know that we are weak and that we do give in to temptation. Our problem comes when we adopt a poor me attitude that says, “It’s always going to be like that. I’m simply not able to live the Christian life.” To be sure, we sin. Hopefully, we feel guilty for our sins. But we must not remain in our guilt. Scripture promises that when we confess our sin, God forgives and “remembers our sin no more” (Jer. 31:34).
The fact is we are adding sin to sin if we choose to remain guilty after confession and repentance. We can exchange our guilt for praise because “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
So we should not borrow the trouble that comes from saying, “I’m sure I’ll do it again.” As Christians, we are in Christ, and we must live believing that in him we live one day at a time. We don’t dwell on the possibility of succumbing to temptation tomorrow. Jesus has set us free now, not tomorrow! As far as tomorrow is concerned, Christ is our keeper. We are living in him; and as long as we do, he will keep us.
Don’t borrow trouble by worrying about your ability to live the Christian life. What are you worried about? Rehearse the lessons we need to keep in mind:
Don’t borrow trouble.
Don’t borrow the trouble of worrying about your ability to live the Christian life.
Be aware of, but don’t give into anxiety about the fact that we might fall into sin again.
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