What? Me Worry?
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”
—Philippians 4:6-8
I used to a have a great strategy for dealing with worry. I’d lie to myself.
Friend: “Are you worried about [enter stress-producing crisis here], Chris?”
Me: “No, not at all. I’m very happy. It’s odd, though. I can’t sleep, and I feel like throwing up a little. What a coincidence those things are happening at exactly the same time I’m NOT worrying about [enter end-of-the-world scenario here].”
A similar strategy I’ve seen employed for dealing with worry is to cleverly rename it as something else.
Friend: “Are you worried?”
Clever person: “No, I’m concerned. I mean, I’m distracted by this thing. I might be bothered, a little. Or maybe I’m just super focused, you know. But I am definitely NOT worried.”
Why all the definitional gymnastics? Well, it’s because Christians have grown up with the idea that worry is sin. It’s a sign we’re not trusting God. It’s wrong. Period. Don’t do it, or you’re a bad Christian.
First of all, that’s kind of true. I mean, the sin and trusting God part. Not the bad Christian part. Paul’s message here, clearly, is that we should NOT live in a state of worry or anxiety. But we all feel it sometimes. Earlier in this same letter, Paul wrote that he was happy for something to happen so that “I may have less anxiety.” (2:28) He also struggled with worry, apparently.
As with anger, the deal with worry isn’t whether we feel it or not. We will. It will happen. We don’t have to try to hide it or lie to ourselves about it. The deal is what we do with it when it happens. Paul gives us a great strategy to implement for dissolving worry. Here’s what he said.
1) “Do not be anxious about anything.”
Sometimes we read those words and think, “Impossible!” They sound so absolute. How could anyone not worry about anything? I think, though, that we have to take each worry as it comes, one at a time. It might be better to hear in those words, “Don’t think of anything as being okay to worry about.”
Some of think it’s wrong to worry about big things: war, divorce, illness. Trust God with those, sure. But then we’ll freak out about the latest zit or obsess over something a friend said two days ago that might have been really mean.
Paul seems to say, Don’t live in worry over anything, no matter how large, how small, how global, or how personal. We say, “Okay. How?”
2) “Present your requests to God.”
Let’s take the spiritual undercoating off of this language. Read it this way: “Tell God what you want to happen.” Now, careful here. Paul does not say, “Tell God what you want to happen -- and he’ll custom order it for you in a variety of flavors.” I think the idea is to examine the worry you’re feeling and identify your best case for a positive outcome. Tell God what you want. For one, that will turn your vague worry into a very specific understanding of the situation.
a) “by prayer and petition”
Remember, though, this is a request. Don’t tell God what you want and demand He give it to you or you’ll never stop worrying. We make a prayer or petition to someone in authority, understanding they have the full right to say “no.” God is trustworthy. Telling him our request allows us to know we’ve gone to straight to the top. Then we’ve got to trust the God who loves us to make the right call about what to give to us.
b) “with thanksgiving”
To me, this is the biggest ingredient most of us miss. Giving thanks to God for every good gift in our lives (James 1:17) is first, an act of humility. It says, “God, I didn’t provide any good thing for myself. You’re the source of everything in my life that matters to me.” It also reminds me that God has an ongoing habit of taking care of me. When I take time to search my personal history for things to thank God for, I discover vast evidence that God really cares for me.
3) Expect God’s illogical peace.
Here’s the promise: When you humble yourself before God by giving thanks and making your request, trusting Him to do the right thing for you, He will flood you with a peace that might not mesh with your circumstances. Even if things go downhill, you can experience less worry. Make sense? Nope. But it’s real.
4) Think about something else.
We often quote verse 8 in this passage when we’re talking about mental purity. Paul was talking about anxiety. Change the pictures playing on the wall of your mind. Swap out the thing you’re worrying about for something that fits this description: true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. If you’re focused on something like that, it will be harder for you to go right back to worrying about the other thing.
5) Repeat.
But we DO go back to worrying. This isn’t a once-for-all fix. You might need to repeat Paul’s process every five or ten minutes for a while to dig out the worry in your heart. But you can dig it out if you’re willing to trust our trustworthy God. Don’t just be “a worrier.” Become a former worrier.
Wise? Prove It!
"Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom."--James 3:13
Remember what Forrest Gump said over and over again in the classic Tom Hanks movie? No, not the thing about the box of chocolates. When people would call him stupid, he’d tell them, “Mamma said, ‘Stupid is as stupid does.’ ” Ah, the wisdom of Gump.
In this passage, James turns that idea around. “Who is wise and understanding among you?” he asks. “No, don’t raise your hands. Just prove it!” Actually, he said, “Let him show it.” How? Two ways:
“By his good life.”
Wisdom is self-revealing, James taught. You’ll know wise people by looking at their lives. People who make wise choices tend to have things turn out better for them than people who repeatedly make foolish choices. One way to spot a wise guy is to notice the results of his decision making.
“By deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.”
Remember what Solomon said is step one in understanding the universe: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” (Proverbs 1:7) Wisdom starts with a basic, fundamental truth: “God is God, and I am not!” (Repeat that out loud.)
When I get that the God of Creation is, in fact, all the way God -- and that I am a limited being created by Him -- I know that understanding anything in His universe starts with getting to know Him. James says that's humility. And what do humble people do when it comes to God: We listen. We ask. We obey. We praise.
You’ll know a wise person when you see him or her listening to God, obeying Him, talking to Him, asking Him for help. That person will do good works, because he’ll do what God asks.
Do you want to be a wise person? How can you get wisdom? I can think of three ways God’s Word tells us to get wisdom.
1) Hunt it down!
Proverbs is full of commands to the wisdom-hunter to go searching for it like buried treasure. It’s more valuable than anything you’ll find in a pirate chest on the bottom of the sea. Will you work as hard to dig it up? This digging requires hours in God’s Word, especially the “wisdom literature” like Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and this book of James.
2) Make the most of your worst moments.
Solomon also liked to say that a wise person grows wiser when rebuked or corrected for doing wrong things. Hebrews 12 tells us that our Father God disciplines us as His children. You can pick up gobs of wisdom when you make mistakes and do wrong things, as long as you’re willing to change direction when someone (or Someone) sets you straight.
You can also pile on the wisdom when you go through hard times that are NOT your fault. Those come to everyone. Earlier in his book, James told his readers to “count it as joy” when they suffer those hard trials. Why? They teach us to trust God more, and that’s wisdom. Make the most of your bad days by learning what God has for you in them.
3) Ask!
James followed what I suspect were gasps from his readers to the command to call trials “joy” by saying, “If you lack wisdom in the trial, ask God.” He gives it away for free to all who ask (as long as we believe He gives it).
“Get wisdom!” Solomon wrote in Proverbs 4. Then he said it again with an urgency that comes right off the ancient page. Moses was also urgent, “Life is so short,” he says in Psalm 90, “Help us to apply our hearts to wisdom.” You’ll never find -- or live -- a life that truly matters without wisdom.
For a quick jump start, why not memorize and meditate on James 3:17-18?
Just One Step
“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”--Philippians 3:12-14
Often this verse is splashed across an “inspirational” poster depicting a group of runners at sunset or a guy clearing a track hurdle or someone lifting weights with sweat dripping from his face. And I think it’s great if all that athletic imagery pumps someone up to keep going strong down the path God has called them to follow.
For me, though, thoughts of strapping on running shoes or putting another 20 on the bar or working even harder at the Christian life are actually kind of discouraging. When I’m feeling like I’ve failed again to live as I should as a Jesus-follower, I don’t really want to hear a “dust your self off and get back out there” tune.
Two things in this passage DO help me in times of discouragement about my own missteps on the path of Christ. First, Paul admitted that even he has not yet become the perfect runner. Even he -- an apostle called by the audible voice of Jesus to take on the dangerous mission of bringing the Good News to the world and inspired by the Holy Spirit to write Scripture -- even he saw the gaps between what he was called to be and what he was.
If Paul, at this late stage in his life, was still imperfect, it makes sense that I would still make faithless choices myself sometimes. Not having yet finished the race doesn’t mean you’re a lousy runner, just that there are more steps yet to take.
The other encouraging thing Paul says is that it’s not all about his performance. It’s not a matter of his gritting his teeth and just. trying. harder. until he gets there. Notice he said he had not yet been “made perfect.” That implies that someone else is involved in moving him along the path. And, of course, God is the one who is making us into the image of Jesus. He’s doing the real work, right? He’s the source of our power to keep going.
Paul goes on to say that Jesus has already taken hold of him. Whoa, that’s a big deal. It’s not a matter of “will I ever get there?” Jesus already has me. I will finish this race. I will get there, because it’s not up to me. It’s His power, and it’s his plan. My life is already "hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3), so crossing the finish line is inevitable.
So what’s left for me to do, then? Take the next step. Sometimes, that takes a lot of “pressing on” and a lot of “straining” toward the goal. But my whole job in the scheme of things is just to take the next step in the power of God on God’s path to reach the prize of crossing a finish line He’s already assured me I will cross.
One step. That’s motivating to me. The poster might be a little less heroic but, after all, I’m not the hero. I’m just following Him.
Trusting God Out Loud
“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.”--James 3:9-12
Think with me about a specific moment in your life. A time you remember saying something truly horrible to another person out of anger, jealousy, a desire for revenge, or just simple unthinking thoughtlessness. I want it to be a time when you were a little horrified at realizing your words had been really hurtful. You could tell by the look on the person’s face that you had hit a nerve. You left a mark. You hurt him or her in a startling way.
Do you remember feeling guilty, a little sick that you could say such a thing, frustrated with yourself for unleashing like that? I’m thinking of a few of those moments myself. It has happened to all of us. In the paragraph before this passage, James defined perfection as being able to control the words that come out of our mouths at all times. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a long way to go before I have to worry about perfection.
But he doesn’t let us get away with saying, “Oh, everybody does it.” Instead, he identifies the real problem behind our hurtful words: we don’t believe God enough. That’s right. James said our mean mouths have to do with a lack of faith in our good God.
With the same tongue, he said, we praise God and curse (or yell at or insult or burn) people made in God’s image. We believe in (and worship) God as God, but we’re not sure He knows what He’s talking about when He tells us to be kind, to forgive, to turn the other cheek, to turn away another person’s hot rage with soft words. We believe in God, sure, but our words prove we don’t believe in everything about Him.
There’s a psychological term called “cognitive dissonance.” It describes, in part, the uncomfortable feeling we get when we realize that the facts don’t match up with what we say we believe. James wants us to feel that kind of emotional discomfort when we use our words to hurt others. He wants a bell to go off in our heads: “Hey, that doesn’t fit with praising the God who made the person I just blasted.”
James wants us to be as bothered by that contradiction in our supposed faith in the Creator as we would be if we saw oranges on an apple tree or pepper coming out of the salt shaker. (Okay, those aren’t the illustrations he used; his are better.) It should cause us to yell in our own minds, “That ain’t right!”
Let’s ask God for help with this. Let’s ask Him to a) sound the alarm in our head every time our words contradict what we say we believe about God; b) to give us the faith in Him not to use our tongues to hurt other people; and c) to notice some progress in how we use our words.
You might not be perfect tomorrow, but you can learn to trust God more. We all can. And that WILL change how we live.
