Do Not Worry – 3

30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

Matthew 6:27 (NIV84)

27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

By Worrying = μεριμνάω merimnaō = to be apprehensive, have anxiety, be anxious, be (unduly) concerned.

Worry, care, or anxious thought; anxiety over circumstances beyond our control.

Worry is based on the fear that God is not in control of our lives.

It is a self-inflicted panic that is the opposite of confidence in God.

Matthew 6:27 (AMP)

27 And who of you by worrying and being anxious can add one unit of measure (cubit) to his stature or to the span of his life?

Interlinear Bible: “Who and among you being anxious is able to add to the life span of him cubit one?”

King James Version: “Which of you can add to his stature one cubit?”

English Standard Version: “Which of you can add a single hour to his span of life?”

Both translations are possible, but the latter meaning is more common and seems to make more sense.

However nice it is to be tall, what most people really want is more time—more time to get things done and more time to live. If only we had one more hour in the day, one more day in the week, one more week in the year!

Yet we will not get anything more by worrying about it. All our worrying will not add even a single day to our lifespan.

It will not help us one little bit.

Psalm 39:4–6 (NIV84)

4“Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.

5You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath. Selah

6Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it.

The measurements used to describe one’s life span revolved around terms that described measurements of length.

The handbreadth is the measurement across the four fingers (excluding the thumb) of the human hand. Four finger units equate to one handbreadth, approximately 2.92 inches (≈ 3 inches).

The span is the measurement of the hand as it is spread out from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the smallest finger. It generally measures about 8.75 inches and is equal to three handbreadths (≈ 9 inches).

Measurements were not exact, because they varied based on the size of a man’s hand.

Some translations referred to height or stature vs. life span because of the measurements they used to describe one’s life span.

Luke 12:24–26 (NIV84)

24Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!

Ravens were considered to be predatory and polluted creatures, yet they were under God’s care.

How much more valuable are we than those birds!

25Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

26Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

John F. MacArthur, Jr. Which of you can worry yourself into a longer life? The converse is true, you worry and you’re likely to have what? A shorter one. Worrying isn’t going to do you any good. You cannot add to your span of life by anxiety, in fact what you’ll do is shorten your span of life by anxiety.

Charles Mayo, the Mayo Clinic: “It (worry) effects circulation, the heart rate, the glands, the nervous system.” He said, “I have never known of a man to die of overwork, but many die of worry.”

Will fear and anxiety lengthen one’s life? Again, the answer is no!

Medical studies have shown that excessive anxiety and fear might even shorten life.

The stress which accompanies unmanaged fear is life-threatening.

Absence of peace, whether in the form of anxiety or of rancor and vindictiveness (the lust to “get even”), may lead to ulcers, colitis, high blood pressure, heart attacks, etc. The teachings of Christ, if taken to heart, have a curative effect on the entire person, soul and body.

Luke 21:25–26 (NKJV)

25“And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring;

26men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Is it possible to be scared to death? During the January 17, 1994, Northridge/Los Angeles earthquake, over one hundred Californians literally died of fright, according to Robert Kloner, cardiologist at the Good Samaritan Hospital in L.A.

His research has shown that excessive fear can cause sudden cardiac death.

In many cases the terrorized brain triggers the release of a mix of chemicals so potent it causes the heart to contract so fiercely it never relaxes again.

Proverbs 12:25 (NIV84)

25An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.

Weighs down = שָׁחָה shachah = to be oppressive or disheartening to; stoop down, lie flat; subdue, oppress.

Anxiety is a weight, a burden. Anxiety in a person’s heart creates a downward pressure, functioning as both an emotional and physical burden. This weight causes people to bow under pressure.

Have you ever felt like you had the “weight of the world on your shoulders”?

Weighs down is literally bows him down, causing the person to become depressed or dejected.

“When a person is worried this makes his thinking [or, insides] heavy.”

Matthew 11:28–30 (NIV84)

28“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Anxiety is a fear of the unknown, or fear without an adequate cause. The basis for anxiety is uncertainty and a lack of trust.

Anxiety doesn’t always come with a clear cause—but it always carries a sense that something is wrong or could go wrong. That ‘something’ is where fear lives, even if we can’t name it.

Anxiety is not identical to fear, but it is fed by it, shaped by it, or rooted in it.

Isaiah 41:10 (NIV84)

10So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Do fear = יָרֵא yare = be frightened, i.e., be in a state of feeling great distress, and deep concern of pain or unfavorable circumstance.

Do be dismayed = שָׁתַע šāṯaʿ = be in fear, i.e., be in a state of great alarm, with a possible focus of discouragement about the future. Related to anxiety.

Anxiety is closely related to fear.

Fear is an emotional response to an identifiable danger.

Anxiety is a response to an unidentified threat or anticipated danger.

1 John 4:13–18 (NIV84)

13We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.

16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

17In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.

18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

Perfect = τέλειος teleios = pertaining to meeting the highest standard of things, perfect.

pertaining to being truly and completely genuine; genuine, true.

Love that has been made complete, mature, fully developed.

Love = ἀγάπη agape = God’s love toward man and vice versa; a love that gives, not takes.

Drives = βάλλω ballō = to force out of or into a place, throw (away), drive out, expel (the aorist emphasizes the certainty of the result). (Present Tense)

The aorist tense shows that this was a complete, decisive act that implied it certainly occurred.

Fear = φόβος phobos = slavish fear, which is not to characterize a Christian’s relation to God.

It refers to servile fear of a guilty person, concern for oneself and apprehension of impending harm.

Punishment on the day of judgment is what is specifically feared and being afraid of God as judge.

God’s perfect love, a love that meets the highest standard, definitely and with certainty, forces out, expels the slavish fear of correction or of punishment at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

(Charles Spurgeon) Perfect love drives out fear. There is a loving, holy fear that is never cast out. Filial fear grows as love grows. We must always cultivate that sacred dread, that solemn awe of God, but we are not afraid of Him. God is your best Friend, your choicest love. You long to approach Him. Though He is a consuming fire, you know that He will only consume what you want to have consumed. He will purify you and make your gold to shine more brightly because the consumable alloy is gone from it. He will not consume you, but only that which would work for your hurt if it were left within you.

The expulsion of fear, initiated by God’s perfect love, rests on the definite and completed work of Christ’s death and resurrection, and continues throughout the life of the believer.

[Christians] need not take flight because God’s love for them and their love for God would prevent punishment in the judgment.

As Christians mature each day, we become less and less afraid of the judgment because of sin. We know that Jesus bore our sins in his own body on the cross.

Christians have no need to fear at the final judgment because their eternal destiny is not at stake. When we live within the security of God’s love for us and practice love for others, we will experience freedom from all fear. So, rebirth initiates a transformation where fear of judgment loses its grip, but the depth of that experiential freedom grows throughout the Christian life as love matures. (Logos Bible, Study Assistant)

Ephesians 3:16–21 (NIV84)

16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,

17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,

18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,

19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,

21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Charles Spurgeon: What is it we have been talking about? It is God’s love to us. Get the thought into your head a minute: “God loves me”—not merely bears with me, thinks of me, feeds me, but loves me. Oh, it is a very sweet thing to feel that we have the love of a dear wife, or a kind husband; and there is much sweetness in the love of a fond child, or a tender mother; but to think that God loves me, this is infinitely better! Who is it that loves you? God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the Almighty, All in all, does He love me? Even He? If all men, and all angels, and all the living creatures that are before the throne loved me, it were nothing to this—the Infinite loves me! And who is it that He loves? Me. The text saith, “us.” “We love Him because He first loved us.” But this is the personal point—He loves me, an insignificant nobody, full of sin—who deserved to be in hell; who loves Him so little in return—God loves ME.

2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV)

7For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Fear = δειλία deilia 1x = lack of mental or moral strength, cowardice.

Cowardice: the trait of lacking the quality of spirit that enables you to face danger or pain without showing fear.

Timothy was being reminded that such fear does not come from God’s Spirit.

Whether you are young in years or young as a Christian, the fear and apprehension you may experience to share the gospel does not come from God.

Instead, God gives the believer the power to proclaim the gospel;

a love for others, both believers and unbelievers;

and a sound mind, self-control or control over himself. To lead others, he must have a cool head.

These are not natural tendencies; they come from God.

Romans 8:15–16 (NIV84)

15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship (adoption). And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

‘Abba’ is the cry of an infant, the simple, helpless utterance of unreasoning trust, the effect of feeling, rather than knowledge. It is an Aramaic word (cf. English ‘papa’).

It was a form of address forbidden among the Jews to be used by a slave to the head of the family.

Among the Greeks and Romans, when a man had no son, he was permitted to adopt one even though not related. He might adopt one of his slaves as a son. The adopted son took the name of the father and was in every respect regarded and treated as a son.

After adoption, the son, no longer a slave, had the privilege of addressing his former master by the title of “father.”

We have been told, as a result of nineteenth-century comparative-religion theology, that all roads go to heaven. That is as far away from the biblical view as we can get.

In the Bible we see that God has one child, the monogenēs, the only begotten, even Jesus Christ.

All the rest of his children are not naturally born children; they are adopted.

We cannot get into the family of God by biological birth.

The only way we can enter in is if God adopts us, and the only way we are adopted is if we are united by the Holy Spirit to the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

John 1:12–13 (NIV84)

12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

1 Peter 5:6–7 (NIV84)

6Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

7Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

1 Peter 5:7 (Interlinear Bible)

7 All the anxiety of you having cast upon Him because to Him it matters concerning you.

Philippians 4:6–7 (AMP)

6Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God.

7And God’s peace [shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Worry is a thief: it steals our time. Our thoughts turn to our troubles, and then rather than praying about them or doing the things God is calling us to do, we waste time worrying about them. Worry steals our rest. We lie awake at night, anxious about tomorrow, and then we get up too tired to work hard, and this only adds to our anxiety. Worry steals our health, as we suffer the physical effects of our anxiety. Worry steals our obedience, as it tempts us to other sins like irritability, addiction, and laziness, or on the other hand, overwork. Worry steals our hope, as we fear the worst about the future. All kinds of difficulties arise in our minds—most of which will never come to pass.

Seren Kierkegaard: Worriers feel every blow that never falls, and they cry over things they will never lose.”

What a sad waste it all is! Worry shrivels the soul, robbing our joy, leaving us ill-equipped to face the spiritual and emotional challenges of each new day. Few things are as discouraging to our spirit, or as destructive of our contentment, or as detrimental to our witness as the anxious worries of a troubled heart. So, Jesus asks, “Why are you anxious?” (Luke 12:26).

Well, why are you so anxious?

If there is nothing at all to gain by worrying, and so much to lose, why worry about your daily needs?

Consider the ravens and see every bird on the wing as a witness that God will provide.

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