Sermon Tone Analysis

Biblical Answers Fear and Worry Doubt

Anxiety may stem from unconscious feelings, but worry is a conscious act of choosing an ineffective method of coping with life.

According to Oswald Chambers, the great evangelist and author, all our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God.

Here’s the big question: Does worry have any place in the life of the Christian?30

Is it a sin to worry or to feel anxiety?

As we’ve discussed, people who experience extreme states of anxiety may not be able to control them.

They may feel that they are at the mercy of their feelings, because they can’t pin down exactly why they’re so anxious.

Such individuals may have deep, hidden feelings or hurts that have lingered for years in the subconscious.

In such cases, perhaps they need to face their problems, discover the roots of their feelings, and replace them with the healing power and resources offered through Jesus Christ and Scripture.

But freedom from worry is possible.

The answer lies in tapping the resources of Scripture.

Read each passage cited below before reading the paragraphs that follow it.

WORRY DOESN’T WORK, SO DON’T DO IT

From this passage we can discover several principles to help us overcome anxiety and worry.

First, note that Jesus did not say “Stop worrying when everything is going all right for you.”

His command is not a suggestion.

He simply and directly said to stop worrying about your life.

In a way, Jesus was saying we should learn to accept situations that can’t be altered at the present time.

That doesn’t mean we’re to sit back and make no attempt to improve conditions around us.

But we must face tough situations without worry and must learn to live with them while we work toward improvement.

Second, Jesus said you can’t add any length of time to your life by worrying.

Not only is this true, but the reverse is also true: The physical effects of worry can actually shorten your life span.

Third, the object of your worry may be a part of the difficulty.

It could be that your sense of values is distorted and that what you worry about should not be the center of your attention.

The material items that seem so important to you should be secondary to spiritual values.

Fourth, Christ also tells you to live a day at a time.

You may be able to change some of the results of past behavior, but you cannot change some of the results of past behavior and you can’t predict or completely prepare for the future, so don’t inhibit its potential by worrying about it.

Focus your energies on the opportunities of today!

Most of the future events that people worry about don’t happen anyway.

Furthermore, the worrisome anticipation of certain inevitable events is usually more distressing than the actual experience itself.

Anticipation is the magnifying glass of our emotions.

And even if an event is as serious as we may anticipate, we as Christians can look forward to God’s supply of strength and stability at all times.

FOCUS ON THE SOLUTION, NOT THE PROBLEM

FOCUS ON THE SOLUTION, NOT THE PROBLEM In this passage, we find the disciples in a boat as Jesus walked toward them on the water.

When Peter began to walk toward Jesus on the water, he was fine until his attention was drawn away from Jesus to the storm.

Then he became afraid and started to sink.

If Peter had kept his attention upon Christ (the source of his strength and the solution to his problem), he would have been all right.

But when he focused upon the wind and the waves (the problem and the negative aspect of his circumstances), he became overwhelmed by the problem, even though he could have made it safely to Jesus.

Fear and worry are like that.

We focus so hard on the problem that we take our eyes off the solution and thus create more difficulties of ourselves.

We can be sustained in the midst of any difficulty by focusing our attention on the Lord and relying upon him: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.

They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.

Who can understand it?

I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”

— MAKE A CHOICE NOT TO WORRY “Make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves.

For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.”

At the beginning of the verses from Luke is a phrase that is a command, but one that also implies that we have the capability of doing it.

“Make up your mind” means we have a choice as to whether we choose to worry or choose not to worry.

“Make up your mind” is translated from a Greek word that means “to premeditate.”

You’ve probably heard this word used in criminal trials.

If someone is accused of a premeditated crime, it means the accused thought through the crime beforehand.

Choosing not to worry will take more effort and energy for some people than others, but change is possible.

You and I live in an unstable world.

Sometimes the stock market seems to drop several hundred points for no reason.

This creates not only worry but also fear, anxiety, and panic in some people.

But when we trust in the Lord (and not the stock market), we receive the blessing of stability in a fragmented world.

We have the ability to be free from worry in a world where there is much to be anxious and fearful about.

GIVE GOD YOUR WORRY IN ADVANCE Peter must have learned from his experience of walking on the water, because he later wrote: “Cast all your anxiety on [God] because he cares for you.”

Cast means “to give up” or “to unload.”

The tense of the verb here refers to a direct once-and-for-all committal to God of all anxiety or worry.

We are to unload on God our tendency to worry, so that when problems arise, we will not worry about them.

We can cast our worry on God with confidence, because he cares for us.

He is not out to break us down but to strengthen us and to help us stand firm.

He knows our limits, and “a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench” (, RSV).

Isaiah rejoiced to the Lord, “You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You” (AMP).

Whatever you choose to think about will either produce or dismiss feelings of anxiety and worry.

Those people who suffer from fear and worry are choosing to center their minds on negative thoughts in this way.

God has made the provision, but you must take the action.

Freedom from fear and worry and anxiety is available, but you must lay hold of it.

Center your thoughts on God, not on worry.

REPLACE FRETTING WITH TRUST begins “Do not fret,” and those words are repeated later in the psalm.

The dictionary defines fret as “to eat away, gnaw, gall, vex, worry, agitate, wear away.”

Whenever I hear the word gnaw, I’m reminded of a scene I see each year when I hike along the Snake River in the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming where colonies of beavers live along the riverbanks.

Often I see trees at various stages of being gnawed to the ground by them.

Other trees have several inches of bark eaten away, and some have already fallen on the ground, because the beavers have gnawed through the trunks.

Worry has the same effect on us: It will gradually eat away at us until it destroys us.

In addition to telling us not to fret, gives us positive substitutes for fear and worry.

First, it says, “Trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) in the Lord” (verse 3 AMP).

Trust is a matter of not attempting to live an independent life or to cope with difficulties alone.

It means going to a greater source for strength.

Second, verse 4 says, “Delight yourself also in the Lord” (AMP).

To delight means to rejoice in God and what he has done for us, to let God supply the joy for our life.

Third, verse 5 says, “Commit your way to the Lord” (AMP).

Commitment is a definite act of the will, and it involves releasing our fears and worries and anxieties to the Lord.

And fourth, we are to “rest in the Lord; wait for Him” (verse 7, AMP).

This means to submit in silence to what he ordains, and to be ready and expectant for what he is going to do in our life.

STOP WORRYING AND START PRAYING The passage in Philippians can be divided into three basic stages.

We are given a premise: Stop worrying.

We are given a practice: Start praying.

And we are given a promise: Peace.

The promise is there and available, but we must follow the first two steps in order for the third to occur.

We must stop worrying and start praying if we are to begin receiving God’s peace.

The results of prayer as a substitute for fear and worry can be vividly seen in a crisis in David’s life that prompted him to write (see also ).

David had escaped death at the hands of the Philistines by pretending to be insane.

He then fled to the cave of Adullam, along with 400 men who were described as distressed and discontented and in debt.

In the midst of all this, David wrote a psalm of praise that begins: “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth” (, RSV).

David did not say he would praise the Lord sometimes but at all times, even when his enemies were after him.