How to Stop WorryingSample

Why We Worry 

If worrying was a professional sport, many of us would be the Most Valuable Player on our team. Can you identify with this? It’s so hard not to worry when troubles loom all around us.

The word worry has a few definitions in the dictionary. The one we’ll refer to in this Plan is to torment oneself with cares and anxieties. Every time we worry, we’re tormenting ourselves. No one else is making us do it or doing it to us—we’re doing it to ourselves. 

When we worry, we’re allowing our minds to dwell on difficult circumstances, overwhelming fears, and other stresses that are weighing us down. We’re consumed over actual things we’re facing or potential situations that may never occur. Worry causes extreme distress to all areas of our bodies. It prevents us from sleeping, impacts our relationships, affects our appetites, and causes us to perform poorly at work. 

We tend to worry about what matters the most to us. It is also the place where we tend to trust God the least. When we have an extra amount of pressure put on us, we’re under stress. We worry about things we’re stressed about. Something we’re facing at work or home, with a friend or family member, or a fear that has overtaken us that we can’t seem to overcome affects us. And when we are stressed, we look for ways to cope. Some choose denial and others choose substances. Many choose worrying as their coping mechanism. 

Imagine that worry is a fire. The more we allow worry to occupy our thoughts, the more fuel we are putting on the “worry” fire. The more we do this, the bigger the worry fire we’ll have to put out later. Most of our worry is directed toward things that might happen. The truth is that if you’re worrying about it, it’s dictating your life. It does nothing but make the problem bigger. 

What if we didn’t worry at all? How much extra time in the day would we have to devote to things that are positive and actually make a difference? The return on our investment would be unbelievable! We have a certain amount of mental and emotional energy each day, and we mustn't give worry any of it. 

Over the next few days of this Plan, we’ll learn about what Jesus said about worry, how we can stop this toxic cycle, and how to never let it have it’s way in our lives again. 

Reflect

• Would you consider yourself to be a person who worries? On an average day, how often do you dwell on things that you have no control over?
• Ask God to reveal His truth to you over the next few days in regard to worry.