The Bible on worry
“Do not worry about anything, but pray and ask God for everything you need, always giving thanks.” Philippians 4:6 (NCV).
Is it really possible not to worry about anything? The Bible was written a long time ago, when life was simpler, so do verses like this still apply in today’s world with all its stress and demands?
The Bible tells us not to worry, but is this really reasonable in this time? How is it possible to be completely free from worry and stress when there are so many things that are uncertain? What if you lose your job and can’t pay your rent? What if your life is not going the way you wanted it to? What if you fail your exams? What if you never get your dream job or never even get to travel? How can you know for sure that you will be successful? What if? How will you know? What would happen if…?
You can find reasons to be worried anywhere and everywhere. You can think you have to be stressed and worried about these things. Isn’t it normal to worry about the future? But the Bible doesn’t tell us that we should only worry about the really important, big questions in our life. It tells us not to worry about anything!
Worry and God
Then the only question becomes: do you believe in the Bible?
“For the Gentiles seek after all these things. For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be given to you.” Matthew 6:32-33 (MEV).
God is faithful. That doesn’t mean you’ll get what you want, but you will get what He has promised! So what has God promised us? He has promised that “all these things shall be given to you.” Does that mean that we can do nothing and just receive everything? Not at all! There is a condition we must meet first, and that condition is to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness!
How do we seek first the kingdom of God? We simply do God’s will! God wants us to obey what’s written in the Bible. He wants us to find the sin in our own nature in every situation and to get victory over that sin! He wants us to become free from worry. He wants us to be faithful!
The opposite of worry
The opposite of worry is faith. If you have faith in God you can go through life on earth and make all your decisions with confidence because God will show you the choice to make in every single detail. Faith is total, blind obedience. Faith is that you do what God tells you before knowing what the result will be. Faith isn’t that you understand everything – faith is doing it anyway because you trust in God’s perfect care and leading!
Read God’s Word, pray to Him, and do His will even if you don’t understand everything yet. This is how you can seek God’s kingdom first! Do this and God will take care of you.
Also read: Leave all your worries with God: A practical solution that works
That still doesn’t mean that you will get everything you want. God never promised that we would always have a big house and a nice job, that we would always have a good salary and perfect health. Of course, there will be trials to test us!
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28.
It doesn’t say that all things work together for the easiest, most comfortable life! It says that all things work together for our good. God knows exactly what we need to make us happy both in this life and the next. Even if you can’t immediately see why God works the way He does, you can go in faith and be obedient anyway!
We must leave all our worries behind and simply go in faith. Seek His kingdom first! As long as we are faithful to do everything God speaks in our hearts, He will be faithful to take care of us, both now and in eternity. Then there really isn’t anything to be worried about! Then we can come to the point that we “don’t worry about anything”!