There is a magazine which has a cartoon character on the cover, whose motto is, “WHAT-ME WORRY?” Maybe you remember it.  I remember reading that when I was a little boy, but somehow, growing up changed all that.  My Mom was a world-champion worrier, and though I said I’d never end up like that, guess what?  I did.  Guess it runs in the family.  In fact, it runs in a LOT of families.  Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to go back to those worry-free days of childhood again?  Well, we can’t go back to childhood, but we CAN be worry-free.  Yes, you read that right, WORRY-FREE!

When you’re a child, you really don’t worry about where your next meal is going to come from, or what you will drink, or where you will sleep, for that’s not your job: it’s your parents’ job.  Now, sometimes parents have a lot of trouble providing those things, but still, they don’t expect their children to lay awake at night wondering where all this stuff they need is going to come from.
Some of us have been through some pretty hard times in life, but tell me, when was the last time you ate a better meal by worrying?  Or which of you received the money you needed by worry?  And yet, worry is pretty much a constant in life, like breathing.  Most have come to accept worry as a normal part of life.  But worry ISN’T normal, and it’s not good for us.  Doctors tell us that worry causes stress, and stress over the long term leads to health problems.  I’m not too sure I fully agree with that, though.  Stress, in itself is not necessarily a bad thing.  Weight lifters know that unless you stress muscles, they will not grow.  And challenges in life lead to solutions for problems, but worry?  Well that’s another thing altogether.  No good thing comes from worry.

Apparently people worried back in the days when the Lord Jesus walked the earth, because He talked about it.  Here; let’s have a look in Matthew 6:
Mat 6:24  No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Mat 6:25  Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
Mat 6:26  Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
Mat 6:27  Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
Mat 6:28  And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
Mat 6:29  And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Mat 6:30  Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Mat 6:31  Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
Mat 6:32  (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
Mat 6:33  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Mat 6:34  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

The Lord Jesus started out by saying, No man can serve two masters.  Why?  Because it does two things: it causes confusion, and it causes division of loyalty.  On the one hand, we have been taught we should trust God for our needs.  On the other hand, we look at the natural realm, and maybe we see lack of the things we perceive we need, and THAT causes us to question God’s loyalty to us, to take care of us.  Now that leads to all kinds of problems.  You cannot serve God AND man’s system of doing things. Many people think you can have a foot in both kingdoms, so to speak: we can trust God, but it’s ok to worry a little.  Well, if you’re going to have both feet in the world, then yes, you’d better worry.  But if you’re going to have both feet in God’s Kingdom, then worry is no longer something you are supposed to be doing.

It’s like sin: if you’re going to love and honor God, then you have to repent from sin, turn from it and forsake it.  You can’t go along with your old lifestyle of sin and call yourself a child of God, because you’re not.  You’re simply deceiving yourself.  That’s why it is written that when we are born-again, we are a NEW creature, behold, all things become new, the old is passed away.  Part of that “old creature” is worry.  If we are indeed a child of the Most High, and we are worried, we are as much as telling God, “ LORD, I love you, but face it, my problems and needs are far greater than You are able to take care of, so I have to worry and fret about them, because YOU are simply inadequate.”

Now you wouldn’t say that to God, would you?  Oh, excuse me, but you already HAVE been saying that to God if you worry about things.  Say you never thought about it like that, huh?  Well, it’s time you did, because that is exactly what your worrying about anything is saying to God, whether you come out and say it or not, your actions betray you every time.

Don’t you think it’s time to take a step back and really examine the source of your worry?  It is a spirit of fear, and it is written in 1 Timothy 1:7, For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Did you catch that?  GOD has not given us the spirit of fear. Then who HAS?  That’s the devil at work in your life to cause fear, confusion, and misplacement of your loyalty to God.  The devil is the one constantly working on your mind to make you look at your circumstances and then he will whisper in your ear, WHERE’S YOUR GOD?  WHY ISN’T HE TAKING CARE OF THIS FOR YOU?  YOU’D BETTER WORRY! And before long, your problem has become an insurmountable issue that is driving you up the wall with worry.  Not to mention, your relationship of trusting God is slipping away by the minute, because the devil has now convinced you that if God really loved you, He wouldn’t be putting you through all this misery.

News flash!  God isn’t the author of your problems.  God is the author of your SOLUTIONS!  So take a tip from the man on the cover of MAD Magazine: “WHAT-ME WORRY?” “NAAAAHHH!  God has my back.  I will seek FIRST the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the things I need will be added to me.” As they say in Australia, “No worries, Mate!”  And it works everywhere else in the world, too.