WHEN GOD TELLS us in the Bible not to worry, it isn’t a suggestion…

It’s a command.  Worry and/or anxiety is specifically mentioned twenty-five times in the New Testament alone as something we should avoid.

The words used most often for worry and anxiety in the New Testament come from the same Greek word, meridzoe, which means “to be divided, to be pulled in opposite directions, to choke.”  (Perhaps we wear anxiety around our necks after all.)

In the parable of the sower, Jesus tells us: “The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches, and pleasures.”  These people have accepted the Word of God, Jesus says, but “they do not mature.”  Grasping for spiritual breath, worry-bound, thorny-ground Christians may survive, but they never truly thrive.

The Old English word for worry meant “to gnaw.”  Like a dog with a bone, a worrier chews on his problem all day long.

Why is the Bible so adamant about our avoiding fear and worry?  Because God knows worry short-circuits our relationship with him.  It fixes our eyes on our situation rather than on our Savior.  It works a little like thick London fog–the kind of fog that is legendary.  Why, it wouldn’t be a Sherlock Holmes without fog to obscure the villain and allow him to get away.  “Thick as pea soup,” Londoners describe it.  “Can’t see your hand in front of your face,” they say.

–Joanna Weaver

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?”  Matthew 6:25

–Mike Benson