Stop Worrying, Men

The Relevant Christian Magazine ^ | 4/30/31 | Chuck Ness

[OneVike]

In America today, it’s almost impossible for men not to worry. After all, 102 million Americans are unemployed while another 10 million are just a paycheck away from being jobless.

World events, like Russia invading the Ukraine to steal the Crimean peninsula (which many believe is a precursor to World War Three); news reports of natural disasters all across the planet; the deadly Ebola virus spreading throughout West Africa; the disappearance of the Malaysian airliner with 239 passengers on board; the constant intrusion into our private lives by an administration bent on reshaping the American dream as we once knew it; and now we have a bloody lunar eclipse that many are convinced is the beginning of the end for the world, don’t ease our worries.

Worry isn’t something that only happens when times are rough and scary, because long before 9/11, men had plenty to worry about. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich and famous or down and out, millions of men are one heart attack away from pushing up daises.

But as bad as things are today, Americans still live in the most powerfully affluent society in the world. Never before have so many of the poorest people of a country suffered from obesity. In the United States, the poor own cars, cell phones, computers, televisions, and stereos. They have money in the bank, and still the government supplies them free food and a place to live. In study after study, statistics tell the same story, whether rich or poor, Americans are fat and out of shape.

Even if a person finds it difficult to get help from the hundreds of social justice programs, there are web sites teaching the poor and homeless how to properly dumpster dive. These sites cover almost every large city to help direct a person to the dumpsters with the best

[Foundahardheadedwoman]

Luke 12:4-7 and Luke 12:22-31.

[Foundahardheadedwoman]

I resemble those remarks but the difference is I am still a work in progress. I will take your remarks to heart but I can tell you now that I will still sit with a wall at my back and a view of the door and any avenue where one might approach me. Evil is a foot in the world and we ignore it at our peril. God helps those who help themselves. I am glad for you and will try to follow your example while sitting in my corner seat.

[Alamo-Girl]

Actually I think worrying is a very unstated sin. When a Christian worries it is as if he is saying he doesn’t trust God.

[Foundahardheadedwoman]

Beautiful story.
I was nine when I found my mother sitting in the dark, crying. I asked her what was wrong, she told me she was pregnant again. I was the oldest of 4 children, nine I think, and my brother and I were a constant source of trouble for our parents, rowdy I guess you could say.
Abortion was not easy and I doubt she even knew what it was and she and my dad would never have considered it anyway. My dad worked for his father in the mining business as I later did for him. Both were tightfisted when it came to money. So things were usually a struggle financially in those days. This was before we had indoor plumbing and tv so a mountain woman worked hard to maintain her home. She was depressed because it was another mouth to feed and butt to wipe in an already long, busy and hard day. I will give one example, we had a well and a long galvanized tub, mom would get the water from the well, heat it on the stove, and we kids would take our baths first, youngest first. By the time dad got his turn the water was a little gray looking, but seeing as he was covered in coal dust with the only white parts being his eyes and teeth it made little difference. I can still see mom pouring fresh water over his head and washing his back. Then mom dumped the water and hauled in and heated her own bath, the kitchen became off limits then. Then mom would haul away the water again and clean the tub, this was every day.
I ended up with a baby sister who has a kind and gentle nature and has been a blessing for all our family. In this day the outcome could have been different.
On a lighter note, my young sister used to call milk, moocow, cause we got our milk from a local farmer and she knew about cows. We once had a friend stop by and he picked her up and she promptly said, ‘You stink good.’ It’s the small things that work their way into your heart and stay. I embarrass her to no end with those and other stories to this day.
You are a good man, OneVike.

[OneVike]

I agree.

It is lacking faith in Him.

If we fail to have faith in Him, it means we do not believe He can do what He promised to do for us.

Remember what God told the Jews in Malachi 3:10 when they were not tithing?

"Will a man rob God?
Yet you have robbed Me!
But you say,
"In what way have we robbed You?'
In tithes and offerings.

You are cursed with a curse,
For you have robbed Me,
Even this whole nation.

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,"
Says the LORD of hosts,
"If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it.
00000000000000000000000000000Malachi 3:9-10

God said they were robing from Him by not tithing. They had so little faith that God could still supply their need. In fact God told them that if they trusted Him that he would make sure they had plenty and that the enemy would not take away what they had because he would pour out His blessings on them.

"And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes,
So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground,
Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,"
Says the LORD of hosts;

And all nations will call you blessed,
For you will be a delightful land,"
Says the LORD of hosts.
000000000000000000Malachi 3:11-12

I don't think you can find a better example of God considering ones lack of faith to be sin than this. He accused them of robbing Him of what was His. To rob from God is a sin, and it is all about their lack of faith. So I agree with you.

[OneVike]

Thanks you for sharing a part of you, and for the kind words.

For many years I would not share myself with others. I have been a freeper since Feb 98, and few truly know much about me. Oh I have shared things with a couple I have grown close to, but to most I am still a stranger to. It has been by design. My whole life I have kept my distance from others. I guess it’s a trust issue that has been born out of the things I have not yet shared with anyone but my wife and maybe one or two others.

God has been working on my hard heart for a long time. Even after I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior, I kept compartments of my heart out of His control. Along with my emotions I refused to open up about the little things of my past that I have been ashamed of.

Sometimes it’s the things we had no control over in our past that we feel the most ashamed of. I still have moments from my past that I hold in reserve. Instances where my trips with the devil caused the ones I love the most to suffer. I’m still a work in progress, but I am assured that the good work He began in me, He will continue until the day I am complete and in His presence.

Thanks again for sharing.

OV,

Chuck Ness

[metmom]

I resemble those remarks but the difference is I am still a work in progress.

Hey. I'm not dead yet.

The enemy and the flesh still try.

I will take your remarks to heart but I can tell you now that I will still sit with a wall at my back and a view of the door and any avenue where one might approach me. Evil is a foot in the world and we ignore it at our peril..... I am glad for you and will try to follow your example while sitting in my corner seat.

Just leave enough room for me.

While I have also been delivered from being controlled by fear, there's a difference between that and being stupid and careless.

I also am alert to my surroundings and (to some people's chagrin) do not trust others.

[MrB]

Worry is a lie.

Worry is telling you that you have some control over something that you do not know is going to happen or not.

Worry also lies to you by telling you that you need to worry in order to prevent the bad thing from happening.

If you’re a cronic worrier, “fake it till you make it”.
Don’t do the worry habits - pacing, chewing, mentally stewing, etc. Occupy yourself with something else, even if you know you’re “faking it”.

[jagusafr]

LOL - “I’ll kill ya!”

My comment was more focused on the awkward and ungrammatic sentence than on the substance of the argument, with which I completely agree. Sometimes I’m just picky. Pisses my kids off, too.

[OneVike]

LOL, thanks for accepting it as the joke it was intended for.

God bless you, and those poor children...LOL

[OneVike]

Yes, you are right. It is a lie, and as Alamo-Girl stated, it is also a sin. That's because when you worry, you are not trusting God to do what He promised He would do. Thus you are saying, in a roundabout way, that he is a lier.

I could only post an excerpt of my article because it is not my site and I am under contract to only share excerpts with a link.

Anyway, I added the following information to the article that is quite telling how I believe God punishes those of us who worry instead of trusting Him;

If testaments of faith do not convince you to stop worrying, then how about some medical advice? It is calculated that over 50 million Americans suffer health problems directly or indirectly related to worrying:

• Loss of sleep is the first direct noticeable effect of worrying. In time stress will break down a body’s ability to resist disease and fight illnesses.
• A recent study showed that stress caused by worrying was the number two cause of memory loss.
• A recent study of students at 21 universities found that worriers get lower grades then non-worriers.
• A British eye clinic reported that 30% of all vision problems were directly related to stress or worrying.
• An American Dental Association study showed that worrying restricts the proper flow of saliva in the mouth, thus keeping the body from neutralizing the acids that eat away the enamel on your teeth. So, worrying can cause tooth decay.
• The American Medical Association says stress is the number one cause of heart attacks. Worrying causes a person’s heart to work harder. This puts extra stress on a person’s cardiovascular system. This extra stress can lead to strokes and heart attacks.

So the way I see it, if you want to be a tired, unhealthy, blind, forgetful person with bad teeth, and one stressful day away from a severe heart attack, just keep on worrying. Or you can be like the birds of the air, they neither sow, nor reap, nor gather to barns.

[Alamo-Girl]

What a beautiful Scripture, dear brother in Christ, thank you! And thank you for your insights!

[Alamo-Girl]

Excellent addition!