The Poison of Worry

²⁵ “So I tell you, don’t worry about the food or drink you need to live, or about the clothes you need for your body. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothes. ²⁶ Look at the birds in the air. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, but your heavenly Father feeds them. And you know that you are worth much more than the birds. ²⁷ You cannot add any time to your life by worrying about it.
²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? Consider how the lilies in the field grow. They don’t work or make clothes for themselves. ²⁹ But I tell you that even Solomon with his riches was not dressed as beautifully as one of these flowers. ³⁰ God clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today but tomorrow is thrown into the fire. So you can be even more sure that God will clothe you. Don’t have so little faith! 

Matthew 6:25-30

WOW!  We worry A LOT about things that steal our joy for life from us.  Did you get that?  WORRY is a THIEF!!!  WORRY robs us of our joy!!!  WORRY is keeps us from enjoying life!! We worry about every point of our lives and guess what, we aren't the ones in control of every aspect of our lives.  We interact with others and in so doing we include another integer into the equation!

How do I know?  Because I worry too!  Have you ever noticed that Worry and Sorry are only 1 letter different?

Think of all the things we waste time worrying over:  Where will I eat lunch?  What should I wear to this even?  What if I say something stupid? (Who hasn't said something they thought was stupid?) 

We spend so much time worrying about what would happen if...  

*  What if the ground opens up and swallows me whole? If it does swallow you whole, how is worrying about it going to help you?

*  What if my tire goes flat?  How is worry going to stop your tire from going flat?

*   What if I buy tickets for this concert and I get stuck behind some obnoxious person?  Unless it is currently happening, how is worrying about it going to prevent it?

Two things we need to use to deal with Worry and remove its venom from our lives:

First....LOOK
²⁶ Look at the birds in the air. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, but your heavenly Father feeds them. And you know that you are worth much more than the birds. ²⁷ You cannot add any time to your life by worrying about it.

I have never seen a sleep deprived bird, nor have I ever seen a bird concerned about their schedule, where they will have lunch, or any of the other myriad of inconsequentials we fill our minds with every day!

Second.....CONSIDER

Consider how the lilies in the field grow. They don’t work or make clothes for themselves. 

The word "Consider" here means: "to think carefully about, especially in order to make a decision; contemplate; reflect on"

Have you ever seen a flower filled with the venom of worry?  You never see flowers thumbing through catalogs or perusing the internet searching for what to wear.  

You see, when we let the poison of worry into our lives, we lose the truth that is all around us.  Next time you are tempted to worry (and I'm talking to myself as well), take a moment to look at the birds and consider the flowers.  Look and Consider!