By Bob Stacy

I’ve never heard a bird wonder about tomorrow’s food. I have yet to see a flower pace back and forth wondering if there’d be enough money to buy clothes for the upcoming social event. 

And yet we toss and turn. We lie awake. We give worry permission to keep us from our daily tasks. And if it does not keep us from those tasks, it results in our work being done shoddily and carelessly. Worry affects the way we treat others. We snap at our fellow workers and our loved ones. Worry upsets our stomachs and elevates our blood pressure. Without worry, hospitals would have room to spare, for it is said that worry is the cause of many physical maladies.

A Universal Problem

A man may worry about losing his job. A woman may worry about her family. A child may worry about his grades. In the end, whether the man, the woman, or the child has worried makes no difference at all. Jesus put it like this: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34).

I cannot imagine how King David must have worried that someone would uncover his sin with Bathsheba. In fact, Psalm 32:3, 4 reveals the agony he suffered: “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.” Days and nights of worry could have been avoided had David confessed his sin from the beginning.

The Cure

Our worry may be somewhat less than David’s at times, but the cure is the same. As the song reminds us, “Take it to the Lord in Prayer.” Notice Paul’s admonition to the Philippian church: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6, 7). Let peace guard your mind and worry will not be able to enter.

Bob Stacy has served as preaching minister in a number of churches, as founder of Christ In Youth, and as a professor of Bible and ministry in three colleges. He and his wife Nell are presently serving the Spring Hill Church of Christ in Middletown, Ohio.