Resting from Worry Luke 12:22-34

 

Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 10

1. What do you understand by the providence of God?
2. The almighty and ever present power of God¹ by which God upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures,² and so rules them that

leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink,
health and sickness, prosperity and poverty—³ all things, in fact, come to us not by chance⁴ but by his fatherly hand.⁵

¹ Jer. 23:23-24; Acts 17:24-28 ² Heb. 1:3 ³ Jer. 5:24; Acts 14:15-17/a>; John 9:3; Prov. 22:2 ⁴ Prov. 16:33 ⁵ Matt. 10:29

 

1. How does the knowledge of God’s creation and providence help us?
2. We can be patient when things go against us,¹ thankful when things go well,² and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing in creation will separate us from his love.³ For all creatures are so completely in God’s hand that without his will they can neither move nor be moved.⁴

¹ Job 1:21-22; James 1:3 ² Deut. 8:10; 1 Thess. 5:18 ³ Ps. 55:22; Rom. 5:3-5; 8:38-39 ⁴ Job 1:12; 2:6; Prov. 21:1; Acts 17:24-28

FENDING OFF THE BARBARIANS IN YOUR MIND (Your homework assignment)
Proverbs 25:28 offers a good description of what happens with anxiety. “Like a city that is broken into and without walls is a man who has no control over his spirit.” How do you get a grip when barbarians are rioting in the streets of your mind? Fear and anxiety have taken over. Nothing is safe or certain. Anxiety is a universal human experience, and you need to approach it with a plan. A plan is not a formula. A football coach doesn’t know a single thing that’s going to happen after the opening whistle. He doesn’t even know who’s going to kick off until they flip a coin. But he’s not unprepared. He goes in with a game plan, a basic orientation to the game ahead. Here are six things to use as a game plan when you start to worry and obsess.

Name the pressures. You always worry about something. What things tend to hook you? What “good reasons” do you have for anxiety? The very act of naming it is often helpful. In the midst of the experience of anxiety, it seems as if a million things are overwhelming you. You’re juggling plates, round and round and round. But really, you’re juggling only six plates—or maybe obsessing on just one. It helps to name the one thing or the six that keep recycling. Anxieties feel endless and infinite—but they’re finite and specific.

Identify how you express anxiety. How does anxiety show up in your life? For some people it’s the feeling of panic clutching their throat, or just a vague uneasiness. For others it’s repetitive, obsessive thoughts: “Oh, now that’s the fourth time I’ve repeated that scenario in my mind.” For some people the sign is anger. They get irritated, but when they work back, they realize, “I was fearful and worried about something.” For other people, worry shows up in their bodies (e.g., a tension headache) or in the cheap remedies that sin manufactures to make us feel better (e.g., gobbling ice cream, or an overpowering desire for a stiff drink). Identify the signs. How can they become cues to you? “I’m losing it, I’m forgetting God, my flashlight is going dim.”

Ask yourself, Why am I anxious? Worry always has its inner logic. Anxious people are “you of little faith.” If I’ve forgotten God, who or what has started to rule in his place? Identify the hijacker. Anxious people have fallen into one of the subsets of “every form of greed.” What do I want, need, crave, expect, demand, and lust after? Or what do I fear either losing or never getting? Identify the specific lust of the flesh. Anxious people “eagerly seek” the gifts more than the Giver. They bank treasure in the wrong place. What is preoccupying me, so that I pursue it with all my heart? Identify the object of your affections.

Which promise of Jesus speaks to you most? Take to heart those seven promises. They are all good reasons. But it’s tough to remember seven things at once, so pick one. For some time, the most helpful to me was, “If God feeds the crows, won’t he provide for you?” It made me laugh even to think about it. Those Crow Boys intercepted a lot of temptations to anxiety. They did me good. Grab one promise and work with it.

Go to your Father. Talk to him. Your Father cares about the things you worry about. Your Father knows what you need. Cast your cares on him, because he cares for you. You’ll have to leave your worries with him—they are always outside of your control! How will your kids turn out? Will you get Alzheimer’s? What will happen with the economy? Will your dad come to know the Lord? You have good reasons to be concerned about such things, but you have better reasons to take them to Someone who loves you. Like that toddler whose mom trailed her, even the deep end of life is safe.

Give. Do and say something constructive. Care for someone else. Give to meet human need. In the darkest hole, when life is toughest, there’s always some way to give yourself away. The problem might seem overwhelming. You could worry, worry, worry. But what you’re called to do is just a small thing. There’s always something to give yourself to, and some way to give. Jesus said more about this in Matthew 6, a parallel passage: “Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day thereof.” Give yourself to today’s trouble. Leave tomorrow’s uncertainties to your Father. It is your Father’s pleasure to give you the kingdom. Your father is God. Don’t worry.
– adopted from Seeing with New Eyes by David Powlison