Five Reasons Worry Is Worthless

By Rick Warren

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:26 NIV).

The best thing to do when you start to worry is pray. Prayer has power! It has the power to change your perspective. It has the power to change your heart. It has the power to change your life! Worry, on the other hand, has no redeeming power. In fact, it’s worthless. Here’s why:

1. Worry is unreasonable. It is irrational. Plus, we typically worry about the wrong things: how we look, what we say, the people we’re talking to, what we are or aren’t accomplishing—stuff that isn’t going to matter in five years. To worry about something you can’t change is illogical. If you can’t change it, why worry about it?

Every moment you worry is a wasted second of your life: “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 6:27 NIV).

2. Worry is unnatural. You weren’t made to worry. Nature does not worry. Human beings are the only creatures that worry. Matthew 6:26says, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (NIV).

Have you ever seen a bird walking around the backyard worried that it might not find a worm to eat? If birds don’t have to worry about how God takes care of them, then neither should you.

3. Worry is unhelpful. It doesn’t change anything. Worry cannot make you bigger or smaller, thinner or fatter. Worrying about any problem will never move you one step toward a solution. It just makes you tired and stressed. “Worry weighs us down” (Proverbs 12:25 The Message).

4. Worry is unnecessary. Worry is assuming responsibility that God never intended for you to have. Every time you worry, it comes from the fact that you misunderstand the goodness of God. Worry is a caution light warning that you’ve forgotten how good God is.

When Jesus died on the cross for you, he solved your biggest problem. None of your problems are bigger than eternal salvation. If God can be trusted for your salvation, he can be trusted to take care of everything else.

5. Worry is unbelief. God has promised to take care of all your needs. When you doubt that, you actually become an unbeliever in that moment. You’re acting like there is no God and there are no promises in Scripture. Worry is practical atheism.

Philippians 4:19 says, “You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need” (The Message). What’s not included in everything? Nothing. God knows about your physical needs, your social needs, your career needs, your family needs, even your sexual needs. There is nothing you could ask God for that he does not already know that you need.

Do you believe it?

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This devotional © 2018 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

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