Heart Flaws: Pessimism and Worry

I have been unable to blog on a consistent basis here of late but hopefully things will slow down for me in just a little over a month from now. Summer time is always the busiest time of the year for me. Maybe some time soon I will be able to share some of what else is making life so hectic for me right now.

Things are going okay here. Cody and the boys left yesterday for their annual trip to Wisconsin. They should be be back around the middle part of next week. It is always nice up there this time of year and I would love to have gone but there is just too much going on here that will not allow me to get away.

This past Sunday, I began a series of lessons on heart flaws; ones that are especially difficult for us as Christians. And Sunday's lesson was specifically on worrying too much and negativity/pessismism. The funny thing is of the 150 or so in our assembly Sunday morning, it was probably me that needed to hear the lesson more than anyone. I hope I was listening.

Of course, not all worrying is bad. I think it is commonly agreed that a little stress keeps us going and can be a good thing, so long as we don't allow our worrying and anxiety to deprive us of the joy that we should have as Christians. But think about some of the things we worry about. We worry about things that have already happened. We can't live in the past though (Luke 9:62). Or we tend to worry about things that will inevitablly happen. Or worry about something that will never happen. Again, yes, some of these are examples of our natural human reaction to life, and to a degree that is just the way we are, but the point is that God does not want us to allow these things to rob us of the overall happiness we should have as kingdom citizens.

Jesus' words in Matthew 6:19-34 provide a great text about this very subject. Notice what we can learn about being overly anxious from this text:

• It is unneccesary (v.32)
• It is a lack of trust (v.26, 31)
• It is prohibited (vv.25, 31, 34)
• It is pointless (v.27)
• It is what those that do not belong to God do (v.32)

So what can we do to overcome this tendency among us?

• Follow Joshua's lead in Joshua 24:15. Determine in our minds that we are going to conquer our penchants for being negative and pessimistic. Make the commitment that we are going to follow God regardless so there is little room for overly worrying about things. Afterall, God is in control.
• Follow David's example, and when we fall, get back up. Paul charges us to be steadfast in our labors, knowing they are not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).
• Accentuate the positive (Philippians 4:8).
• Trust in God and stop trying to rely on ourselves (Isaiah 26:3-4; Philippians 4:13; Romans 8:28-31).
• Get busy for the kingdom and do something good for someone else (Matthew 6:33).
• Pray (1 Thessalonians 5:17; 1 Peter 5:7; James 5:16).

I hope to write more soon. Peace!