“Hard Questions” in American Sign Language

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:9

“God … invited you into this wonderful friendship with his Son, even Christ our Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:9 TLB)

God’s not playing games with you. He wants you to understand his will, his purpose, and his plan for your life.

You may say, “I want God to guide me, but I still get confused. I don’t know what to do.” Often the problem is we’re looking for the wrong thing. You need to know what you’re looking for before you can find it.

So, what is God’s will?

1. God’s will is not a feeling.

Some of you are looking for a feeling or a supernatural sign. You want God to pull your heartstring so you’ll know exactly what to do.

The problem is that feelings are unreliable; they will often guide you the wrong way. Feelings can come from fatigue, hormones, or an event you’ve just experienced. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful” (NIV). Even your heart plays tricks on you. Even the devil can create a feeling. If I had listened to my feelings, I would never have married my wife, Kay. The day before the wedding, my feelings said, “Run!” But that wasn’t God’s will. It was fear!

Don’t wait for a feeling when you’re trying to figure out God’s plan for your life.

2. God’s will is not a formula.

In our culture, we want everything to be easy. We want things to follow a simple formula so it will instantly change our lives. We want a step-by-step guide.

But there’s a problem with this approach: There’s no room for mistakes. If God’s will is a recipe, what happens if you leave out one ingredient? If you leave baking soda out of a recipe, you’ve got the difference between a birthday cake and a pancake. What if you have “52 Steps to Knowing God’s Will,” and you leave out number 37?

God’s will is not a closed system. It is dynamic! It is not always an issue of choosing A or B. In fact, many times you can choose from A to Z, and any of them will be OK. It’s your choice. Why would God give you a brain and not expect you to use it? He lets you make choices, and he gives you second chances.

If God’s will is not a feeling or a formula, then what is it?

3. It is a relationship.

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 1:9, “God … invited you into this wonderful friendship with his Son, even Christ our Lord” (TLB).

There is very little in the Bible about the technique of knowing God’s will. But there are thousands and thousands of verses that talk about developing a loving relationship with Jesus Christ. Why? Because God’s will is a relationship.

The better you get to know him, the less confusion you’re going to have about what his will is. Get to know God, and everything else becomes secondary.

Talk It Over

What does God want you to do if you get a feeling that you believe is telling you something about God’s will?

Why do you think God allows us to make choices and even mistakes when we are searching for his will?

How can you get to know God better?

Scripture: Psalms 37:23-24

“The steps of a man are established by the Lord …. When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.” (Psalm 37:23a-24 NASB)

You may be at what you think is a dead end in your life. “We’re never going to get out of debt! I’m never going to have a baby. My dream is never going to come true. How is it ever going to work out?” 

Right now it may look dark and you may feel defeated and it may seem like a mystery to you. But one day you’re going to see in the light of eternity how it all fits together in God’s plan. Until then, there are three errors you need to avoid as you seek God’s will that will help you trust in him, even when you don’t understand. 

1. Don’t be fatalistic. The idea of fatalism — that everything that happens is God’s will — leads to self-pity. It causes us to blame God for everything bad in our lives rather than accepting responsibility that we caused the problem. And, fatalism leads to passivity. It makes us think, “I’m waiting on God to bring me a wife” or “I’m waiting on God to get me a job.” God’s saying, “I gave you a brain! I gave you two feet! Get out and do something about it!” 

2. Don’t be frustrated. If you try to figure out everything in your life, you’re going to be very frustrated. Sometimes you’re going to do what you think is God’s will, and it’s going to fail. “I thought God was leading me to start this business, but it failed.” 

What do you do when there are no answers? You keep trusting God, knowing that he’s working on your character through all of your circumstances and that he has good plans for you. 

3. Don’t be fearful. What is behind the fear of God’s will? The root problem is that you doubt God’s love. The Bible says, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:18a). We always get into trouble when we doubt God’s love, because when we don’t trust him, we don’t obey him. 

Psalm 37:23-24 says, “The steps of a man are established by the Lord …. When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand”(NASB). 

God’s will is an expression of his love. When you don’t understand what God is doing, have patience. God knows what’s best for you. You can’t see the end result, but he can. God’s path may be a path of pain, but all those delays and difficulties and problems are building character in your life. 

Talk It Over

How would you respond to the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” 

What have you been waiting on God to do in or bring into your life? What do you think he wants you to do about it? 

What do you think this statement means: “God’s will is an expression of his love”?

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 5:4

“When you make a promise to God, don’t delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools.” (Ecclesiastes 5:4 NLT)

You already know a lot of things God wants you to do with your life. So why haven’t you done them? God is not obligated to give you step 2 until you’ve already done step 1. Some of you keep saying, “I want to know God’s will for my career/marriage,” and God says, “Let’s get to the basics. Are you reading your Bible? Are you in a small group? Are you tithing? Are you talking with me?” You need to start doing what you already know to be the revealed will of God for your life. 

So, what do you already know to do but you haven’t done yet? What’s your next step? 

Maybe you’ve been attending a church for more than a year and need to take the next step in membership. Maybe you’ve been praying about baptism but still need to put it on the calendar. Maybe you’ve been looking for a group of people to do life with, and you need to start a small group in your home. Maybe God has shown you what your shape is, and you know you should find a way to use it to serve others. 

Are you going to make it to the end of another week, another year without doing what God has already told you to do? 

What are you waiting for? 

Ecclesiastes 5:4 says, “When you make a promise to God, don’t delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools” (NLT). Don’t delay. Do what you already know to do. 

Pray this prayer today: “Lord, I need your guidance in my life. I ask in faith that you direct me. Help me to listen for your response, to not get so busy that I can’t hear you. Father, when I don’t understand it, help me to trust you and understand that you have a path that is for my good. God, what’s my next step? Help me to do what I already know I should do. Help me to not get frustrated. Help me to not be fearful, but to trust in you. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”

Scripture: James 1:5

“If you want to know what God wants you to do, ask him, and he will gladly tell you, for he is always ready to give a bountiful supply of wisdom to all who ask him.”(James 1:5a NIV)

If you want to know God’s will, you need to do a couple of things: 

1. Admit that you need guidance.

We don’t really like to admit when we’re confused. Men especially don’t like to do this! It’s not in my nature to say, “Hey! I’m lost!” and stop and ask for directions. That’s why, when it comes to knowing God’s will, it takes some real courage to admit that we’re confused and need direction. 

Psalm 25:9 says, “He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way” (NIV). If you’re arrogant and think you’ve got it all figured out, God’s going to say, “Be my guest. Go for it!” I’ve had people tell me, “I’ve been a Christian for 20 years, and I’ve never felt God guiding me.” My response? Maybe it’s because you’ve never admitted that you need it. You go to work assuming that you know what to do without praying about it. You make financial decisions all the time without praying about them. You make vacation plans without praying about them. You make career decisions without praying about them. If you’re single, you ask people out on a date without praying about it. You think you know, but you might want to stop and admit that you need guidance, because it’s the first step in getting God’s will for your life. 

2. Ask God in faith for directions.

The Bible says in James 1:5-6, “If you want to know what God wants you to do, ask him, and he will gladly tell you, for he is always ready to give a bountiful supply of wisdom to all who ask him; he will not resent it. But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to tell you, for a doubtful mind will be as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind” (TLB). 

Notice there are two keys to knowing God’s wisdom. First, you’ve got to ask the right person: God. You don’t ask your manicurist, your bartender, or some other “reliable” authority like a radio talk show host. You have to ask the right person! Then you ask with the right attitude: expecting God to answer. Have you ever asked God to lead you, but you didn’t really expect him to? Sure you have. That’s why you never got anything from it. You must ask expecting an answer. God honors faith, and he promises wisdom for the next step of your life. 

Talk It Over

What are the big decisions you’ve made about your life recently? How did you know it was God’s will? How did prayer affect your decision? 

Who do you go to when you need help discerning God’s will? How does that person point you back to God’s Word and prayer? 

Why do you think God wants you to pray expectantly?

Scripture: Job 33:14

“God does speak — sometimes one way and sometimes another — even though people may not understand it.” (Job 33:14 NCV)

A lot of us think we’re too busy to listen for God’s response. But we have to take the time to tune in and listen, because God is speaking. Job 33:14 says, “God does speak — sometimes one way and sometimes another — even though people may not understand it” (NCV).

The question is, “How do I understand it? How do I tune in so that I can hear God’s voice?”

Here are four of the channels that God uses:

1. God speaks to us through the Bible.

It’s your guidebook for life. It shows you the right step to take. That is why you need to read God’s Word every day. If you’re not having a daily quiet time and reading the Bible, God is getting a busy signal when he wants to speak to you. You have to keep a constant connection, because God’s will is found in God’s Word.

2. God speaks to us through teachers.

Have you ever been in a church service and felt like what the teacher was saying was a direct message from God to you? There’s no way I or any other teacher could figure out exactly what to say to meet every need. But God knows. So before every service I pray, “God, you know the people and the needs out there. Give me the right things to say.” Somehow, in the way only he can, God uses my teaching and the teaching of other pastors to meet the needs of people who are listening.

3. God speaks to us through impressions.

There are two extremes to this. One extreme is the rationalist who believes no impression can be from God; it all has to be logical. At the other extreme is the mystical belief that every impression is from God. You need to get in the middle and realize that every impression has to match God’s Word.

4. God speaks to us through our circumstances.

If we’re going to live a life of significance, God’s got to make constant course corrections, and one of the things he uses to do that is the circumstances that come into our lives. When you start to listen to God through circumstances, impressions, teachers, or the Bible, sometimes he’s going to lead you in ways that you don’t understand. Hang in there! Following God is not always easy, but it will reap more blessing in your life than you can imagine.

Talk It Over

When was a time that God used one of these channels to speak to you about his will for your life?

How do you think God wants you to test an impression to see if it is from God?

How do you need to change your perspective on your circumstances so that God can use them to speak to you?

Scripture: John 8:32

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32 NIV)

Have you ever wondered why you do what you don’t want to do? Ever wondered why it’s so hard to do the things that you know are the right things to do? 

Our sinful nature causes us to often make the wrong choice. You can probably relate to the apostle Paul when he says, “I don’t understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate …. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t” (Romans 7:15, 17-18 NLT, second edition). 

Even after you become a believer, there’s this tension inside of you. You have your good nature that God gave you, but you also have your old sinful nature that is pulling at you. 

But there is a way out! Jesus promised in John 8:32, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (NIV). 

The secret to personal change is not willpower. It’s not a pill. It’s not a resolution. It’s not some vow that you make. The secret to personal change is not something you do or say. 

The secret to personal change is something you know. You know the truth. When you change the way you think, it changes the way you feel. And when you change the way you feel, it changes the way you act. 

Behind every self-defeating act is a lie you believe. It may be a lie about yourself, your past or future, God, or others. 

Why do you do something that you know is bad for you? Because you think there’s some kind of payoff. That’s the lie! You can only change and fulfill God’s purpose for your life if you start with God’s truth. If you want to change the way you live, you have to start in your mind. You have to know and believe God’s truth. 

When you know the truth, the truth will set you free. What you have to do is expose and uncover the lies that you have been accepting. Some of those lies you picked up on the playground as a kid or from TV. Some of them you picked up from your parents or you creatively thought them up yourself. But they are lies, and when you reject them and instead find out what God has to say, you will experience freedom like you’ve never known. 

Talk It Over

What do you think it means to know God’s truth? 

Think of the lies that have been on repeat in your head for years. Which of God’s truths do you need to replace them with? 

What will it take for you to know God’s truth better? What changes do you need to make in your life?

Scripture: 1 John 1:8

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8 NIV)

Sin always involves self-deception. At the moment you’re sinning, you’re deceiving yourself because you think that what you’re doing will actually produce better results than what God has already told you to do.

To stop defeating yourself, you must stop deceiving yourself. You’ve got to take an honest look at your life, face the truth, and deal with the issues. What is it in your life you’re pretending isn’t a problem? What is it in your life you’re pretending you’re not addicted to? What is it in your life you’re saying “It’s no big deal” about?

It really doesn’t matter whether you’re shooting heroin or running up your MasterCard, whether you’re reading pornography or a trashy novel. You’re using it all to try to escape from your pain and your sin. But you’re not going to get healing until you first acknowledge the root of your problem.

You don’t have to hit rock bottom before you really change. There are wake-up calls going on all around you right now, and you’re not listening to them. Instead, you’re headed on the path toward destruction.

But you don’t have to go that way. You can acknowledge the root of the issue and deal with it.

I’ve asked the professional counselors in our church, “What’s the biggest problem you encounter?” They say over and over, “People wait too long before they ask for help. Then it’s almost impossible to turn around.” There will be warning signs all over the place in a marriage, and then all of a sudden the husband or wife walks out. The one that’s left behind asks, “What can I do now?” Not a whole lot. You should have been working on it sooner. Most people are in denial and wait until it’s too late, and they go through unnecessary pain.

The Bible says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8 NIV).

What are the hard questions you need to be asking about the sin in your life? What are the warning signs you’ve been ignoring?

If you want healing, you’ve got to acknowledge the root of your problem. You’ve got to face the truth about you.

Talk It Over

How does pride keep you from acknowledging the root of your problems?

Why do we so often think we know better than God what is best for us?

What do you think God wants you to do after you face the truth about the problems in your life?

Scripture: Romans 7:24-25

“Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 7:24b-25a NLT, second edition)

Here is the testimony of a Chinese Christian: “I walked through the road of life and had fallen into a great ditch. The ditch was filled with depression, discouragement, and sin. As I lay in that ditch, Mohammed came along and said, ‘It’s your fault you’re in the ditch. You offended Allah, and this is your just punishment.’ Then Marx came by and said, ‘You’re in the ditch because of class warfare. You must revolt.’ But after the government changed, I was still in my ditch. Then Buddha came along and said, ‘You’re not really in that ditch. You just think you’re there. It’s all an illusion of the mind. Be at peace, and learn to live in your ditch.’ Then Confucius came by and said, ‘Here are the 10 steps of self-attainment by which you can get out of your ditch. If you will struggle, you will climb out eventually.’ But as much as I struggled and strained, I couldn’t get out of the ditch, because it was too deep.

“Then one day, Jesus Christ came by and saw me in my ditch. Without a word, he took off his white robe and got down in the muddy ditch with me. Then he lifted me up with his strong arms and pulled me out of the ditch. Thank God that Jesus did for me what I could not do for myself.”

Jesus did for you what you could not do for yourself.

If you want healing in your life, you have to believe that Christ can change you. Romans 7:24-25 says, “Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord” (NLT, second edition).

The answer to your problem is a person. Who’s going to be lord of your life? Who’s going to call the shots? You or Jesus Christ? When you’re mastered by him, you can master your problems. God has the power you were lacking. He’ll help you out.

Talk It Over

What does it mean for God to be Lord of your life?

Jesus did for you what you could not do for yourself. What do you need to trust him for today that is too big for you to handle on your own?

How can you show God that you believe he can change you?

Scripture: Psalms 37:7

“Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act.” (Psalm 37:7 NLT, second edition)

What does God want you to do while you’re waiting on an answer to your prayer? 

Psalm 37:7 says, “Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act” (NLT, second edition). God wants you to wait patiently for him to answer your prayer. 

Have you noticed that we don’t mind waiting as long as we can grumble while we wait? We don’t mind waiting in the DMV line as long as we can gripe and complain about how lousy and unorganized the government is. But God says, “Be still.” 

Like little 2-year-olds, we get the spiritual wiggles while we’re waiting for God to answer a prayer. We get nervous and restless. We want to jump up and do something. But God says, “Wait patiently. Be still. Watch me act. Don’t get restless, don’t get nervous, and don’t try to take matters into your own hands.” 

And, don’t ever make Abraham’s mistake in the Old Testament of trying to be the answer to your own prayer. It will cause all kinds of problems! One day God told Abraham that he was going to make him the father of a great nation. There were only two problems: Abraham was 99 years old, and he was childless. Abraham looked at his own body and said, “No way, Jose!” And he looked at his wife Sarah, who was infertile, and said, “Double no way! It ain’t gonna happen.” 

So Abraham took matters into his own hands and had a baby with his wife’s maid, Hagar. Abraham said, “Here’s my answer to prayer! I’ve got a son at 99. His name is Ishmael.” God said, “No, no. You missed the point. That’s not my answer to prayer. That’s your own answer to prayer. I’ve got a miracle boy who’s coming, and Sarah’s going to be the mom. You’re going to name him Isaac.” Isaac means “laughter.” When Sarah was told that she was going to be pregnant, the Bible says she laughed because she didn’t believe God. 

But God had the last laugh. Isaac was born, and it started an intense rivalry between him and Ishmael that we’re still paying for today. The tense relationship between Jews and Arabs all began because Abraham tried to answer his own prayer request. 

Whenever you try to answer your own prayer, you’re asking for trouble. Instead, wait patiently, and watch God act. 

Talk It Over

What can you do to help you focus on God while you’re patiently waiting? 

What are your tendencies when you are waiting on God to act? What do you do after you request something of him in prayer? 

How have you grown spiritually during a time when you had to wait on God?

Scripture: Psalms 130:5

“I wait expectantly, trusting God to help, for he has promised.” (Psalm 130:5 TLB)

God wants you to wait patiently for him to answer your prayer, but he also wants you to wait expectantly. Have faith. Trust God to hear and to answer. When you wait expectantly, you show God that you believe his promises. You believe he’s going to keep his word.

Daniel Boone, the famous frontiersman, was once asked, “Have you ever gotten lost in the wilderness?” He said, “No, I’ve never been lost. I’ve been bewildered for weeks at a time, but I’ve never been lost.”

Some of you may feel bewildered right now. You’re bewildered about your marriage: “I’m praying for it to get better, but it’s not getting any better.” You’re bewildered about your career: “Do I go up, down, change jobs?” You’re bewildered about relationships. You may feel powerless and hopeless and like you can’t do anything to change your situation on your own. You’re bewildered.

Don’t be discouraged! Don’t give up! Look up. Turn to prayer. I have had many, many requests in my life that I’ve prayed to God that have never been answered. I can think of one prayer that I have prayed almost every day for 24 years, and it hasn’t been answered. I don’t know why God hasn’t chosen to answer that prayer, and I don’t understand it. But I have decided this: Whether or not God ever answers that prayer, I am going to die believing his promises. Because God is a good God, and he knows what’s best, even when I don’t understand it.

When God doesn’t answer your prayers, you need to remember a couple very important truths. First, God is in control, and you’re not. He knows better what you need than you do. There is no mountain too tall that he can’t move it. There is no problem so big that he can’t solve it. There is no sorrow so deep he cannot soothe it. God is in control, and he has a plan.

The second thing you need to remember is that, whether or not you ever receive your answer, God will honor your patience — if not in this world then in eternity.

“I wait expectantly, trusting God to help, for he has promised” (Psalm 130:5 TLB).

Talk It Over

What promises of God can you claim while you wait for him to answer your prayer?

How has God shown his faithfulness to you in the past?

What do you expect God to do in your life? How do your expectations reflect his greatness?

Scripture: Romans 6:12-13

“Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires …. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.”(Romans 6:12-13 NLT, second edition)

Every day you are controlled by something. You may be controlled by your own ego or by the expectations of other people. You may be controlled by fear or guilt or resentment or bitterness. You may be controlled by a substance or a habit. But you are controlled by something every day.

Freedom comes when you choose what’s going to control you. When you choose Jesus Christ to be in control of your life, when you are mastered by the Master, you can master everything else. If God is not number one in your life, something else is, and it’ll control you to a negative degree. When Christ is in control of your life, he always moves you in the right direction.

Romans 6:12-13 says, “Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires …. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God” (NLT, second edition).

What are the steps in this choice to let Christ have control?

• Admit that you’ve been trying to play God.
• Admit that you can’t change on your own.
• Humbly ask God to help you change.
• Be honest with someone else about the things that need to change in your life.
• Give Jesus Christ total ownership of your life.

Do you really want to change? Are you willing to do these things? You say, “I’m so tired of trying and failing.” Stop trying. Instead, start trusting. God gives you the option to either depend on him or depend on yourself. The result is either freedom or frustration.

Why not give it all to Christ? What have you got to lose?

Talk It Over

What character traits or circumstances keep you from giving control of your life to God?

In what ways have you been trying to play God?

What do you think it means to give yourself completely to God?

Scripture: Ephesians 6:18

“Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers.” (Ephesians 6:18b NLT, second edition)

The Bible says in Ephesians 6:18, “Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers” (NLT, second edition). 

Why should you be persistent in your prayers, even when you don’t get an answer? There are four reasons: 

1. Persistent prayer focuses your attention.

When you pray a prayer request over and over, it’s not to remind God. He doesn’t need to be reminded! It’s to remind yourself who the source of your answer and all your needs is. If every prayer you ever prayed were instantly answered, two things would be true. First, prayer would become a weapon of destruction in your life. And, you’d never think about God, because he would become a vending machine. If every time you prayed you instantly got results, all you’d think about is the blessing. God wants you to think about the Blesser. 

2. Persistent prayer clarifies your request.

A delayed answer gives you time to clarify exactly what you want and to refine your prayers. When you pray persistently to your heavenly Father and you say something over and over again, it separates deep longings from mere whims. It says, “God, I really care about this.” It’s not that God doesn’t want to answer your prayers. He does. It’s just that he wants you to be certain that that’s what you really want. 

3. Persistent prayer tests your faith.

James 1:3-4 says, “When your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” The only way you can grow to spiritual maturity is to have your faith tested. One of the ways God’s going to test your faith is by delaying some answers to your prayers. 

4. Persistent prayer prepares your heart for the answer.

When you make a request of God, God almost always wants to answer in a bigger and better way than you’ve prayed. Sometimes God denies your prayer requests because you’re thinking and asking too small. He wants to give you something bigger and better. But first, he has to prepare you for it. So God uses delays in answering prayer to help you grow, to help you get ready, to help prepare you for a bigger and better answer. 

Remember, “God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine”(Ephesians 3:20 NCV). 

Talk It Over

What is something you’ve been praying about for a long time? How do you need to refine your request? 

If God is testing you right now by delaying an answer to your prayer, how can you show him that you are willing to grow and accept his will and purpose for you? 

Think of something that you prayed for over the years that God never supplied. How have you seen that his denial was actually a blessing in your life?

Scripture: Matthew 6:25

“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?”(Matthew 6:25 NIV)

Worry is essentially a control issue. It’s trying to control the uncontrollable. We can’t control the economy, so we worry about the economy. We can’t control our children, so we worry about our children. We can’t control the future, so we worry about the future. But worry never solves anything! It’s stewing without doing. 

Jesus actually gives four reasons why you don’t need to worry in his Sermon on the Mount: 

1. Worry is unreasonable.

Matthew 6:25 says, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” (NIV) 

Jesus is saying, if it’s not going to last, don’t worry about it. To worry about something you can change is stupid. To worry about something you can’t change is useless. Either way, it’s unreasonable to worry. 

2. Worry is unnatural.

Jesus gives us an illustration from nature in Matthew 6:26: “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?”

There’s only one thing in all of God’s creation that worries: human beings. We’re the only things God has created that don’t trust him, and God says this is unnatural. 

3. Worry is unhelpful.

It doesn’t change anything. Matthew 6:27 says, “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” When you worry about a problem, it doesn’t bring you one inch closer to the solution. It’s like sitting in a rocking chair — a lot of activity, energy, and motion, but no progress. Worry doesn’t change anything except you. It makes you miserable! 

4. Worry is unnecessary.

Matthew 6:30 says, “If God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won’t he more surely care for you, O men of little faith?” (TLB) If you trust in God, you don’t need to worry. Why? Because he has promised to take care of all your needs: “God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19 NIV). 

Does that include bills? Yes. Does that include relational conflicts? Yes. Does that include your dreams and goals and ambitions? Yes. Does that include the health issues you don’t know what to do with? Yes. God will meet all your needs in Christ. 

Don’t worry about it! 

Talk It Over

What are the things that last that you need to be concerned about? 

Think of something you’ve been worrying about. What is an action step you can take instead of worrying? 

How do you think prayer helps keep you from worrying?

Scripture: 1 Peter 5:7

“Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” (1 Peter 5:7 NLT, second edition)

It takes more than willpower to stop worrying. You already know that, because you’ve already tried it. You’ve thought, “I shouldn’t worry about this,” and yet you just keep on worrying about it. 

It’s going to take more than your willpower to stop worrying. It takes four things: 

1. Get to know God.

Jesus says in Matthew 6:32, “People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things” (MSG). If you don’t have a relationship with God, you have every reason to worry. You’ve got to get to know God! As a believer, you have a heavenly Father who has promised to take care of you. You are God’s child, and children get special privileges. When you worry, God says, “You’re my child. Why are you acting like an orphan?” 

2. Put God first in every area of your life.

Matthew 6:31-33 says, “Don’t worry at all about having enough food and clothing …. Your heavenly Father already knows perfectly well that you need them, and he will give them to you if you give him first place in your life and live as he wants you to” (TLB). Any time you take God out of the center of your life and put anything else there — no matter how good it is — you’re going to worry. 

3. Live one day at a time.

The Bible says, “So don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will have its own worries. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34 NCV). If you’re worrying about tomorrow, you can’t enjoy today. You miss today’s blessings. It’s OK to plan for tomorrow, but you have to live for today. Also, when you’re always worried about tomorrow, the future gets overwhelming. But God will give you the grace and strength you need when you get there. Right now, you only need enough power for today. 

4. Trust God to care.

“Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you” (1 Peter 5:7 NLT, second edition). How do you do that? One way is to memorize God’s promises in the Bible. They’re like an insurance policy for believers. When you know something’s covered, you don’t worry about it anymore. Another way is to pray. If you prayed as much as you worried, you’d have a lot less to worry about. 

What’s the result of taking these four steps? Incredible peace of mind: “You will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand” (Philippians 4:7a TLB). 

Pray this prayer today: “Dear Father, I admit that I often forget that you are with me. I often forget what you’re like. Would you please forgive me for that? I need to get to know you better. I need to get to know your Word and your promises better. Help me to put you first in every area of my life. Help me to live one day at a time. Help me to not worry about tomorrow, but instead focus on what you’re doing in my life right now. I want to trust in your promise to take care of every one of my needs — financial, relational, physical, social, spiritual, and emotional. Help me to trust you more and worry less. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.”