Show Notes

Worry is often the product that comes when we are distracted and fail to distinguish the incidental from the essential or the urgent from the important in our life. When we do that, we often miss the blessings God has for us. At the bottom line, God intends our relationship with Him to be more important than the task or event about which we are worrying.

We all have unknowns in our life when we are unsure about what is coming next. We often want to fill in the blanks to complete a story that we are unsure about. The problem is that as humans we often fill in the blanks based on our fears, doubts, or uncertainties. In those moments, Jim reminds us to hold fast to God’s Word and place our complete trust in Him.

What can we do? What does the Bible – our book of authority have to say. Jesus in His sermon on the mount said this in Matthew 6:34, “do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Eugene Peterson paraphrased that verse well saying “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”

What are some steps to think thru this issue of worry that all of us face? The chapter on Worry in the book, Overcoming Barriers Men Face, the author, and founder of this great ministry gives us Six thoughts to consider:

1. Trust in God’s plan for your life and not your own. Our creator has a plan in mind for us. Let us seek it out and trust the one who gave it to us.
2. Satan loves to attack when we are weak, frustrated, tired or become over-sensitive to personal attacks, human events, and horrific disasters. So follow the example of Jesus and take time to replenish your body, soul, and mind. A weakened body and a frazzled mind are not a good position to effectively deal with worry.
3. Deliberately distract yourself from the tensions, struggles, and worries that begin to cast a dark cloud over you. Find things to do that can at least temporarily distract you from your worries, so you are not consumed by them.
4. Prepare and arm yourself with God’s Word and practical decision- making skills. Too many of us try to resolve our worries with human wisdom alone. The Word of God has clear direction for all of the challenges in which we find ourselves and needing to overcome our worry.
5. Since worry is useless, replace worry with praising God for what He has done for you. Worry does not resolve any of our challenges. Worry actually exacerbates our challenge since we have added worry to the mix. Replace the worry with a healthy dose of praising God for His goodness and love to us, no matter what we are facing.
6. Journaling is a good way to record the lesson you learn from God’s answers and solutions to your worries and concerns. Journalling can release the tension that you are feeling about the difficulty or trouble you may be facing.

In every case with worry we need to find someplace to place it. Whether it is something imminently real you are dealing with or if it is something you are worrying about that may or may not happen, worry can be debilitating if not managed properly. Keep in mind as you are deciding how deal with your worry: God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. Ephesians 3:20

Highlighted Resource

Overcoming Barriers Men Face, by Jim Grassi

Save 25% with coupon code: OBMF-2277-25

Expires: September 30, 2023

About Wendell Morton

Rev. Morton graduated from Western Evangelical Seminary with a BA in Religious Education and a Master of Counseling Psychology, Rev. Morton was in full-time ministry for 17 years with both small and large churches. He spent four of those ministry years with Promise Keepers. He was the the US representative to PK Canada – serving on the PK Canada Board.

Wendell also spent 23 years in Corporate America. He built and led sales teams that worked with very small businesses and other groups that worked with Fortune 500 companies. He is gifted at helping identifying the next generation of leaders as well as helping those around him being successful.

Rev. Morton has a passion to help pastors and church leaders build growing churches. Having men come alongside the vision of the pastor, build a dynamic team, create a plan, and execute the model of “each one brings one” has been proven effective for more than 2,000 years. This approach is a great way for every local church in North America to grow while helping men better understand biblical manhood.