How Are We Doing? Part 5

How Are We Doing? Part 5
Wednesday, January 8, 2025 by Dr. James W. Walraven

Categories: Contemporary issues / Encouraging words / Scripture discussion / Spiritual deception / The church / Thought for Today / Truth telling

How do we stop worrying?

As we saw in the previous post, worry defeats love, just as love defeats worry. Whichever one of those two we embrace, the other vanishes. We also saw that none of the things we worry about succeed in usurping God’s authority. None are in the place of God. Last, we observed that stopping worrying is only the first step. We have to replace those worries with something else.

Romans 12:2 (ESV): “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

We must renew our minds, change our thinking. Trying to merely control our emotions doesn’t work. Emotions are emotions. They often run counter to what we’d prefer, taking on a life of their own. The answer is to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. We are to think in new ways, not the old ways of worry and fear, or of dwelling on what is evil. After all, we typically don’t worry about what is right and positive, do we? Instead, we need to be mature in our thinking.

Corinthians 14:20 (ESV): “Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.”

We are to take every thought captive to Christ. What thoughts are excluded from “every thought”? Maybe we can get away with thoughts about a specific cherished sin, or our favorite topic to worry about? No! Every thought means every thought. No exceptions. That is hard to do, isn’t it? If you’re like me, you’ve likely had times of significant failure on that score. But that doesn’t mean we are to give up or stop. When we take a fearful thought captive to Christ, that thought no longer has the authority in our life that it once did. Its terror ends.

Philippians 4:8 (ESV): “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

What do we spend our time thinking about? Do we think about things that cause us worry? Do we focus on what is wrong or evil, how the world is increasingly falling apart? Or, do we concentrate on what is true, honorable, escellent, or praiseworthy?

It is a common adage that bad news sells. Do true and praiseworthy things dominate the news? No. Are things that cause panic and fear along with tragic stories the main focus? Yes. But that isn’t how we, as Christians, are to think.

How much better off we’d be, if we’d follow God’s prescriptive, to think on what is pure, lovely, and excellent. Are things that are pure, lovely, excellent, and true sources fo worry? No. By taking all of our thoughts captive, by thinking on what is true and excellent, we would spend a lot less time worrying, dwelling on negative emotions and thoughts.

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