What Are Your 3 Biggest Worries?

According to Kindle, the series of e-readers designed and marketed by Amazon.com, the Bible is the single most highlighted Kindle book of all time. And the most underlined passage is Philippians 4:6-7; “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

This is an interesting piece of data, but not too surprising. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults, or nearly one-fifth of the population.

Anxiety is nothing new. It plagued the followers of Jesus Christ two thousand years ago, and He was very clear about where he stood on the subject. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “don’t worry (Matt 6:25-34).” He gave us three good reasons why we shouldn’t worry:

• It doesn’t add any time to our day.
• God already knows what we need.
• God takes care of birds and flowers, and we’re more important than birds and flowers.

In this same passage, Jesus also addressed three big worries of his listeners of the day: food, water, and clothing. Why these? I’m guessing they must have been the three biggest anxiety-producing issues of the day. Most of us don’t worry about food, water, or clothing. We worry about things like, “How am I going to be able to fund my retirement lifestyle … how are my kids going to turn out … what do I do if I lose my job; what if … what if … what if?”

For those of us who have all the food, water, and clothing we need, there’s something called Parkinson’s Law that has a parallel application for our worry. Parkinson’s Law is a business adage articulated by Cyril Northcote Parkinson as part of the first sentence of an essay published in The Economist in 1955: “That work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” To borrow from Parkinson’s, our worry expands to fill the hole in our life that’s not being filled by trust and faith in God. If you didn’t have food in your pantry, you would be worried about how you’re going to survive, not how you’re going to pay the deductible for the fender bender you had last week in the grocery store parking lot.

The “big 3” worries of Jesus’ day were food, water, and clothing. What are the top three worries that you struggle with?

I would like to challenge you today to refuse to allow your worry to expand. Instead, petition the Lord in prayer with your worries, and cast all your anxiety on Him (1 Pet 5:7). He is waiting to offer you His gift of peace (Jn 14:27), hope, and a future (Jer 29:11).

Just one more thing … we would love to hear from you as to what your top three worries are. Please take moment to answer this one-question 30-second survey to let us know (click here). Thanks!