Unclutter Your Lives - Get Rid of Your Worries

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.  

Are any of you a pack rat?  I wanted to know if I am, so I googled it and found this definition.  A pack rat is a “bushy-tailed rodent that has well-developed cheek pouches and that hoards food and miscellaneous objects.”  Phew… that’s not me.  But then there is another definition – ‘a person who collects or hoards especially unneeded items.’  Now I wondered, am I hoarder?  Or is that different? Not really - a hoarder is simply a pack rat on steroids.  “Hoarding is the persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of their actual value.”  People hoard because they get attached to things.  What if they might need these things some day?”  People actually hoard free things – like Ross on Friends who used to load his suitcase with everything free from his hotel room.  Hoarders, and pack rats just have a hard time letting go of things.  They end up with cluttered homes, like a man I knew in Nebraska.  He had stacks of magazines and newspapers and other junk he just couldn’t throw out.  There were little trails through the stacks to get from his chair to his kitchen to his bedroom.  For someone struggling with hoarding, our “40 days – 40 items” challenge could be very difficult.

Now I don’t know if you or I are hoarders of things.  But I do have a suspicion that many of us are hoarders of worry. How many of you worry too much?  Any of you have trouble letting go of your worries?

Now please understand, I’m not talking about having legitimate concern for something or someone.  That is a difference between worry and concern. Concern has to do with being responsible or taking responsibility for something or someone – where you have the ability to make a difference.  When one of you sees that someone is missing in church and you reach out to make sure they are okay… when the boss gives you a job and you take steps to get that job done… you are being concerned.  Worry is what happens when you neglect your responsibilities and instead fret over them.  Worry is what happens when you become anxious about things you have no control over.  Concern is the natural state of a servant of God.  Worry is the natural state of someone who is trying to be God… to do God’s job for Him.  Since you and I can’t handle His job – we worry!

Worry is a huge source of spiritual clutter in our lives.  Think of all things you worry about – lay offs at work, money, bills, kids, health, etc.  Worry causes loss of sleep.  It ties our stomach up in knots.  It can make it hard to focus or concentrate.  On days when I am really worried I find it hard to get anything else done.  Worst of all – we all know we shouldn’t worry…It’s a big waster of time.  Most of what we worry about never happens.  We know that we should get rid of worry… but we are hoarders- we hold on to worry like we can’t live without it… after all to quit worrying is to admit that we aren’t God.   

The problem with worry, is the problem with a lot of the junk we hold on to in life.   Who can we give it to?  Who would want our worries?  He does – the Lord – the only one who can truly handle them.  “Cast all your cares on Him, the Bible says, “for He cares about you.”   How do you give Your cares away?   The answer is so simple, it almost seems too simple.  Pray. 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.   When you give your worries to Jesus, guess what you discover?  He already took them.  He already carried them. He already conquered them for you.  He carried them to His cross.  He gave up His life to handle your worries.  He rose again to dispel all worry forever. 

Whatever it is that worries or scares you… what ever it is that you can’t handle – He knows about it.  He can handle it.  He has handled it.   I love the words of Jesus in Matthew 6.  “Therefore I tell you, 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? 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?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?  “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Yes, get rid of your worries.  Give them to Jesus.  He’s already gotten them all handled. Amen.