Even though the Bible says we are not to worry, sometimes it seems like the only reasonable thing to do, even for Christians. Circumstances around us seem hopeless, and for a human, we can not understand or fathom how this will work out in the right way or even if it will.
Even though it might seem the only reasonable thing to do, the Bible still says that worrying is a sin. Is Yehovah asking too much of us? Why is it a sin to worry?
The reason why Yehovah says it is a sin to worry has to do with trust. When we worry, we tell Yehovah we do not trust Him, and we do not trust He is capable of doing what He said He would do. This is why worrying is not only a sin for a Christian; it is also a sign of a total breakdown of our relationship with Yehovah.
There is a reason why Christians struggle with this.
Over the years, Christians have come to believe in passivity where we dont do anything. We believe we only get to receive what has already been done for us. Abraham’s covenant was like this, a passive covenant where Yehovah promised to do it all, and Abraham only had to accept. But the covenant of Abraham is at the beginning of the Bible; it was preceded by Moses’ covenant, and nowhere does it say either of these two covenants have been abolished. Instead, we see, in the Bible, how these two covenants build on each other because you need the faith of Abraham to enter into the covenant of Moses.
As Christians, we can not remain passive, trying to pretend Moses’ covenant does not exist. Through the New Testament, Yeshua and all the Apostles repeatedly tell us how we as Gentile believers are grafted into Moses’s covenant. So if you are a believer in Yeshua and you have repented, you are now a part of Moses’s covenant, which gives you certain obligations to meet. If you do your part, Yehovah promises to do His part. But if you worry, you are insulting Yehovah accusing Him of being unable to do His part.
If you live by the Torah (Moses’s written law), you are a part of Moses’ covenant, even if you have no Jewish ancestry. Perhaps you are not circumcised, but Paul says in the book of Romans, what makes you a member of Moses’s covenant is not physical circumcision. Instead, it is a circumcised heart being obedient to the Torah. This is what guarantees you Yehovahs help.
As a member of Moses’ covenant, how should you handle it when things happen in your life that gives you good reason to worry?
Whenever you feel tempted to worry, you should remind yourself that no matter what happens, Yehovah will intervene somehow on your behalf because you follow Moses. Or, to put it another way, you decide to focus on the fact that Moses guarantees Yehovahs help in your situation instead of focusing on your problem at hand.
Am I saying we should replace Jesus with Moses? No, we will get back to that in a moment. Let me first try to explain a little further what I mean when I say you decide to focus on Moses.
Worrying starts in your mind with a thought or an idea. Suddenly you have this thought that goes something like this “what if this happens? How will I handle it? I dont know how to handle it. What if I cant handle it? Then this will happen.” Then everything snowballs and increases up to a point when all you can think of is what could go wrong at any moment, and you are not far from having a full-blown anxiety attack.
All of this happened because a thought was suggested to you, and you grabbed on to it and focused on it. This is not the first time something like this has happened.
In the garden of Eden, Eve was well able to sin before she ate the apple. She sinned when the snake suggested a thought to her, and she grabbed on to it and focused on it. The idea was, “has Yehovah really said?” She grabbed on to that thought, focused in on it, and ended up adding to the word of Yehovah.
We tend to do the same when an idea is suggested to us. When our enemy, the devil, sees us facing a challenging circumstance, he has no authority to force us to sin. Instead, he is given legal approval by Yehovah to test us to see what we focus our mind on. (Deut 8:2) So he suggests an idea to us, and we grab on to it, focusing on it, and soon we find ourselves in an almost full-blown anxiety attack far removed from Yehovah’s help doubt
We need to be more careful about what we focus our minds on.
When you were a child and something terrible happened, you always knew your parents or some other authority figure were there to help you. Because of this, whenever you got sick, had an injury, someone bullied you, or you got scared, your mind automatically focused on the fact that your parents would somehow fix this for you. You never worried about how they were going to do it, or when they were going to do it, you only knew that you knew they were going to do it for you. How could you be so sure? Because you were their child.
As long as we obey the written Torah, the Bible says we are in the covenant of Moses. In the covenant of Moses, Yehovah, our God promises to heal us, provide for us, protect us, deliver us, fight for us, but He never says how He will do this. He only says, trust Me, I will do it. He never says when He will do this; He only says, trust Me, I will do it.
When the devil comes to test us to see where our minds are (Deut 8:2), we resist him by focusing on Moses’ covenant and our obedience to it. In the covenant, we dont know all the details or the timeframe; we only know that as long as we keep Torah, we have nothing to worry about. (Matt 6:25-34)
The next time you are worried, do not give in to the thought he suggests to you. Do not listen to his questions asking you, how will Yehovah do this, when will Yehovah do this, how can you know Yehovah will do this on time? Instead, resist the devil by reminding yourself, you are in the covenant of Moses, a follower of Moses, and therefore Yehovah will intervene the way He sees best when He sees best.
Am I saying we should replace Jesus with Moses?
No, because Yeshua (Jesus) taught us to follow Moses (Matt 7:21-23, Luke 6:46, Matt 23:2-3, 6:25-34), so we are not replacing Jesus with Moses; we are only doing what our Lord and Savior told us to do, to focus our mind in the correct place.
If you obey our Lord and Savior and choose to follow Moses, you submit to Yehovah, and the devil will flee from you. (James 4:7.) Then you will be walking in the blessings of the Torah (Deut 28:1-14) and have no reason to worry about anything (Matt 6:25-34.) But this is a choice you have to make; you have to choose not to worry even though it might seem like the only reasonable thing to do.
[wpedon id=”383″]