Don't Worry 12 - Get Your Thinking Straight (B)

Another way for Christians to avoid worry.

12. Get your thinking straight: get the facts right

We need to train our minds to think rationally. Sometimes we worry about impossibilities … things that can never happen. As a simple example, it’s not much use - at least in this country - worrying that our child will meet a stampeding elephant on the way to school. And even if things are not impossible, they’re often extremely improbable. We need to research the facts carefully. If it’s futile to worry - how much more futile is it to worry about something that will never happen or that is not based on facts.

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened. (Mark Twain)

How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened. (Thomas Jefferson)

Remember the two on the road to Emmaus after Jesus’ death. They were depressed, worried and confused. When Jesus met with them they stood still, their faces downcast (Luke 24:18) ... and explained to him:

[Jesus] was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. (Luke 24:19-21) ... and now it’s all gone wrong!

Jesus had to take them back to first principles, show them the facts ... especially the fact of his resurrection. It was then that:

their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:31:32)