Pastor John MacArthur once said, “Worry is the sin of distrusting the promise and providence of God. And yet, it is a sin that Christians commit perhaps more frequently than any other.”

We know it is wrong. In point of fact, it is a sin.  It robs us of our trusting relationship with the Lord. We know it accomplishes absolutely nothing. Studies have suggested that 70% of what we worry about never happens. 20% of what we fuss about occurred in the past. Only 10% has a chance to actually come to pass.

We know worry can become a lifestyle. The Greek word that is translated “worry” in the New Testament literally means to have “a divided mind.” As we worry our way through life, a rut is put down that hedges us in with walls of fear and anxiety.

We know worry saps us of our energy and enthusiasm. Corrie Ten Boom once remarked, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.” And in its wake, worry leaves a trail of sadness and despair.

So this week if we find ourselves handcuffed to a bucket of worry and fear, what do we do? How do we break the cycle of overblown concern?

Consider the “Question of Protection” offered by Max Lucado in his book, The Grip of Grace. He quoted Romans 8:31 “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

“The question is not simply, ‘who can be against us?’” You could answer that one. Who is against you? Disease, inflation, corruption, exhaustion. Calamities confront and fears imprison. Were Paul’s question ‘who can be against us?’ We could list our foes much easier than we could fight them. But that is not the question.

The question is ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’”

Read those words out loud. Repeat the phrase four times, each time emphasizing each different word. GOD is for us. God IS for us. God is FOR us. God is for US.

Pretty soon the anecdote for worry becomes clear. Since God is for us, we ultimately have nothing to fear and nothing to worry about.

Since God is for us, “Do not be anxious about ANYTHING, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your prayers to God.” Philippians 4:6