Worry Hurts Part II

When the devil sees a godly marriage under construction, he is going to attempt to stop it! You can count on that. He will send troubling thoughts of fear, offense, anxiety, panic, upset, anger, and whatnot. He will attempt to make sure that there is always something to be troubled about. If one thing does not work, the devil will try some other form of agitation to stop a Christian from following God. That is the devil's modus operandi: to attack God's people early in their calling.

Jesus warned his disciples about worry. cf Luke 21:34  A modern translation puts it this way, "Watch out! Don't let your hearts be dulled by the worries of this life." A more literal translation reads, "And take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts may be weighed down with anxieties of life.

Watch out! Take heed.  It is not difficult to imagine this old lesson being repeated in today's classrooms when a teacher says, "Focus. Don't worry about that distraction." The Bible makes it clear that worry is to be dealt with actively. Jesus expects us to be on guard against it.

At another time, Jesus used the technique of telling a parable to create a visual mnemonic. In Matthew 13:22, spiny thorns symbolize the worry of the world, which chokes out the blessing before it comes to fruition. These are not only worries about vulnerability, but also worries about lack and privation.

Jesus' warning was severe because the consequences are severe.

WebMD lists over two dozen physical effects of worrying! The web article points out that "fight or flight" is a typical response to worry-caused stress. In the case of the runaway bride, that would obviously be a "flight" response. But the article also goes on to say that "People who are happily married not only have greater life expectancies compared with those people who are not, but they also have fewer incidences of just about all types of disease."


Comparing a Secular 'Fix' to One Taught in the Scripture

Here is WebMD's suggestion on how to deal with the negative effects of worry:

Meditate. Daily meditation -- instead of worrying -- may help you move beyond negative thoughts and allow you to become "unstuck" from worries that keep your body on high alert. With meditation, you purposefully pay attention to what is happening at the present moment without thinking of the past or future. Meditation decreases hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, which are released during the "fight or flight" or stress response.

Compare the WebMD quote, "purposefully pay attention to what is happening at the present moment without thinking of the past or future" with Matthew 6:34, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Since KatieLyn already had heard God on the matter of marriage, she ought to have trusted Him to work it out and refused to entertain feelings of anxiety.

Note that the secular experts said that worry causes people to get "stuck" but that meditation helps. The Biblical response is found in Hebrews 12:2, that looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, and again in Isaiah 26:3, where God promises to keep in perfect peace those whose minds are stayed on Him. Trusting in the Lord is the way to overcome being stuck on worry.

But that was not the advice that Gwen was doling out. Her approach was to throw out the baby with the bathwater, and be proud that it was gone!  For Gwen, peace and relief came not by trusting in Jesus, but by getting the marriage called off entirely. Now her daughter was out of God's will on two counts instead of just one; not only had she failed the command to not let her heart be troubled, but she had also failed to marry someone God had chosen for her.

Some Science Behind It All
Anxiety interferes with intellectually demanding tasks that involve complex or abstract thought. Correspondingly, it becomes much harder to find answers to complicated questions. When a person worries, the body responds by releasing cortisol, a steroid hormone. Cortisol will temporarily stimulate the amygdala, a part of the brain that processes fear and other intense emotions. But at the same time, cortisol will impair the hippocampus, which is important for learning and processing new information so that we find it understandable. That can be beneficial for survival when faced with a sudden stressful situation, but over time a cumulative exposure to stress-related hormones will affect the prefrontal cortex, the brain's center for critical and rational thought. The amygdala commands our emotional reactions, and when the "worry hormone" levels increase, it can easily override the thoughtful, critical reasoning of the prefrontal cortex.
Basically, the cortisol that is released by ongoing worry and anxiety forces emotional rather than rational responses! The more that we dwell on doubts and misgivings, the portion of the brain used for making cogent decisions becomes more compromised and less rational. No wonder Jesus warned us to be on guard against worry; chronic anxiety destroys our ability to think clearly. Misgivings are not a sign of being a deep thinker, they are a sign of being irrational and foolish.



The Lesson
Worry is not harmless. It is insidiously destructive, like the devil himself. It destroys relationships, reasoning ability, and personal health.




Results of Worry Chart


Physical Effects of Worrying. (2015).  http://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/how-worrying-affects-your-body
 
Gross, G. (2013, March 19). Effects of Stress.  http://drgailgross.com/academia/effects-of-stress-on-the-hippocampus/

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