“Don’t worry, be happy” is the advice of the old song. If only it were so easy to replace worry with happiness!

Worry and anxiety is a big issue for everyone, but especially for Christians who try to heed the command of Jesus to not be anxious about anything (Mt 6:25). When anxiety overwhelms us we feel guilty and begin worrying about the fact that we are worrying. 

Jesus has the answer to anxiety, but there is a danger when we speak about anxiety. That danger is that our hearers will not pay attention to what is being said; or worse not pay attention to what God says. 

The devil is always at work to snatch the Word from our listening. He does this sometimes by making us think that my world is more complex than the world that Jesus spoke to. They didn’t have to worry about superannuation and life insurance and meeting this month’s bills, and so we come away thinking ‘this is not a word for me because God does not know my situation’. Another way the Word is snatched away is that anxiety and the stress that accompanies it is so great that we will excuse any response in the hope that it will reduce our anxiety, including the very responses that Jesus speaks against. 

Anxiety’s answer

I want to consider with you if there is a place for planning, strategy and concern for the future, but before going there we should make some comments on Jesus’ solution in Matthew 6.

Our anxiety, and our justification for it I so often based in our desire to minimize the worries that are associated with this world. Anxiety speeds up some responses and enables us to act. But Jesus’ constant warning in the Sermon on the Mount is that it is impossible to serve two masters, impossible to serve two masters (Mtt 6: 24), because where your treasure is, there too is your heart (Mtt 6:21).

Jesus’ solution is to focus our trust in God who knows, cares and loves and not to turn to other to replace our trust in Him. To give a simple example: when faced with financial worries do we first go to the bank balance or pray to our heavenly Father? 

That said, Jesus is not opposed to thinking about and acting with the resources He has given us. I am sure James had Jesus’ words in his mind when he warned against planning saying “today we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make profit” (Jam 4:13). Such words are foolish because you don’t know what tomorrow holds, yet control it. But it is not wrong to plan. It is planning independently of God that James opposes. He goes on to say “Instead, you should say ‘if the Lord wills we will live and do this or that”’.

So what do we do with strategy?

So what is the place of strategy in our planning. Surely it is good to strategise?

I agree. But all strategy is conditional on God’s plans. So strategy can only be short term, and must be open to change. We need to pray for wisdom to know what things must not change in the way we think and act and what things should be open to change given the circumstances God has given to us. (Generally, I have noticed that what must not change are matters associated with living in holiness before God and rightly with each other. What can change are the immediate outcomes we are seeking.)

We also don’t always know the consequences of our strategy. I have seen ministries where the importance of Youth Ministry was well understood, so the church decided to push believers into Youth Ministry, as this was how the lost would be saved. There were wonderful blessings from this strategy, but over the years the ministry team noticed that the only ministry people engaged in was Youth, and so they worked hard to change that strategy.

Don’t worry be happy

So what should we do?

We need to remind each other that behind our anxiety is so often a fear about control, which leads us to think that physical resources are the solution. Jesus says no to that. The answer is always that we are cradled in the arms of God who loves His children, so we must first and foremost pray. You cannot trust both God and things. And no circumstance of life is ever a reason to justify this wrong way of thinking. 

And strategy? We must ask for wisdom to determine what must not change, and then be flexible on every other thing, as God superintends the world he has given us.