And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 (NASB)
Many of us struggle mightily with circumstances that cause us to be anxious, fearful and to worry. These are perilous and difficult days we are living in! There is so much uncertainty for us with the economy and employment being so volatile.
It is easy to forget that God is in charge of all these things and knows the end from the beginning in each person's life.
John MacArthur says, "God does not merely use the circumstances in our lives, as in “somehow” works with them after the fact. He actually causes them. The Sovereignty of God is exhaustive and he ordains, both causes and effects or another way of putting it is He ordains the ends and the means to those ends. In His providential care God orchestrates every event in life-even suffering, temptation, and sin-to accomplish both our temporal and eternal benefit."
We need to be constantly reminded that is God who not only uses our circumstances, but causes them in the first place. We must look to the Old Testament narratives and the New Testament testimonies of the servants of God to see how He orchestrated every event down to the smallest detail in order to accomplish what He had planned.
One example would be Israel. God brought them into Egypt in the first place, brought them out 400 years later (as He foretold He would do) , and took care of them every step of the way as they wandered for 40 years in the desert.
In spite of God's faithfulness to them, they were fearful and complained about everything!
What indeed do they have to be fearful about? What do they have to worry about? What do they have to complain about? Why are they so anxious? Why do they fret?
Well, like us, they had heart problems that caused them to doubt God’s goodness, His provision, and His divine plan for their lives. The doubt feeds the fears and the desires of the heart, that is, what we really worship, forms a vicious circle of out of control emotion and paralyzing fear.
Consider Job and his wife for a moment. Job is struck and afflicted, his family is killed, all his worldly goods are gone. His wife suggests he curse God and die.
But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips. Job 2:10
The word foolish does not mean ‘silly” but refers to one who rejects God or His revealed will. Such a person is considered “unwise” in Scripture because they doubt God and His power, His goodness and object to the circumstances He has sovereignly placed in their lives.
Job, on the other hand was willing to accept the circumstances as from God. He did not blame Satan and he did not blame the Chaldeans. He recognized that both were instruments of God’s revealed will and was therefore able to live out his belief in God's sovereignty. Simply put, Job trusted God rather than trusting his own "wisdom"!
Spiritually, worry is a form of idolatry and a fruit of unbelief. On a practical level the chronic worrier is unwise, living as if there is no God to place trust in.
In Matt 6:19-21 our Lord deals with seeking and trusting in various treasures. Worry involves earthly things to worry about or treasures: (job, marriage, money, relationships, death, any desire, lust, passion of the heart )
What you are focusing on (eyes for) competes with God. Focusing and fixating on them gets the heart (inner self) attached. The thought process sounds like; when, how, if, how soon will these treasures fail?
The man is help captive to the idea of losing his treasure.
We try to manipulate our idols. We want something from our idols-the pay off is a temporary reassurance. In reality, the idol master’s you and you serve it-the manipulation is a two-way street.
What you value supremely will rule your life. In other words what you treasure rules you.
Is this really God's ideal for His people?