The Worry Strategy

By Rick Renner

When I was a young man, I worried all the time. In the church that I grew up in, the pastor regularly asked us questions like, “Are you worried about the lost? Are you burdened about the needs of your church?,” and as I heard these questions, I began to think something very unhealthy: I began to think that to be a mature Christian, I had to be constantly worried about something.

Over time, that worry became a part of my life, and friend, I really didn’t know how to live without it. If I had a day when I was not worried, then I would worry that I was not worried, and I would try to find something to be worried about!

For years, worry just consumed me and devoured my health, and this went on until the year 1998. At that time, I was worried about finances, because we were working on a building project in Riga, but we didn’t have enough money for it. Night after night, I would toss and turn in bed, thinking about how we were going to find the money for this building, and after not getting any sleep all night, I would spend the whole day worrying as well.

One night at 2:00 in the morning, I got out of my bed, went down to my office, laid my head on my desk, and began to cry and pour my heart out to the Lord. As I was sitting there, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and I looked over and saw my son Joel, just 9 years old, standing next to me. I said, “Joel, what are you doing here at this time of the night?”

He said, “Something woke me up and told me to come down here to your office. Daddy, why are you crying?”

I told him, “Joel, Dad is worried about finances.”

Well, he put his hands on his hips, looked at me, and said, “Dad, has God not proven Himself faithful to you yet?”

When he said that, it was like the Holy Spirit took a pair of supernatural scissors and began to cut that worry out of my life. That night, I was permanently delivered from worry!

Friend, I am telling you this story because I want you to know that if you have dealt with worry in your life, it is the Lord’s will for you to be delivered from it. I understand that we all have real problems, things that we’re genuinely concerned about. You may be concerned about your children, your finances, your marriage, your job, or your health — that’s just life, and we all have to deal with it — but you don’t have to carry it by yourself.

It is absolutely not the Lord’s will for you to carry worry, and in fact, 1 Peter 5:7 says, “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” He cares about you, so He will willingly take those worries — but for Him to do that, you have to cast it upon Him

Let’s talk about what those words mean. When the Bible says “casting,” it is a Greek word that describes the action of moving a heavy load over onto a beast of burden. It pictures a man who is carrying a very heavy load — much too heavy for him. So to get out from under this crushing weight, he calls someone to bring him a camel or mule, and when the animal comes right up alongside of him, he pushes up and rolls all that weight off of his shoulders and over onto the back of the animal so that he can walk free.

Think about all that in the context of this verse: When we are tempted to carry all kinds of worries and burdens, Jesus says to us, “The weight that you’re carrying is too much for you. Call on Me. Let Me come alongside you so you can roll it over on Me. I’ll carry it for you so that you can walk freely with Me.” The burden does not disappear, but instead of trying to hold it all on your own, which you are not strong enough to do, you are handing it over to the One who is strong enough. 

He is willingly asking us to give those heavy loads to Him, and what’s even more powerful is the reason why: “…for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Friend, no one is forcing Jesus to do this for you. It’s not something that He does out of necessity or obligation, but He does it because He cares for you. In the Greek, that word pictures somebody who is hovering around someone else, constantly worrying and fretting for that person. Jesus is hovering over us, and when He sees us carrying all this weight of worry on our shoulders, He just cares so much about that struggle that He says, “Give it to Me. You don’t have to carry this, so let Me do it for you.” 

Now, I want to remind you that this is not just a suggestion — it is a command, and Peter warns us about the dangers of not following it in the next verse: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). 

Those first two phrases, “be sober” and “be vigilant,” are a clear command to us, and they tell us how careful we have to be when it comes to worry. These words mean, “Don’t let worry impede your awareness — keep thinking straight, and don’t let your guard down!” Friend, we really do need to watch out for worry, because it is just the opportunity that your enemy is looking for to gain access to your life.

In this verse, Peter refers to him as “your adversary the devil” (1 Peter 5:8), and “adversary” tells us just what kind of an enemy he is. It is really the Greek word for a prosecuting lawyer, and that tells us that he prosecutes us — he uses the information he knows about us to accuse us.

Friend, everything that you’ve done wrong in the past is under the blood of Jesus. God doesn’t even remember it anymore, but the devil remembers, and he is going to use that to come after you.

For example, you might be struggling in your finances, and although you are currently obeying God and giving your tithe, the devil comes along and says, “Oh, I’ll tell you why you’re having financial problems. It’s because you didn’t give your tithe in the past. If you hadn’t been unfaithful back then, you wouldn’t be struggling now.” Maybe instead it’s a problem with your health, and the devil is telling you, “This is because you didn’t take care of your body in the past. This is your own fault, and now you’re just going to be sick for the rest of your life.” 

Whatever the situation is, the devil’s strategy is to take the information from your past and use it to prosecute you and tell you, “You can’t get out. You’re just going to be bound in this fear and worry forever, because your situation isn’t going to change.” Peter even says that the devil is “seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). He wants to gobble up your life with worries, fears, guilt, sickness, and any other trap that he can keep you in.

But it’s important to note that Peter says, “whom he may devour,” which means he can’t devour just anyone. Just as the easiest prey for a lion to hunt in the wild is the unaware, unprotected, or weak prey, the easiest target for the devil is a believer who is weak in the Word and isolated from the body.

1 Peter 5:9 tells us that to resist, we need to be “stedfast in the faith” (1 Peter 5:9). Friend, you’ve got to be grounded in the Word and established in a pack of believers, because this isn’t going to be a one-time battle. Every time a worry comes into your mind, you’re going to have to be able to say, “Devil, I recognize exactly what you’re doing, and you’re not going to drag me from faith into fear. I know that Jesus cares about this situation, and you’re not going to stop me from giving it over to Him. In fact, you can just leave right now.”

When you are properly equipped to take that strong position, grounded in the faith, you will find that you can push those worries and fears right out of your mind, right into the hands of Jesus, and you can remain in peace.