Insight 13: How to Deal with Worry

Growing a ministry and expanding the work you do is something that one can’t do in their own capacity. You can’t rely on your own power to do ministry; you can’t rely on your own ideas… you have to put your trust in the Lord. You have to know what you are responsible for and what God is responsible for. Remember Paul said, “I planted, Apollos watered and the Lord brought the increase.” Ministry is never meant to be done alone. You have a part to play, the people that God sends your way also have a role to play and guess what, God has a role to play as well. He surely wants to play the part, but sometimes we don’t allow Him to. When you start working out ministry by yourself you can easily be strained, and depressed and in no time, you will think of giving up. So, think about it –

Firstly, the things that are worrying you right now are they your responsibility or God’s responsibility?

Secondly, the things that you are worried about right now… are they are a priority? Are those things major or minor? They say at times we major in minors. So, you might be worried about something in your ministry or church that has very little to do with the core work of the Lord.

Is the issue you are worried about worthy you giving up on your calling,  purpose or giving up on God?

Here is the thing about giving up – the more you give it up to God the more you will never give up on God. Peter in the book of 1 Peter 5:7 says “Pour out all your worries and stress upon him and leave them there, for he always tenderly cares for you” TPT.

When you give it up to the Lord, you will never give up on Him. But how do you give up your concerns to Him? How do you pour out your worries and stress upon the Lord? How do you cast all your concerns to the Lord?

Here are 3 quick steps that you can do;

1. The best place for us to start is on our knees, with our hands lifted – surrendering to the Lord, expressing our reverence, respect, and love to Him. When we surrender to the Lord, we are saying I know who you are in the midst of the chaos or situation that I am in… you are greater than what I am facing – you are bigger than this situation. Worship is a place of exalting God, a place of magnifying Him higher than what is bothering you. Worship is a posture of saying my God is greater.

What we learn from Peter stepping out of the boat, walking on water and then sinking is that worry often comes when we lose our focus on the Lord. When we stop focusing on the Lord and we focus on the waves, we start sinking immediately. Now look at this – the opposite is also true; we lose worry when we focus on the Lord – the moment we focus on the Lord we start letting go of worry. So next time you feel worried get into worship mode.

I don’t know about you – but this is something that you have to work on as a leader. Have a culture of worship, a culture of magnifying God on your own, with your family, with your team or as a church.

2. Sink yourself in the word of God. Make time for the word to speak to you. Let it renew your mind. When you worry you are allowing your mind to dwell on current or anticipated difficulties or troubles. I believe you have to give up your concerns or worries by replacing that pattern of thinking and allowing your thoughts, perspective and understanding to be renewed by the word of God. When you sink yourself in the word you will slowly but surely spark a fire of faith in your spirit because faith comes by hearing the word of God.

2. Pray. Pray first in the spirit. Praying in the spirit

-Edifies you, it strengthens your spirit.

– Helps you address the root of the problem without you even knowing it.

-Praying in the spirit aligns you with God.

Pray yourself up and talk to God. Have a conversation with Him and ask what you should do. Ask for wisdom to navigate the situation and trust Him to answer you.

As we do our work of ministry, we have to wait on the Lord. Wait on Him to fulfil the promises, wait on Him to bring the vision to fruition. When you wait on the Lord, He will renew your strength.

Take a stand in worship, in the His word and in prayer and do what the Lord has called you to do. Start a personal revival, start lighting your lamp.