daily devotional

Worry Is Worthless

Read Psalm 57:1

Worry is a complete waste of energy. It solves nothing. 

That's why Jesus said, "Which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life's span?" (Matthew 6:27). In essence He was saying, "You go to bed tonight and fret and fuss because you're not five feet, 11 inches; you're only five feet, nine inches. But when you wake up in the morning, you're still going to be five feet, nine inches." 

Worry will never make you stretch! And it won't solve that anxiety on your mind either.

Let me be completely candid here. Do you know why we worry? We have a quiet, hidden love for worry. We enjoy it! When one worry is gone, we replace it with another. There's always a line of worries waiting to get in the door. So as one goes out the back door, we usher in the next one through the front door. We enjoy entertaining them. 

Worries are our mental and emotional companions. But Jesus says, in effect, that they're worthless!

Excerpted from Charles R. Swindoll, Wisdom for the Way (Nashville: J. Countryman, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2001). Copyright © 2001 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.