We will now consider how the power of negative thinking can help put away divided-mind syndrome.
This works for those who love the Lord, who want to live lives pleasing to Him.
It is not for the non-Christian, or for the supposed Christian who is not truly born again.
The apparently negative concept is the fact that divided-mind syndrome (including worry, fear, panic, etc.) is a SIN.
If we love God, we will shun the divided-mind syndrome, not just because it is uncomfortable,
but because it is hateful to God.
Let’s consider some of the reasons why worry is hateful to God (the most important reasons are at the end).
1. Worry indicates prayerlessness.
If we are really committing everything to God in prayer, and if we pray in faith, not just as a routine ritual, then we will know that God has received our prayer, that He has taken our matters and interests into His care.
If we don’t commit matters to God in prayer, then, not only do we lack that assurance that I referred to above, but we commit the sin of prayerlessness.
Samuel realized this, which is why he prayed consistently for the situations that were arising in the nation over which God appointed him as judge. When God brings or permits a situation into our lives, He expects us to pray concerning that situation, to look to Him for our solutions.
1 Samuel 12:23 Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: …
2. Worry harms the Temple of God.
We know that having a divided mind concerning God’s care, concerning His faithfulness to us, causes tension, and tension (apart from making us feel unwell) causes a whole host of physical illnesses, including high blood pressure, high blood sugar (which can eventually lead to diabetes), gastric, peptic and duodenal ulcers, constriction of the arteries (which can lead to heart problems), constriction of capillaries in the brain (which can lead to migraine headaches), etc., etc.
1 Corinthians 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
3. Worry disturbs family life which is so important to God.
Can you imagine a person who is double-minded or filled with worries and fears about many of life’s issues, being truly obedient to the following commandments:
Ephesians 5:22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
5:33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
In fact, a worrying wife will nag her husband, and a worrying husband will “take it out” on his wife.
A wife with a divided mind will be divided between her husband and her children, between her husband and her home, between her husband and his mother, between her husband and her personal desires.
A husband with a divided mind will be divided between his wife and his children, his wife and his job, his career, his business or ambitions, between his wife and perhaps another woman, etc.
In a home in which even one of the married partners suffers from worry or a divided mind, family harmony becomes difficult, if not impossible.
Disharmony could lead to quarrels (often loud quarrels that the neighbors can hear), or adultery, or divorce, or separation.
The relationship between a born again husband and wife is intended to be a picture (a type) of the relationship between Yeshua the Messiah and His church (His called out ones). This picture is distorted, cracked, destroyed, when there is disharmony between husband and wife.
And the root cause of the disharmony (the real culprit) is double-mindedness and worry and fears.
4. Worry undermines Christian witness.
Yeshua taught us that our lives ought to glorify our Father Who is in heaven (Matthew 5:16).
Matthew 5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Paul tell us to be undivided in our affections, setting them on the things above and not on the things beneath.
Colossians 3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
This is a natural and easy requirement for those who realize the truth of what Paul taught in Ephesians:
Ephesians 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, …
6 … hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
If we realize that we are already sitting together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, we will be full of joy and hope, and there will be no fear in our lives.
1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
If we live as the Scriptures tell us to, with the light of Messiah in us, fearlessly, full of hope, then this will trigger people to ask us the secret of that hope.
1 Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you …
Some years ago, I was in Jakarta, Indonesia. The government at that time had passed a law that was going to adversely affect the construction business. I was in the home of a born-again builder, and he was full of hope, with a complete absence of worry and fear. While I was there, a friend of his, a fellow businessman also in the construction business, visited him and the two were discussing the implications of the new law. My friend was radiating joy, his friend was downcast with worry. At last his (Muslim) friend asked him, “What’s your secret? I’ve noticed that nothing ever gets you down. Not even this law. What is the cause of your unfailing joy and hope?”
My friend said, “If you really want to know, I’ll share my secret with you.”
“I really want to know,” came the reply.
My friend gave him a tract written in the Indonesian language, a tract addressed to businessmen. It was a tract that the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International used to give to non-believers people who came to their meetings.
My friend said, “Read this, and come tomorrow, if you’re still interested, and we’ll talk some more, and I have another gift for you.” (He told me later that this gift would be the New Testament in the Indonesian language.)
His Muslim friend took the tract gratefully and went home.
In an hour, there was a telephone call from him. An appointment was fixed for the next evening.
My friend explained that under Indonesian law, preaching the gospel to a Muslim was strictly forbidden, and the penalties were severe if a Muslim complained. But if the Muslim asked for the gospel, the Christian was permitted to answer. And, of course, the one who asked would never complain to the authorities. If he was converted of his own free will, it was permitted.
And that is how the church of Jesus Christ grew in Muslim-majority Indonesia. That was the secret of the revival there, which I personally witnessed.
That is Christian witness. Not starting with the giving of tracts, but starting with the living of a life that glorifies God because filled with joy and hope (which implies absence of fear).
5. Most important reason why worry is a sin: Worry is distrust in the truthfulness of God!
God has given us wonderful promises. But distrust and worry say: “You are lying, O God!”
That is the fearful, panicky, distrustful reaction to the glorious promises of God which is the cardinal sin of the one with the divided mind..
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
(You are lying, O God!)
Mark 7:37 And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
(You are lying, O God!)
Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
(You are lying, O God!)
Philippians 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
(You are lying, O God!)
Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
(You are lying, O God!)
1 Peter 5:7 Cast… all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
(You are lying, O God!)
Matthew 6:31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
(You are lying, O God!)
“You are lying, O God!” is a lie from the pits of hell.
To worry, to have a divided mind, is to believe that lie from hell.
If you meditate on these things, if you have at heart a faith in God’s truthfulness, you will begin to regard worry and the double mind as filthy, hideous things to flee from. You will feel a revulsion for them. You will reject fear, worry, nervousness, anxiety, panic… together with all the ineffective tactics, you’ve been using to cope.
And if that doesn’t rid you of them, you will plead and plead with God to take them away.
And He will, because you will be asking according to His will.
1 John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
If you did not come to this page from Philippians 4:4-8, I suggest you go there and see how this teaching fits there.
Bibloscope 