Romans 4:1-3 (NKJV) 1 What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
For the last two weeks, we have been studying how to overcome worry. I believe worry is one of the most debilitating things we face in life. Worry robs us of faith, keeps us in fear and paralyzes us from doing the things we need to do. Worry can cause physical and emotional problems. Worry destroys relationships. Most important, worry blocks the flow of the supernatural in the life of a believer. We need to get rid of worry.
I want to be sure that we understand that I am not saying we are somehow bad if we worry. Everyone worries. Condemnation does not help us overcome spiritual problems. On the contrary, condemnation will seal those problems to our lives. What we must do is deal with the problem not just feel guilty for it. How can I deal with the problem of worry?
We have looked at the words of Jesus in Matthew 6 and the words of Paul in Philippians 4. This week I want to look at more of what Paul had to say but the experience belongs to Abraham. Romans 4 is a textbook on the operation of Faith. It is a step-by-step account of what Abraham did that enabled him to believe God and receive a promise after 25 years of waiting.
What we will see in Abraham’s life is the opposite of what we experience when we worry. Before we get into what Abraham did, I want to look at the first three verses of Romans 4. Paul opens this chapter with a question. “What shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?” What has Abraham found?
Paul calls Abraham our father. Paul is not writing to the Jews he is writing to the Romans. More specifically to the church at Rome. Although there may have been believers in this church that were Jewish, they are not his target audience for this letter. Abraham is the ancestral father of the Hebrew people but not of all Christian people. What is Paul talking about here? Many biblical scholars refer to Abraham as the father of our faith.
How is Abraham, an Old Testament patriarch the father of a 21st century Christian’s faith? Jesus is called the author and finisher of our faith in Hebrews 12. We can understand how that could be true but how is Abraham its father? The answer lies in what he discovered.
Worry is not something upon which we stumble. Worry is a process. It begins with some kind of bad news or potential for a bad outcome in some area of life. We begin to think about the potential risk. We dwell on it and play scenarios and conversations in our mind. These “mental games” fall into two categories. One is the imagining of how this bad thing will play out and how it will affect our future. The other is in the form of all the ways we can figure out to deal with the problem.
We have all been through this process. It usually builds until it so takes hold of us that, depending on the degree of risk involved, we cannot get away from it. We talk about it to people who will listen, especially those who are close to us. We cannot sleep. The worry thought will creep into our minds unbidden. Finally, we become completely convinced that what we are worried about will happen. In some cases, we become so resigned to the eventual results that we begin to act accordingly even though nothing has happened. The worry scenario becomes our reality and it usually ends up happening.
I want to say again that this is a process. The problem is that it is a process that has become almost second nature to most human beings. We are conditioned to worry. The conditioning started at the fall of man in the Garden of Eden and all cultures and societies are subject to the conditioning. This process is so ingrained in us that it does not seem like a process at all. It seems like a normal and reasonable response to troubling news or difficult times.
What Abraham found that makes him the father of our faith is that faith is also a process. A process that is the direct opposite to the process of worry. The steps are almost identical to worry but in the opposite direction. The difference is that the process of faith has not been ingrained in us by our culture or our society. Whereas worry seems normal, faith often seems extreme and even foolish.
Abraham found that he could apply a process that overcame worry and fear while it strengthened and released faith in God. He is probably not the first one to exercise this process but he is the one that the bible reveals to us as its author. God accepted Abraham based on his faith. We can examine the process his faith followed, find the same acceptance, and receive our promises just as Abraham received his.
The process of faith and the process of worry follow and almost identical pattern. We must understand that you cannot do both at the same time. It is certainly possible to switch between the two regularly. I have done that many times. However, we can only work one of these processes at a time. The difficulty we face is that the process of worry has become automatic while the process of faith must be applied. Worry usually feels like we are being responsible while faith feels like we are ignoring the problem. This is important for us to understand.
What we must do is first begin to apply the process of faith and then keep applying it until it replaces worry as our default response to trouble. That is what Abraham did. It took him a long time to do it. Sarah, his wife, never really got to that point. If we want to eliminate worry from our lives, this is the only way to do it.
Before we look at the steps involved in the process of faith, take a moment to think about the things worrying you today. Recognize how the process is progressing in your heart and mind. You may be at the beginning of the process or worry may have taken hold of your whole life. Either way, make a decision as we go over this powerful chapter that you are going to replace the worry process with the faith process.
This will not be easy. Worry is deeply ingrained in almost everyone. Nevertheless, it is possible to overcome it. There is nothing in the process of faith that takes special talent or education beyond what we find in the Word of God. Not only that, if you are a Christian, the process of faith is natural to your inner man. The Holy Spirit is there to help you apply the process.
The most important thing you and I need to do is make a commitment to replace worry with faith. As we do, the power in the Word of God will enable us. If we continue to train in this area, the faith process will become automatic and worry will gradually lose its hold over us.
Leave a Reply