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Destroying
The Worry Tree
The
vigor and tenacity of life in a tree is determined largely
by the soil in which it grows. I lived for many years in a
State where the soil is fertile, the ground level, and
where beech trees were very numerous. I had occasion to
girdle many of them and observed that they were very
easily killed. Previously to this time I had lived in
another State where the soil is clay and the country very
hilly. Here the beech trees were very hard to kill.
I remember a neighbor's killing a tree that stood by the
roadside. He not only girdled it, but the boys climbed the
tree and cut off the branches a little distance from the
trunk. These were then piled around the tree and burned. I
wondered why they were taking such radical steps to kill
the tree. The next spring I learned their reason. In spite
of all of this treatment the stubs of the branches that
had been cut off threw DUt new branches and leafed out.
The roots sprouted up and with all their labor they had
not accomplished their purpose. The difference was not in
the climate; it must have been in the soil.
We have already pointed out that the "worry
tree" grows in the soil of doubt. We can hold an
attitude ;hat is favorable to worry, fear, and other
things that have unpleasant consequences. On the other
hand we can hold an attitude of faith that is altogether
unfavorable toward these things. In order to destroy the
"worry tree" we should change the soil about its
roots. We cannot uproot it and destroy it by an act of our
will.. We can take away its favorable oil. We can develop
faith. We can believe in God and in ourselves. We can turn
our eyes away from our worries and our troubles and look
upon God. We can cease to fertilize the "worry
tree." We can cease to rob ourselves of our heritage
of victory willed to us by our heavenly Father.
We can have that rest of soul God has promised us. We can
find it only in him. But as long as we permit all our time
to be occupied with giving attention to our worries we
shall have no time to give to the cultivation of those
other things that God would freely develop in us that
would give us happiness and contentment. We so often
cultivate doubts instead of cultivating faith. It is
important that we learn how we are doing this, and then
adopt a different course. We can all have faith if we will
go about it right, and faith is the victory that
overcometh all of our troubles.
One of the best ways to get rid of worries is to ignore
the doubts upon which they are founded. Troubles let alone
have a way of curing themselves. As long as we fill our
brain with worry we increase our trouble. The less we
think about our troubles the smaller they become. The more
we think about them the more rapidly they grow, and the
less capable we are of overcoming them, or meeting them
successfully.
The surest way to get rid of the "worry tree" is
to cut it down with the ax of faith. There is no worry or
fear in trust. If I repeat this thought over and over, it
may sink deep into your heart and mind and that is what
you need. When you worry you do not trust. When you trust
you do not worry. You cannot do both these at one time.
Permit me to suggest a way to develop your faith. Take
your Bible and some paper. Write out a list of promises,
promises that meet your need. Read these promises over
every day. Read them until they become real to you.
Whenever you catch yourself worrying or fearing, get those
promises and read them. Say after you read each one,
"This is true, and it means me." Say this over
and over until you come to believe it. Perhaps at first
your words will mock you. Perhaps the promises will seem
to mock you. I have had the experience. I know how it
feels. I know too from personal experience that one can
keep right at it, reading these promises, asserting that
they are true, asserting that they mean us, until in our
own consciousness they do come to mean us. They come to
soothe and comfort us. They neutralize our fears. Little
by little we come to trust in them, and as we trust we
cease to worry. Our fears grow less. We come into a
restful attitude. There is a sure cure for all of our
worries if we take it. That cure is an attitude of simple
trust in God and his promises.
Worry is a mental habit. Children do not worry, or if they
do, it is only momentarily. There is a natural flexibility
to the human mind that throws off worry, until we rob it
of its flexibility by cultivating the habit of worrying.
Any habit can be broken, so the worry habit can be broken.
If you are troubled with worry, start in to break yourself
of it just as you would break yourself of any other
improper or hurtful habit. Worrying is an extremely
hurtful habit. It is an abnormal mental state possible of
correction and we owe it to ourselves to correct it.
We cannot help thoughts coming into our minds, but it is
within our power to direct our thoughts. We can repress
some of our thoughts. We can compel ourselves to quit
thinking along some lines. It is usually easier to
supplant improper thoughts with other brighter, more
cheerful thoughts. From a long experience of suffering,
confined to my bed, with nothing to do, being in fact
unable to do anything, and having gone to the depths of
discouragement, after facing black despair for months I
learned the lesson of supplanting these with better
thoughts. I found that I must keep my thoughts off myself;
so I deliberately turned my thoughts into other channels.
Of course the old gloomy thoughts reasserted themselves,
but as often as they came back I supplanted them with
something else, and finally broke myself completely of the
habit of worrying and of thinking depressing thoughts.
One thing very needful is the will not to worry. The power
of suggestion has a profound effect upon us. Our thoughts
have this power of suggestion. We can suggest negative
things to our mind, or we can suggest positive things. We
can suggest discouraging things, or we can suggest
encouraging things. We can make our minds run in the
channel in which we choose for them to run. Positive
suggestion is the basis of a happy and successful life.
Make your thoughts help you, rather than hinder you.
One trouble with many people is that they are always
resisting something. They are always on the defensive.
This attitude of resistance toward our circumstances nd
surroundings places us under a continuous strain. One
writer has said, "Most nervous patients are in a
constant state of muscular contraction; but a large
percentage of the things that harass and vex them, causing
them nervous tenseness, would cease to torture them if
they would simply stop resisting. It is our perpetual
resistance to annoying trifles that gives them power to
annoy us."
I do not advocate surrender to circumstances. What we need
is to adjust ourselves to them. This constant revolt
against circumstances so common in many people takes the
joy out of their lives. It keeps them under a perpetual
strain. It uses up their energy to no purpose. Do not use
up your energy resisting things. Displace the undesirable
thing by something else if that is possible. If not,
adjust yourself to it, make the best of it. Let us use in
these things as great intelligence as we do in other
things. When I am cold I do not resist the cold; I seek
warmth. When I am hungry I do not resist hunger; I seek
food. When I am weary, I rest. When I am anxious or
worried, I turn to faith and trust. The Psalmist said,
"What time I am afraid I will trust in thee." He
had learned the secret of overcoming trouble.
The word "worry" is not in the Bible. You may
look for it from cover to cover. You will not find it.
Since God did not see fit or think it necessary to use the
word "worry" in the Bible, or have it used, just
so it need not be in the Christian life. To be sure the
equivalent is in the Bible. We find fear, trouble, and
words of like nature, but we are commanded not to be
afraid, not to be troubled.
Many people are like those of whom the Psalmist speaks.
They are "in great fear, where no fear was" (Ps.
63: 5). The margin says, "They feared a fear where no
fear was." Most of our troubles are imaginary, or if
there is real trouble we add much to it through our
imagination and fear. Some people are so afraid of trouble
that they are never at rest. They are frightened at
nothing; even as it is written, "The sound of a
shaken leaf shall chase them" (Lev. 26: 36).
Listen to this promise: "Whoso hearkeneth unto me
shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of
evil" (Prov. 1: 33). Here is the promise that God
made for us through Abraham, "That he would grant
unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our
enemies might serve him without fear, . . . all the days
of our life" (Luke 1: 74-75).
The experience of the Psalmist may be our experience if we
will do as he did: "I sought the Lord, and he heard
me, and delivered me from all my fears" ( Ps. 34: 4).
We shall also do well to hold an attitude like that David
held. He said, "The Lord is my light and my
salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of
my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" (Ps. 27:1). The
result of holding that attitude is stated in verse three,
"Tho an host should encamp against me, I my heart
shall not fear: tho war should rise against me, in this
will I be confident." Read also Ps. 46: 1-2.
"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help
in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, tho the earth h
removed, and tho the mountains be carried into the | midst
of the sea." Again, "In God I have put my trust;
will not fear what flesh can do unto me" (Ps. 56: 4).
The exhortation of Christ is, "Be not anxious"
(Matt. 6:25, American Standard Version). Read also verses
81, 84; Luke 12: 25-26.
Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled"
(John 14:1). What reason does he give that we should not
be troubled? He continues, "Ye believe in God."
To him that was sufficient reason for not worrying. It
ought to be sufficient reason to us. In verse 27 he says,
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you....
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be
afraid."
Now, for a concluding thought which we shall do well to
keep fresh in our minds. When we trust in and obey God,
whatever comes to us must come in his will. It must come
by his permission. It cannot come without his knowledge.
His watchful care is ever over us. He will always keep us
no matter how many troubles come. Therefore if we abide in
him and his Word abide in us, we shall never have cause to
worry. We are safe and secure no matter how threatening
future or present troubles may be. So cut down your worry
tree with the ax of faith and rest in full assurance of
faith in the righteousness and love of God.
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