The Problem With Fretting

I don’t believe I have ever heard a sermon on fretting. Have you? Yet fretting is going to be a substantial problem in the future for Christians in the United States. We are seeing our religion and our values being trampled on, and there is not a great deal we can do about it, it seems.

Probably the main problem with fretting is that it tears us down from our high place in God. Instead of rejoicing we are complaining, forgetting that God is in control of all people and circumstances.

The thirty-seventh Psalm is one of my favourites. It commands us not to sin. Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong; (Palms 37:1)

Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil. (Psalms 37:8)

Do not fret! Do not fret—it leads only to evil.

I don’t know about you, but I believe the Bible. If the Bible tells us not to fret, and that fretting leads to evil, I believe what it says and ask Jesus to help me obey the commandment.

Many people in America are upset. This includes many Christians. Some of the believers are able to do something, such as resisting the public schools when they teach kindergarten children alternative sexual life styles.

In some cases we are helpless. I have read that there are those who are planning to rewrite the Constitution so it will be more in line with a socialist viewpoint. Apparently this is being taken seriously and it is hoped will be implemented within ten years.

There is a problem with the American financial structure and possibly with the value of the dollar. One of the first signs that a nation is displeasing God is financial problems. A second sign is that other countries or peoples rise up as enemies. Both of these signs are present in America today.

The religion of Islam is making headway in our country. We Americans traditionally have been at least nominally Christian. However our behavior in many instances is more of Satan than of Christ. The Muslim people can see this and desire to keep American values from influencing their nations. Who could blame them?

So America is at a crossroads. The temptation will be for us to fret. Yet there often is not much more we can do concerning the abominations we read about in the paper.

But fretting is sinful. We need to know this. The Apostle Paul commanded us to rejoice always and to think about things that are lovely. When we do not do this, and fret instead, we lose our strength. It is Satan’s way of pulling us down from our high place in God.

In order to destroy our Christian testimony, Satan does not have to seduce us into pornography, although he has successfully accomplished such seduction in the lives of numerous Christians and ministers.

No, all Satan has to do is to seduce us into fretting. By so doing he weakens our spiritual strength and consequently our testimony.

Perhaps you did not realize fretting is a sin. It is, and a serious and destructive one. Sometimes people are led into destructive—even on occasion, unlawful behaviours—all because of the practice of fretting.

You may be ruining the atmosphere of your home by fretting about what some of the liberal politicians in your state government or the national government are saying and doing.

It is my personal opinion that the customary stereotypes of the liberals and the conservatives, the left-wingers and the right-wingers, no longer are accurate. It appears to me that the new division is between those who adhere to the moral principles of the Bible and those who have rejected these moral principles in favour of what I would term, "Antichrist" principles.

The Antichrist principles are based on the idea that belief in God is not really the attitude people should have. People do not need God. They can create a new world of peace and prosperity for everyone by the efforts of man apart from God. Man has no need for God in the new world order.

In actual truth, from the time of the Garden in Eden, people have had a better idea than that of obeying God. This rebellion of man against his Creator has come down through history to the present hour.

Whenever people have sought to obey the God of Heaven by keeping the covenants He has instituted, they have prospered. This is why America has been so prosperous.

But whenever people have sought to build without God, as in the Communist countries, they have not brought peace and prosperity. Because of the sinful nature of man, the power and wealth in the Communist countries have been transferred from one ruling class to the next.

This is what will take place in America, if a socialistic philosophy of government is put into practice. The wealth and power with be transferred from one group to another. We must remember that people are born with a sinful nature. Only stern obedience to God through the Lord Jesus Christ will bring the righteousness, love, peace, and joy, that all sane people desire.

So fretting about the wickedness of our leaders will not accomplish our desires. Rather, each one of us must press into Jesus Christ every moment of every day, and every night when we are awake. In so doing we will save ourselves and those who will listen to us.

As we serve Christ diligently, He will see to it that we have what we need. Should we die, we will not die spiritually but will walk into His Presence in a state of love, peace, and joy the wicked can never experience.

But as for those who are choosing a life without Jesus Christ, who are rejecting the Bible, they may prosper for a season. They may scorn those "weak Christians" who live by faith in God and attempt to obey His commands. When I hear the righteous being scorned, I know their enemies have run out of ammunition.

But I promise the wicked that their end will be worse than anything they can imagine. And their pain may begin in this present world. The day will come more certainly than the rising of the sun in the morning that the righteous will be singing and dancing in the heights of Zion while the wicked are experiencing horror at the hands of those spirits who have rebelled against God and His Christ.

Consider the blameless, observe the upright; there is a future for the man of peace. But all sinners will be destroyed; the future of the wicked will be cut off. (Psalms 37:37,38)

Keeping the above passage in mind may help you as you seek to overcome the spirit of fretting.