Worry is the product of high stakes and low control, coupled with expecting the worst. There’s no greater enemy of happiness.

There’s a subtle aspect to worry: if we care, we think we should worry, as if that will help somehow. In fact, worry has absolutely no redemptive value. When good things are happening, we’re worried that bad things will come. When bad things happen, we worry that worse things will come.

Jesus asked, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?” (Luke 12:25, NIV). Nothing is more impotent than worry, and nothing so robs us of happiness in Christ.

Just after instructing us to rejoice in the Lord, Paul writes in Philippians 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything.” Worry is a killjoy. It specializes in worst-case scenarios—in contrast, God tells His children there is much that should make us rejoice:

• He has already rescued us from the worst, which is eternal Hell.
• Even if something terrible happens, He’ll use it for our eternal good.
• Often bad things don’t happen, and our worry proves groundless.
• Whether or not bad things happen, our worry generates no positive change.
• The cause for all our worries—sin and the Curse—is temporary, and will soon be behind us. Forever.

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