1 Peter 5:7 “Casting all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.”

You already know this, so let’s say it plainly: Worry is a sin. It wastes God’s gifts of time and ability. It accomplishes nothing. In the movie Bridge of Spies, lawyer James Donovan defends Russian spy Rudolf Abel during the Cold War. In the movie Donovan is awed by Abel’s complete sense of calm about his fate. “You could get the death penalty for being a spy,” he tells Abel. “Aren’t you worried?” “Would it help?” Abel replies several times as the story unfolds.

“Would it help?” Of course, the answer is, “No, it never helps.” It robs us of sleep. It makes us sick. It wastes our time. Worry never helps. “Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to his life?” Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount. “Worry,” Jesus says, “is what the pagans, who don’t know they have a loving Father in heaven, do.”

Worse, worry is an obstacle to faith. It is a way of saying to God, “I don’t think your promises are any good. I don’t think you are as powerful as you say you are. And I don’t think you love me like you say you do. I think you may be a liar.” We might not have the gall to say those words to God out loud, but we don’t have to. Our worry says it for us. Worry is not something to hold on to.

Why not worry? “He cares for you.” If there is one thing our Lord has finally and definitely proved, it is the fact that he cares for you. What more could he do than to leave heaven; permanently dress himself in a human body; live among a people who not only didn’t like him, they were trying to kill him from the time he was two years old; surrender himself to the bullies who plotted his death; keep his mouth shut at his trial to ensure his conviction; let himself be executed by the most painful method available at the time on a cross; die with the responsibility for our sins on his back and set us free from their guilt and punishment at no cost to us? The cross is screaming at us, “He cares for you! He cares for you!” every time we see it. He was not afraid to humble himself to save us. What have we got to lose?

Isn’t this the story of the entire Bible? It describes every involvement God ever made in our world from beginning to end. “God cares for you” is a feature of every Bible account, and he is still caring for you as he unfolds the story of your life. It gives us the confidence to let worry go while we wait for this chapter of the story to close. In the one that follows, peace and glory never end.