Stop Pretending Worry Is Planning

Worry can feel like proof you care, but it often acts like a silent thief, stealing peace, draining energy, and pulling you out of the moment. I share my own story of living with constant worry always-on, anxiety, starting as a kid I worried about money and the future and growing into an adult who tried to manage life through control. The turning point came when I finally saw that worry wasn’t just “how I am,” it was a pattern I learned and a burden I was never meant to carry. 

We dig into why worry is so persuasive and why it masquerades as responsibility. At its core, worry tries to control outcomes you cannot control, creating a false sense of preparedness while quietly replacing trust in God. From there, we walk through practical, biblical tools for overcoming worry and anxiety: Philippians 4:6 shows how to bring anxious thoughts to God with prayer, petition, and thanksgiving, and why gratitude is a perspective shift that breaks the doomsday loop. 

We also unpack Matthew 6, including the daily invitation of Matthew 6:34: tomorrow is not yours to carry. That truth leads to daily dependence, present-moment faith, and a lighter way to live, even when life stays loud and messy. If you’ve been stuck in anxious thinking for years, this is a reminder that you’re not broken and you’re not alone. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs peace, and leave a review with what line hit you the hardest.

Music by AlexGrohl from Pixabay

Transcript

When Worry Becomes Your Default

Freedom From Worry Through Scripture

Daily Transformation And Being Set Apart

The Childhood Story Behind The Fear

Why Worry Is Really About Control

Philippians 4:6 Prayer And Gratitude

Matthew 6 Trusting God To Provide

Matthew 6:34 Daily Dependence

Practical Steps To Catch Worry

Closing Prayer And Final Words

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to Kingdom Chaos, a podcast for anyone trying to live a purpose and faith-filled life in a loud and messy world. Jesus said his kingdom in another story, yet here we are navigating real life and real struggles. I'm not a guru, just someone learning that God's grace meets us even in the chaos. This is Kingdom Chaos where faith meets real life and purpose is still found in the mess. Hey, welcome back to Kingdom Chaos. My name is Troy, and today I want to talk to you about something that for a long time I didn't just struggle with, but it actually defined me, and that's worry. And I'm not talking about the occasional stress or having a lot going on in your life. I mean a constant, always running in the background, never really shutting off in your mind, type of a worry. In fact, I don't remember a time in my life where I wasn't a worrier. I can remember being a kid like eight years old, worried about things no kid should ever be thinking about. I worried about money. I worried about my parents and how they're going to pay bills. I worried about what might happen next. Uh just that mindset that didn't go away. It followed me through adulthood and it just kind of changed shape when I got to adulthood. I worried about work and family and the future and just things that didn't, you know, that hadn't happened yet. And the crazy part, uh, I just thought that was normal. I thought I it meant I cared. I thought it meant I was being responsible, uh, but I didn't realize at the time uh worry was quietly stealing my peace, it was draining my energy, and it was uh really controlling my life. And even more than that, I didn't realize that underneath all of it, worry was really about control, trying to control outcomes, trying to predict the future, trying to carry things that uh for me I was never meant to carry in the first place. But then one day I heard a message. I was sitting at my desk at work, uh, and it was lunchtime, and I was listening to this guy preach a message over Matthew chapter six, and it broke me in a good way. Because for the first time I realized something that I had never considered. I didn't have to live like this, that there was actually freedom from worry. Not because my life was going to get easier, but because God meets us in it differently. So today I want to talk about that, what worry really is, why it has such a stronghold on us, and how God can begin to transform us, not just once, but daily, into people that trust Him instead of trying to control everything ourselves. I didn't just worry, I lived in worry. It was my normal, it was my default, my way of thinking about everything. God transforms us daily, though, not just one time. I I know we think about salvation as our transformation, our transformation from death to life. We think of salvation as the only transformation sometimes, but that's not necessarily the case. Just like our testimony, uh, we have a testimony that's an overall testimony, but within our testimony, we have many small testimonies, many small stories. It's kind of what I'm doing with this podcast. Is me and Amy told you our large overall testimony that's continuing to be written now, but also within that, right now I'm telling you different stories that are part of our testimony, or kind of little testimonies within that. And so in our larger transformation, God has all these small transformations, they're daily transformations. You know, our salvation, our justification in Christ, it happens immediately. But our transformation happens daily, it is a process and it's a daily renewal, daily reshaping, and it also there's a starting point to that. There's a it's a daily surrender that we have to have. You know, in Leviticus, in chapter 11 and chapter 19, and also some in the New Testament, I think 1 Peter talks about be holy because I am holy. Holy is not perfection. We're not to be perfect as God is perfect. Holy is to be set apart, to be different from this world. We're in this world, but we're not of this world. That's what kingdom chaos is. That's what this podcast is named for, because we are part of a kingdom, we're citizens of heaven, but right now we live in this world that seems to just be chaotic, right? But we are to be different in this world and not be the same as the people in this world. We are to look different, we're to look Christ-like, not of ourselves, but of Christ. And we're to be set apart, and that's what holy is be holy as I am holy, and as a process, every day as we seek and surrender to God, He continues to change us in that process. So, where did worry start in my life? Let's start with a story in my life that kind of started to shape me and what worry was in my life. So, in childhood, I mentioned about when I was eight years old or so. I remember the specific story that I uh, or at least this memory that I have of this time period in my life where my parents lost their job. Now, I don't necessarily know if that's true or if that's just my recollection of it. Maybe one of them lost their job, maybe neither one of them lost their job. I have no idea. But the memory I have is that uh I was scared because I didn't know how they were gonna pay bills. I didn't know if we were gonna still live in our house, and I'm under 10. And I why am I thinking about these things? But uh it was just a a fear of the uncertainty, and I and it started to shape me very early on, and this was a learned pattern, so I was always thinking ahead and I was always bracing for the future or what was to come or you know the things that would happen. I didn't realize worry had become part of my identity at the time, and so what worry was really doing it was just this constant mental noise that I always had in my head. It it was a lack of peace because the future was uh you know under my control, but I didn't know what was gonna happen, so I had to try to affect the future, and I was always expecting these problems to happen. I didn't know what is the water heater gonna break, or am I gonna have my job, or do I have enough bill, no money to pay my bills this month? And I was never fully present in my family, I was never fully present in the moment, and I think that is what kind of started to shape my life of being a workaholic because I wanted to provide for my family and I wanted to protect my family, but what it did was drove it drove me away from my family because it was all about I had to control, I had to take care of the future, and I couldn't live in the present. And I tell you what, looking back, it was absolutely exhausting. And the truth about worry is it's a control problem. Worry is trying to control outcomes you can't control. It creates it creates this uh this false sense of preparedness, like I'm trying to prepare for the future, but actually have no idea what the future is gonna hold. I mean, I I'm trying to prepare for the future, but I don't know if I'm gonna get fired one day. I don't know if I'm going to uh need money for a broken water heater or my car breaks down, or so I'm always trying to prepare, but who knows what's gonna happen? Am I am I prepared enough? Are you ever prepared enough for things? I mean, uh you don't know what is gonna happen in the future, and it's just a false sense of protection, like okay, I'm okay, I'm good. Well, the thing is, okay, let me say let's say I I save money and I'm preparing in case I lose my job, but if I lose my job, then I have enough money for a couple of months. What happens in six months if I don't have a job? Am I really prepared and protected for that time? It it's just a false sense of control. And in reality, it replaces the trust we should have in God. I I was not trusting God with my life. I was I was trying to control every piece of my life, and and worry is controlled dressed up in responsibility. You can't stop worrying from entering in your mind, but what you can do is you can control the response you have to worry. And when those thoughts come into your mind, what do you do? You know, the thoughts will come, we're human, fear will come, it'll happen because you just can't stop that stuff from from coming in. But you know, you you might not be able to control that first thought, but you can control what you do with it. So Philippians 4 6. This is our first scripture we're gonna bring in, and it's the first scripture that really affects me a lot in my in my anxiousness and my worry. It says, Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your quest to God. Now, in this, I want to make sure that we don't skip over the thanksgiving. We need to make sure we're grateful to God and the things that we do have, the things that He has provided, no matter what the circumstances are. So if we go back to that, okay, lost my job, I've got some savings for a couple of months, that there's a lot of things to be thankful for. First and foremost, you can be thankful that you can go to God, that he's there, that when you walk through these valleys, you always have him present. Uh, you can be thankful for if I'm looking at my own situation, I can be thankful for my wife, my kids, I can be thankful for a home, uh, cars. There's there's a lot of things. I mean, you can go as simple as indoor plumbing and clean water. There's a lot of people in the world that don't have those things. I can be thankful for that. So when you go to God and you give him your anxiousness, your worry, your stresses, make sure that you are thankful to God for the things that he has given you. And what this can do, it can make a shift in our way of thinking. It replaces worry with prayer, it replaces fear with surrender, and thanksgiving is a shift of perspective, a shift of perspective in where we're at in our life. Because if all we do is take our anxiousness and worry to God and we don't look at the things we can be grateful for, then it's always doomsday. There's nothing good in this life if all we do is look at the bad. There are good things in this world, and there are good things that are happening to you that God has blessed you with, and we need to acknowledge those. Now, as I had this revelation when I heard this message in Matthew 6 about worry, I realized how much of a worrier I was and how much control I needed to have, and how much I was not trusting God. And as I read this passage and heard this sermon, I realized that it's talking about, you know, God is feeding the birds, he's feeding nature, he's doing everything that those animals, those creatures, those insects, those uh uh every everything outside of humanity, of humans, they're being taken care of by God. And within this passage, it talks about, you know, they're not sowing, they're not reaping, they're not planting, they're not watering, but that's what we're doing, right? And in this, the weird thing that I saw in this passage was that we're actually being used by God sometimes to feed nature. You know, if you drop some food on the ground and some insects come and eat it, or you plant some crops and some animals, maybe deer or uh birds, eat some of those fruits or seeds or whatnot, or if you drop something in the ocean, or you have a pond at your home and you're have a fish feeder or something like that. God is you're not actually feeding those. I mean, you are in some sense, obviously, but God is using you to feed nature. And when I looked at that, I was like, man, you know, I'm not actually providing and protecting my family. God is. He happens to be using me, and that was so freeing because the stress and weight that I thought I needed to carry for my family was lifted off, and I could trust God in that. Did I still have to do the actions? Sure, I did, but it wasn't the stress and worry and weight that I carried. It was not my burden, it was God's burden to protect and provide. He just happened to use myself to do so. Now in Matthew 6.34, we look at this and it says, Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. I want to look at uh, you know, break this scripture down into three sections. Uh therefore, do not worry about tomorrow. God addresses worry directly. Do not worry about tomorrow. He says that specifically, don't worry about tomorrow. Then he points to a daily dependence. At the end of the verse, it those last few words says, Each day has enough trouble of its own. It's a daily dependence. You you have enough trouble today to bring to God and to trust him and allow him to work. Don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow has its own troubles that you'll have to bring to God. Worry about today. And then we look at it says, uh, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Tomorrow is not yours to carry. Tomorrow is not yours to carry. Tomorrow will worry about itself. Tomorrow we will go to God with those things. Today we need to be in the present, bring those present day struggles and stresses to God and release that to Him and trust Him in those daily activities. The turning point and the breakthrough in my life was hearing that sermon. It was realizing that it is not just who I am or how I am. I don't have to live like that. I realized there was there was freedom from that, and I could get that freedom, but I had to catch all those thoughts and recognize my my worries early. I had to name them that this worry is not truth. I had to give it immediately to God so I didn't sit in it. That's where Philippians 4 6 takes action. I had to stay present because worry always lives in the future. You're always trying to control what might happen, that you don't even know what's going to happen yet, but you're trying to control that. And God meets us today, in your today. Replace truth with scripture. Speak scripture over your life and over your thoughts. Whenever you find promises in the Bible, even Google them. What are promises in the Bible I can hold on to? And when you find those, put yourself in those. Name yourself in those and claim victory through the promises of God and practice daily surrender. I had to practice that daily surrender. It's not a one-time freedom, it's a daily alignment, always being aligned with God, having that quiet time, connecting with Him, giving the day to Him. He will take care of today as well as tomorrow, but giving the day today to Him and surrendering that. You may have lived with worry for years, but that doesn't mean you have to stay there. You're not broken, you're not stuck, and you're not alone. Lord, I just thank you so much for you freeing me from worry. I thank you so much for helping release that control from me. And I know it's a daily process, God, and I need your help in that. I know I still try to control things today, and I need help releasing that. I need help having faith, that trust in you. Teach me to trust in you daily, not just occasionally. Lord, I pray this over everyone listening, that they are also able to release that control. That if they're married or single, in any kind of relationship, whatever is going on in their lives, whether it's financial or a job, that they're able to release control to you, replacing that worry with your peace, being able to let that go and surrender to you every single day, Lord. Help us in this. We need you in every way. In Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. I actually did all right. Woohoo!