Don't Waste Your Worry
Don't Waste Your Worry
2 Chronicles 20:1-22
Worry is wasted when it drives us away from God, but it becomes useful when it drives us toward God.
1. Worry shows up when the problem is real
After this, the Moabites and Ammonites with some of the Meunites came to wage war against Jehoshaphat. -2 Chronicles 20:1
2 Some people came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Dead Sea. It is already in Hazezon Tamar” (that is, En Gedi).
-2 Chronicles 20:2
Because sometimes the most life-altering moments don’t come from who said it… but from what was said.
Many times, what shakes us isn’t the battle itself—but the news about it.
2. Worry Becomes Waste When You Don't Know Where to Take It
3 Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah.
-2 Chronicles 20:3
Fear may be involuntary. But where you take your fear is a choice.
Before anything changed outside, something changed inside.
Worry becomes wasted when I spend all my energy trying to control something only God can control.
4 The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him. -2 Chronicles 20:4
What they found together before God is still how God meets us when we stop carrying things alone.
3. Don’t waste your worry forgetting God’s faithfulness
5 Then Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the Lord in the front of the new courtyard 6 and said: “Lord, the God of our ancestors, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. -2 Chronicles 20:5-6
Pressure is where perspective gets reset
7 Our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? 8 They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying, 9 ‘If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.’ -2 Chronicles 20:7-9
- Remembrance builds confidence that worry cannot survive.
10 “But now here are men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt; so they turned away from them and did not destroy them. 11 See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance. -2 Chronicles 20:10-11
- Faith doesn’t deny the problem—it refuses to let the problem speak first.
12 Our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”-2 Chronicles 20:12
- The turning point is when the focus is no longer what we can face—but who we must look to.”
4. Worry becomes heavy when you carry what God never gave you
15 He said: “Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the Lord says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s. 16 Tomorrow march down against them. They will be climbing up by the Pass of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the Desert of Jeruel. 17 You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.’” -2 Chronicles 20:15-17
- Trust begins when I stop trying to be God—and start trusting God to be God.
5. Worry is not wasted when it leads you to movement
18 Jehoshaphat bowed down with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the Lord. 19 Then some Levites from the Kohathites and Korahites stood up and praised the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice. 20Early in the morning they left for the Desert of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful.”-2 Chronicles 20:18-20
- Surrender doesn’t stop the story—it starts the movement.
21After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his[c] holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.” 22As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. -2 Chronicles 20:21-22
- Worry becomes waste when it keeps you stuck.
- But worry becomes faith when it moves you forward.