Two little words can have a profound impact on your state of mind: “What if”.
“What if” worries can fill our minds with so much noise they drown out our faith. At some point, we were so sure of our calling, of our purpose in God’s Kingdom. But, the worries, doubts, and fears wriggled and wormed their way into our heads and they aren’t leaving without a fight.
What if I mess up?
What if I didn’t hear God right?
What if I’m not really supposed to go in this direction?
What if …
And before we know it, we’ve stopped walking in our calling. We’re standing still.
How do we get rid of our worries?
We stop and switch.
Stop
The first step is to recognize when your mind starts heading in the direction of worry. We have to stop those “what if” thoughts in their tracks, before they settle in and become louder than the Holy Spirit. So, when our doubts and fears begin, we need to stop and think of Moses.
When God first told Moses that He was sending him as the messenger to Pharaoh to demand the release of the Jewish people, Moses said something like, “surely not me! Why would you pick me?” (Exodus 3). God’s response was:
“Assuredly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain” (Exodus 3:12).
This promise from God, however, doesn’t do it for Moses. He keeps questioning God and worrying over the assignment. Moses asks “what if they don’t believe me?” Can you relate? Do you struggle to believe God has an assignment for you?
In response, God told Moses He would perform miracles through Moses so that the people would know God was directing Moses: staff into snake (and back again), hand turned leprous (and back again), and turning the Nile river into blood (Exodus 4).
Nope. Still didn’t do it for Moses.
Moses was focused on himself and his worries. Next, Moses asked God to choose someone else because he wasn’t a good public speaker! God replies:
But the Lord said to him, “Who has made the human mouth? Or who makes anyone unable to speak or deaf, or able to see or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now then go, and I Myself will be with your mouth, and instruct you in what you are to say.” (Exodus 3:10-11)
When Moses still couldn’t shake his worries, God gets angry and responds:
13 But he said, “Please, Lord, now send the message by whomever You will.” 14 Then the anger of the Lord burned against Moses, and He said, “Is there not your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he speaks fluently. And moreover, behold, he is coming out to meet you; when he sees you, he will be overjoyed. 15 So you are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I Myself will be with your mouth and his mouth, and I will instruct you in what you are to do. 16 He shall speak for you to the people; and he will be as a mouth for you and you will be as God to him. 17 And you shall take in your hand this staff, with which you shall perform the signs.” (Exodus 4:13-17)
God answered each doubt from Moses and reminded Moses that he would not be alone. God was going on this assignment, too. Eventually, Moses did complete his assignment and the people did, in fact, worship on that mountain as promised. If we’ve been given an assignment, we might as well learn from Moses and get on with it.
Switch
Stop. See those worries and doubts for what they really are – arguing with God. Stop it.
The second step is to switch our “what if” worries to “even if” declarations of determination. For this, we turn to Esther and the infamous Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
In Esther 4 we see Esther respond to her uncle’s plea for help with a “what if” worry: what if I die? (Esther 4:10-11). The uncle switches Esther’s mindset by using a “what if” statement of his own: what if you were put in this position “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14).
Esther’s response was to ask for prayer and fasting, and ultimately she became resolved: if I perish, I perish (Esther 4:16). In other words, she switched her “what if I die” worry to a steadfast statement of faith “even if I die, I’ll do this.” Esther knew God commands all things, even her destiny.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego give us another example of how to slay our worrisome thoughts. They were hauled before the king “in rage and anger” (Daniel 3:13) for refusing to worship a golden image whenever the trumpet sounded. The king asked why they didn’t bow down as he commanded. Do you think they had any worries or fears as they stood before the outraged king, charged with a violation that could result in their deaths?
Yet, how did they respond? The young men told the king that they didn’t need to answer him. They wouldn’t justify or defend themselves to the king, even though he had the power to throw them into the fiery furnace.
Wouldn’t that be something? What if we told the enemy in our minds, each worry, doubt, and fear, that we don’t answer to them! We do not even need to respond to those things that are not from God.
Next, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego tell the king what they think about his fiery furnace:
“…our God whom we serve is able to rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will rescue us from your hand, O king.” (Daniel 3:17)
We can switch our “what if” worries into declarations of faith by stating that our God is able and willing to act on our behalf. The young men saw the king and his fiery furnace for what they were – not as powerful as their God.
See Things Through God’s Eyes
What are you worrying about? Name it. Is that thing bigger than God? If your worry concerns a person, is that person more powerful than God? Slay your worries by seeing them through the eyes of our Almighty God. He is able and willing to rescue you from anything you can imagine.
Finally, the young men declare the “even if” statement that shows their steadfast faith:
But even if He does not [rescue us], let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods nor worship the golden statue that you have set up.” (Daniel 3:18)
Do you have their kind of courage? I don’t know if I do, but I like to image I could stare death in the face and declare an unflinching commitment to my God.
What if we could just take a baby step and practice saying it out loud? Take your “what if … happens” and change it to “even if … happens, I will serve and worship my God!”
