Join Rick Hughes for an enriching discussion on dealing with worry, self-pity, and the adversities of life through spiritual growth. By differentiating between the enemy—stress, and adversity itself, Rick provides a roadmap to emotional freedom and contentment rooted in Christian principles. Explore biblical passages that command not to worry, embrace the teaching of faith and trust, and learn how these can culminate in a stress-free life full of happiness granted by God’s grace.
welcome to the flatline with your host rick hughes for the next 30 minutes you’ll be inspired motivated educated but never manipulated now your host rick hughes good morning and welcome to the flatline
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I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, please hang with me. Stick around. Listen up. Just a few minutes of motivation, some inspiration, some education, always without any manipulation. We’re not trying to con you into doing anything. We’re just trying to give you some information. Hopefully the information will help you verify and identify the plan of God for your life and you can orient and adjust to the plan. But we always say that adversity is inevitable, stress is optional. I want to remind you about that. Because we’re going to talk a little bit about that today, but before we get into it, let me remind you about our new iPodcast shows that are now available on the internet, on your cell phone. If you’re interested, you have an Apple iPhone, you can go to Apple iPod and type in The Flotline, The Flotline, and you’ll be able to hear all of our radio shows podcasted right there. Anytime you’d like to hear them, driving in your car, and then you can work it through your Bluetooth in your car and play it in your car speaker. Also, you can go to websites such as Spotify, S-P-O-T-I-F-Y, a free podcasting website where you can download it on your phone, Android or iPhone, and type in The Flotline, and you’ll be able to see the podcast there as well. Other podcasts, Podcast shows as well, such as Breaker or Anchor are available. So we are making all of our shows available and we are beginning to put them into print. Hopefully it won’t be too long now. We’ll have our first book in print where we’re taking all of the shows and giving a transcript so you can actually read instead of just listen. So that’s up to you. If you’d like to grow, like to continue to listen. Good. I’m glad. But let me remind you of one thing. I’m not a pastor. I’m not your pastor. I’m an encourager. I want to point you towards a well-qualified pastor that you can get under where you can grow in grace and the knowledge of of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I want to give you the good news that Jesus Christ is God’s anointed son and that he alone paid for our sin and his death, burial, and resurrection guarantees us eternal life through faith in him. That’s my job, to lift up Christ and to encourage you. I hope you enjoy the radio show. We are going into 14 years of teaching now. So thank you for being so faithful to listen and support the show. Now, the Flotline is designed to teach God’s Word and those 10 unique problem-solving devices. Did you ever get the problem-solving device bookmark? I don’t know if you ever did or not. I’d be glad to send you one. But it has all 10 problem-solving devices listed on that bookmark, and you can stick it in your Bible. Also, we have the Christian Problem-Solving Book. that list in detail those 10 problem-solving devices, and you can read through them in the book in a short, brief summary of what each one of those problem-solving devices are. Remember, the first one is always rebound. This is where we solve the problem of sin in our life by rebounding or confessing our known sin to God, where He said, if we’ll confess our sin, then He will be faithful and just to forgive us and to purify us from all wrongdoing. Rebound leads us to the filling of the Holy Spirit, which solves the problem of the genetically formed sin nature. We have a battle within us. It’s always going on. The Bible says the flesh wars against the spirit. The spirit wars against the flesh. They’re contrary one to the other. And so you have to learn how to control the old man within you, the flesh. And that’s through the filling of the Holy Spirit. That leads us into the faith rest drill, standing on the promises of God, executing the Christian life with faith, and then going into grace orientation, biblical orientation, having a personal sense of destiny, developing your personal love for God as your number one motivational virtue in your life. using your impersonal love for others as a wonderful way to handle people problems and people testing in your life, and then sharing the happiness of God, which is a wonderful, wonderful thing that does away with worry, and being occupied with Christ. Those are the 10 problem-solving devices. You should know them. You should be able to recall them. You should be able to see them in your Bible and Use them in your life because the whole idea is once you learn these 10 unique problem-solving devices, then you utilize them, and it’s possible that you can then stop the outside source of adversity, whatever it may be, from becoming the inside source of stress. And we’ll talk about that here in just a minute. So remember, adversity is inevitable, but stress is optional because adversity is what those circumstances actually do to you. But stress, well, that’s something you do to yourself. Are there stress indicators? There are, and let me give you a couple here real quickly. If you find yourself worrying, you are involved in stress. You are told in the Bible not to worry. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to understand that worry means is a mental attitude sin, and it’s a self-torment, the self-torment of anxiety regarding anything in this life. So if you get into worrying, as my pastor taught me years ago, it’s a disquieting and painful state of mind that involves much concern over something in your life. This painful uneasiness of your mind always anticipates the worst. And so if you’re worrying and you have this anticipation, apprehension of danger, misfortune, trouble, disaster coming, uncertainty in your life, what a horrible way to live. You have a state of restlessness and you’re always agitated. And it produces some mental disturbance as well, some sort of foreboding anxiety and Painful uncertainty, worrying is a horrible sin. It destroys your ability to think and to use the faithless drill. And if you don’t check it, it can actually lead you to be mentally ill. So you often get a warning first with a physical problem because worry in your mind can actually cause a shock to your body. Proverbs 12, 25. The worry in the heart of a man weighs it down, but a good word produces a super abundance of happiness. So, if we’re going to talk about worry as we are here for a minute, the solution is always the Word of God. Understanding the unfailing love of God with super abundance of happiness in your life so that you don’t have to worry, so that you understand the unfailing love of God, He would never, ever hang you out to dry. And we do that because we love him. We love him because he first loved us. But if we have fear and worry and anxiety in our soul, then we lose the great happiness that we’re supposed to have because of the garbage in our subconsciousness. And as a result of that, the happiness goes away. So the happiness that God has for you, plus H, problem-solving device number nine, can actually remove worry, which can actually bring you into carnality, sinful worry. But you can’t fulfill the life of God if you worry, you can’t do that. Psalm 100 verse five, for the Lord is absolutely good and his unfailing love is everlasting and his faithfulness is to every generation. So what is there to worry about it? We’ll never know the greatest happiness in this world if we lose the battle for worry in our soul. So if you’re worrying, if you naturally like to worry, that’s a major source of sin in your life. Listen to Deuteronomy 31, six through eight. Be strong, be courageous. Don’t be afraid nor tremble. There you go. Isaiah 41, 10. Do not fear. I’m with you. Do not anxiously look around. I’m your God. I will help you. You see, we’re here. It’s got to have an object. And what is it that you’re worried about? Is it money? Is it your health? Is it the future? Is it politics? Worrying is a horrible thing. And if you can’t find something to worry about, you may make it up in your mind sometimes. But sin is what causes worry. Sin. Sin. It is sin. Worry and fear both are mental attitude sins. Both those things ignore the promises of the Word of God, the doctrines that characterize the Word of God. So worry doesn’t solve any problems whatsoever. It actually will distract you from growing spiritually and take away any blessing that God may have for you. Therefore, it’s forbidden. Listen to me as I read these passages from the Bible concerning worrying. A stress indicator. Worry is a stress indicator. Philippians 4, 6 through 7. Do not be anxious about anything. Do not be anxious about anything. You know me, and you know how we like to go into the original languages of the Greek New Testament. And this word, do not be anxious, is a verb, merimenao, merimenao. And it means do not take thought that causes anxiety or worry. And in this case, it’s a verb, do not be anxious, It’s what we call the present active imperative of Mary Manao. Do not be anxious. Excuse me, I had to turn off the heater for a minute. Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication. Along with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And then, and then, that’s through the filling of the Holy Spirit and through the faith rest drill, And then the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. Then, not while you’re worrying. No, worrying is a sin. Worrying is your sin nature getting proactive in your life. But we want the word of God to be proactive in your life. We want you to use the faith rest drill in your life. and it will guard your heart and your mind. Remember, upstairs in your head, over your eyes, are your heart and your mind. The mind is where we receive information. That’s where the Bible calls it the noose or the mind. But the Bible also refers to the heart of man, and it’s not talking about the thing that pumps blood in your chest. It’s talking about the cardia upstairs. You see, the mind is where you receive information, but the heart is where you store it. The heart is where you respond to it. The heart is where it becomes part of you. And that’s where your conscious is located. That’s where your frame of reference is located. And that’s what God wants you to do. Store his word in your heart. You’re never allowed to worry. Never. So listen to Proverbs chapter 3. Trust the Lord with all your heart. There it is. We’re not talking about the organ that pumps blood. We’re talking about that part of you that thinks. The responder, not the receiver. The receiver is the mind. The responder is the heart. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and do not rely on your own understanding. That’s where your worry comes from. You try to think what might happen, what could happen, what’s going to happen, and you have no idea what God has designed to happen. In Matthew 6, 25, the Lord Jesus Christ himself said, “‘I tell you, do not be anxious.'” For anything about your life, there’s the word merimenao again. Now, I told you in Philippians 4, 6, and 7, merimenao was a present active imperative. The present tense means you are never to do it. The active voice means the subject produces the action of the verb. The subject is you and me. The imperative mood is a command. Excuse me. We’re commanded never, ever, ever to worry. And so the Lord Jesus Christ uses the same verb, merimenao, and the same tense, present active imperative. Not only are you not to worry today, but you’re not to worry tomorrow, and you’re not to worry the next day. The active voice says you are the one that’s not to worry. And the imperative mood is the command. What did Jesus say you should not worry about? Don’t worry about your life. Don’t worry about what you’re going to eat. Don’t worry about what you’re going to drink. Don’t worry about your body or what you’re going to put on. He goes on to say, is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather. in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them, are you not much more valuable than those little birds? And which one of you, by being anxious, that’s worrying, can add a single hour to your lifespan? And why are you worrying about your clothes? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, and they neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these. God has the perfect clothes. God has the perfect look. And if you’re worried about what you’re going to wear, worried about what you have or don’t have, worried about how you fit in with the crowd because you don’t dress like they dress. You’re not hip like they’re hip. It’s a sin. It’s a waste of time. The Lord provides. He can provide for you. In Proverbs 3, 5 through 6, trust, trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. The word I just gave you. That word trust is a Cal imperative of the Hebrew verb batak. And that means to have absolute confidence in the Lord or be secure in the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Do not ever lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your path. So in both the Old and in the New Testament, we are told never ever worry. That’s a stress indicator. And by learning those 10 unique problem-solving devices, we do not have to have worry. And we are told this with direct orders in the imperative mood from the New Testament. So if you like to worry, you are disobeying orders from God and you are sinning. So how can you stop worrying? Is it possible? Yes, it is very possible. Number one, if you recognize the strength of your emotional attachment to safety and security, then you will understand the need for lack of mental stress. So you’ve got to quit letting your emotions take over and It’s your emotions that feather the worry. It’s your emotions that don’t think. They just react. And the Bible says, think, think, think. Let this mind be in you. That was also in Christ Jesus. Think on these things, whatever’s pure, whatever’s holy, whatever’s right. Think on these things. The Christian life is a life of thinking. Thinking and utilizing God’s word in your soul, in your heart. and not letting your emotions attack you and run you and control you. And worry comes strictly from the emotions. So if you’re going to overcome worry, stop letting your emotions control you. Use the word of God, confess your sin when you get afraid, ask the Lord to cleanse you from it, go to his word, claim a promise and stand on it. So use rebound, point two, to confess your lack of trust. What do you mean I don’t trust? Well, I just told you the verse, Proverbs 3, 5, trust in the Lord with all your heart. If you’re worrying, you’re not trusting. If you’re worrying, you’re assuming unassigned responsibility. It’s not your responsibility. It’s God’s responsibility. So confess your lack of trust. My lack of trust in what? Your lack of trust in the plan of God for your life and the provisions that he gives you. You’re telling God you don’t think he’s doing a good job, and so you’re going to worry about it. That’s terrible. And three, learn and execute the faith rest drill. Learn and execute the faith rest drill. That’s how you overcome worry. When the Pharaoh chased the Jews out of Egypt and cornered them by the Red Sea, Moses said, Stand still and watch what God is about to do. There was no room for worry, no room for fear. Proverbs 3, 1 and 2, Do not forget my laws, but let your heart keep my mandates. because length of days and long life and peace and soundness they will add to you. Did you hear that? Let’s listen again. Do not forget my laws, the word of God. Let your heart, there it is again, the responder. Let your heart keep my commandments. That’s obedience. That’s positive volition. to the word of God. And if you will obey God’s word, length of days and long life and peace. Peace, the Hebrew word shalom, which means tranquility of life and safety and soundness. And they will add to your years. All right, here we go. Let’s back up one more time. Listen carefully. Don’t forget my law. Let your heart keep my mandates. For length of days and long life and peace they will add to you. Proverbs 3.5 says, In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths smooth. Now listen to the next verse, verse 7. Don’t consider yourself wise. You know, people that think they’re smarter than God, people that think they got it figured out, that’s nothing but arrogance. That’s intellectual arrogance spinning out of emotional revolt of the soul. God has a perfect plan for you. And if you will learn the plan and use the plan, you never have to worry. You never have to be afraid. You can have complete self-confidence and complete happiness in the plan of God. So if you will confess your sin, recognize it, admit it, and then you can resume your spiritual momentum every day by taking in the Word of God on a daily basis. I’m going to say this straight up. I believe this with all my heart. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and you’re not studying God’s word consistently, you will never grow spiritually and you will never come to the place where you want to be, where you’ll have complete happiness, complete peace, and complete understanding of God’s plan. If all you do is play around with the Bible, get a couple of verses, claim a couple of verses, Read a little bit every day. That’s not growing. Growing. The Bible is a textbook. It’s designed to be taught to you. It’s not designed for you to read it through once a year, which is fine. That’s not a sin. I’m not saying don’t read it. But I’m saying if you took an algebra book and went out and sat under the oak tree, you wouldn’t figure it out unless you had a teacher. And the Bible requires a teacher. God gave a man the gift of pastor-teacher in Ephesians chapter four. Pastor-teacher, poimen kai didaskalos. His job is to teach you God’s word. He has a spiritual gift. And once you find that pastor teacher, once you sit under that man, then you can begin to take in the word of God consistently in your life every day, hopefully, at least every day or two, and learn and keep notes and review your notes and go over your notes. What you’re doing is you’re shaping your mind. You’re changing the way you think. You’re picking up divine viewpoint. You’re obeying what Romans 12, 3 says. Stop thinking in terms of arrogance beyond what you should think, but think in terms of humility as God has assigned to each one of us a standard of thinking from his word. The Christian life is about shaping the way you think, changing the way you think so that your heart lines up with the will of God for your life. And you are not the person who considers yourself wise. You’re not wise. You have nothing to be wise about. The Lord is wise. He’s the one that knows the plan. He’s the one that has the program. And you can never learn it if you don’t study it, if you don’t read it and understand it, have it explained to you. I know you think you can get it all by yourself, but you’re not. So you’ve got to get under the ministry of a great pastor. You’ve got to stay filled with the Holy Spirit. You’ve got to use the faith rest drill. You’ve got to learn these 10 problem-solving devices. And then you will give maximum glorification to the Lord Jesus Christ because you will represent him to your friends. You will reflect him in your life in the way you think. When people see you, they’ll see Christ because of the way you think, because of the way you act and live. That’s a wonderful thing. worry is a terrible sin but also self-pity there’s another stress indicator i went to a website called gotquestions.org and i copied this from there listen to what they said every human being is prone to self-pity we are born self-centered with a powerful drive to protect our egos and our rights when we decide that life has not treated us as we have the right to be treated then self-pity is a result. And self-pity causes us to sulk and be obsessed over our hurts, whether they’re real or whether they’re perceived. At the heart of self-pity is a disagreement with God over how life is treating you and how he has treated us. Self-pity. Wow. Now the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11, 26, let a person examine himself. In 2 Corinthians 13, 5, examine yourself, see if you’re in the faith. Self-pity is eyes on self. And that is a real trait of arrogance and self-centeredness that you can’t allow yourself to get into. Because through spiritual growth, you can take command of your own self. You can have spiritual autonomy and stand on your own two feet, but without spiritual growth, which I’ve been talking about this whole show, then you have to use defense mechanisms. You have to use feelings that arise in response to perceptive danger, like worry. and you hide the real feelings and the real cause of your anxiety. Self-pity is a terrible sin. An emotionally arrogant person can use illusions or hallucinations and even fantasizing to cope with the stress in their life, but you don’t have to have stress. We’ve been telling you that. Stress is optional. Adversity is going to happen, but stress is optional. So self-pity just piles garbage up in your soul. It’s things like guilt and hatred and implacability. So is it possible for you to live without self-pity? Is it possible for you to live without worry? Is there really a life without stress? Absolutely. Job was the man who faced it all. But what about Adam and Eve? Did not one of their children murder his brother? Did that cause them to have any anxiety? You know, the Bible records Job losing all of his loved ones and all of his property in one day, Job 1, 13 through 19. This was allowed by God because Satan sought to discourage Job and turn him against God, and God didn’t think he could do that. Listen to what Job said when all this happened to him. Then Job arose and tore his mantle and shaved his head and fell to the ground and worshiped. and said, naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gives, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. So in all of this, Job sinned not, nor did he charge God. That’s using faith to orient and adjust. That’s using faith. And that verse teaches the mature believer has no reason to fear death, no reason to fear anything dangerous. No believer is going to die until God says it’s time to come home. And once he says it’s time to come home, I don’t care where you are, you’re not going to be safe. So if you’re worried about dying, you need to worry about living. The living go on living and the dying go on dying. And a person in dying grace never hinders anybody else from living. That’s true. So you can have a stress-free life, a life of perfect contentment, a life of perfect happiness based on your understanding of all of God’s grace provisions. And it can only be achieved if you learn and execute his plan. You have to learn it. You have to execute it. That’s why Jesus said, take my yoke on you and learn of me. Matthew 11, 28, learn of me. And Solomon said in Proverbs 1, 22, how long will you simple people love simplicity? And how long will you fools hate knowledge? Knowledge is what you’ve got to have because it gives you insight and discernment and understanding. Gosh, I threw a lot at you this morning. I hope you got it. I hope I didn’t offend you. It was a pretty straight talk. I’ll be back next week, same time, same station. I hope you’ll join me. Until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
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Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
