There is a quote from a very godly man named A.B. Simpson that says “Worry, fear, distrust, care – all are poisonous! Joy is balm and healing, and if you will but rejoice, God will give power.” I believe that we focus to much of our time on the wrong things, such as worry, fear, distrust and caring about things that we cannot control. By doing this we use up so much of our time and strength. We need to learn to focus our thoughts on things that are worthy of thinking about, such as rejoicing about what the Lord has done for us and the blessings that He has bestowed upon us.

Worry is a waste of time, fear hinders us from being productive and stepping out in faith, distrust is losing hope in your fellow man, and caring about things can totally zap you of all your strength and your peace. I am not saying that we should not care about things, but we need to keep in perspective what is in our control and what is out of our control.

The reason that these four things are poisonous to us is because they are not healthy to our spirits. Like poison they slowly kill us from within. They take their toll over time and like poison they do their damage. When we worry we bring unnecessary stress into our lives. We usually cannot change any of the circumstances and that is why we worry. When we fear it paralyzes us in one way or another. It will stop us in our tracks! When we distrust people we tend to be very cynical or paranoid. When we care to much about something that we cannot change, it literally will drive us nuts.

Each of these (Worry, fear, distrust, care) have a legitimate place in our lives at certain times, but as we know, if we let them overtake our thoughts then they are dominating our emotions and then it becomes unhealthy for us. God gave us our emotions so that we would be able to be compassionate towards others and so that we can relate to others. But when our emotions rule over us and not the other way around, us ruling our emotions, we get out of balance. This is the exact reason that A.B. Simpson said what he said. He was a preacher and had seen to many people ruled by these four attributes. They were poisoned within and had become unhealthy. It had stolen their joy and now they did not have the strength to rejoice. They were bitter people, not better people. Their thoughts were dominated by one of the four or by all of the four. Worry was running their life or fear was running their life, distrust was making them cynical or paranoid. Those who cared so much about things were just getting ate alive by their concern. It was dominating their thoughts, stealing their peace.

How you battle these four is by turning them over to the Lord, asking Him to take away your worries, take away your fears, putting it upon your soul to trust others, and giving your cares to the Lord. He did not ask us to carry unnecessary burdens. He has told us in His word not to worry, not to fear, to trust in Him, and to give all of our cares to Him. He loves us, He does not worry about us, He does not fear for us, He knows He cannot trust us, but He knows that we can trust in Him, and He does care about us!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We need to learn to rejoice in Him and what He has done in our lives. Focus on His Word (The Holy Bible), to learn more about who He is and what He has done for us and get to know how He views the things that go on in this world. If we would do these things, then we will learn not to do these four things (worry, fear, distrust, care). And if they do cross our paths we will have a healthy perspective of how to deal with them, so that they will not dominate our thoughts and take control of us.

I hope that this article has helped you in some way to understand that these four attributes can be poisonous to our souls and that we need to have a healthy perspective of how to deal with them. Oh yeah, and the power part of the quote, well that comes with the reliance of the LORD and what He has done and He will give you the power from on high when you rejoice in Him!!! I would like to suggest that if you are still struggling with any of the four, to check out the “Subjects” page on this website and to read “Anxiety, Fear, The Mind, The Heart, and The Soul”. All of these different subjects clearly state what the LORD has to say about these things. May God Bless You and Keep You!!!!