Will It Matter in a Million Years? — The Real Test for What's Worth Worrying About

I'm excited to keep going in this series, because today I want to give you one simple test for figuring out what's actually worth worrying about — and it turns out to be almost nothing.

Worry chokes the Word, even with Jesus standing right in front of you

Peter had Jesus standing literally in front of him and still couldn't hold onto the word "come" once the storm took his attention. If worry can choke the Word out with Jesus right there, don't be surprised that it can choke it out for you too.

Worry comes to everyone. But not everyone engages with it. You get to decide whether to give your attention to the storm or to the Word that's holding you up.

Ask yourself: will this matter in a million years?

Here's a question I've started asking myself: whatever is keeping me up at night right now — will it matter in a million years? Most of the time, when I'm honest, the answer is no.

I've caught myself spending far too much time thinking about things I don't even need — an expensive piece of gear I'd been eyeing, a car a friend just got that I thought looked fun to drive. None of that will matter in a million years. If God wants to bless me with something like that someday, wonderful — but chasing it, or worrying about not having it, changes nothing that actually lasts.

The same goes for the things that hurt worse — a friendship that's gone cold, a relationship that fell apart. Those things matter to you now, and rightly so. But even there, ask the question honestly: in a million years, will it still be the thing defining you? Or will it be swallowed up by how much He loved you the whole way through?

Jesus named the exact things you're not supposed to worry about

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?”

Matthew 6:25-27 (NKJV)

Think about what's actually on that list — what you'll eat, what you'll drink, what you'll wear. Those aren't small concerns. Food, water, and shelter are the basics that keep you alive at all. And Jesus specifically names those as the things not to worry about.

If the most fundamental needs of your life aren't worth worrying over, what exactly is left on your list that's more significant than those?

You're not being responsible — you're choking your own deliverance

People like to think worry is just being responsible. It isn't. While you're worrying, no matter how you justify it, you're choking out the very Word that would bring your deliverance.

God isn't asking you to pretend nothing's wrong. He's asking you to trade the weight of it for His attention instead of yours. Get out of the boat. Walk on the water.

Let Him be concerned with keeping you up — you just keep your eyes on Him. It is not the will of God that you worry — not about your life, not about your needs, not about your children, not about anything else. And every moment you spend worrying is a moment spent choking the very thing that was sent to protect you.

Let it go. Fix your eyes on Him.

Fight To Win.