Jesus said, in Luke 12:25,26...
"And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life's span? If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters?"
This is an unusual statement. He calls adding an hour to a life a very little thing!
What? We, as natural people, think this is an impossible thing! Yet He demonstrated it, time and time again, by healing the sick and raising the dead.
And He said we would do greater works than He did! [John 14:12]
I think He had Proverbs 18:21 in mind.
'Death and life are in the power of the tongue...'
Death and life are in the power of the tongue...and that is a very little thing!
In other words, the power in our mouths makes the impossible not only possible, but a very little thing!
Isn't that basically what He said in Matthew 21:21?
'And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' it will happen."
He repeated this in several places in the Gospels...of course, He also knew that this concept was explained extensively in Psalms and Proverbs.
Worrying
But worrying does nothing!
NOTHING!
Why?
Because 1) worrying is in the mind, and mind power is not how the system works, and 2) worrying stops faith.
"Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but BELIEVES THAT WHAT HE SAYS IS GOING TO HAPPEN, it will be granted him." [Mark 11:23]
James explains it like this:
'But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.' [James 1:6-7]
And we know, from Proverbs, that we are what we think...
'For as he thinks within himself, so he is.' [Proverbs 23:7]
...and from Romans, that we can change by changing our mind.
'And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.' [Romans 12:2]
So we know that our beliefs are part of the equation, but the mouth is the final agent of reigning in life!
Salvation
We know that our salvation occurs by heart and mouth, the very same process Jesus outlined in Mark 11!
But what does it say? "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, in your mouth and in your heart"—that is, the WORD of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your MOUTH Jesus as Lord, and believe in your HEART that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the HEART a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the MOUTH he confesses, resulting in salvation.' [Romans 10:8-10]
Heart and mouth must agree! And if you have worry, which is really unbelief, in your heart, your mouth will not bring about what you want!
But if, like Jesus, you believe that the power, or hand, or life and death is in the tongue, adding an hour to your life is a very little thing! Only worry will stop it!
Think about it.
