When Worry is Wrong

I'm 29 years old and I'm still a little afraid to walk by myself in the dark.

This revelation occurred last night as I was walking my manly maltipoo, Bell (short for Tinker Bell). Isn't it surprising how one can be fearful with no dignity?

Alternating areas of light and darkness were found between street lights. Areas of light gave me comfort. However, areas of darkness caused me to feel nervous. And so in the dark areas, I trained for the speed walking event in the upcoming Olympics. 

The feelings intensified once an unseen, man-killing dog (that sounded larger than Bell) started barking at us. In my defense, we did see a stray dog earlier that may or may not have been rabid.

The dark had me feeling a bit anxious.

Worry, fear, and anxious are three feelings that many of us Christians don't know what to do with.

We've been told not to be anxious by Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount and Paul told the Philippians the same. All that scripture helps some preachers to come up with inspirational messages using Greek about how worry is a sin. (Which I worry about.)

So every time I get a little worried about something, I have to tell myself to man up. Whenever my wife is worried about something, I throw the "don't worry about it because God will take care of it you sinner" card at her. She hates that card.

Being anxious can be a sin, but is it always?

Worry is not always wrong. 

The night before Jesus was crucified, he was so anxious, so worried, so fearful that he literally sweated blood. Jesus understands these feelings, because he lived them.

You have some legitimate reasons to be anxious.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was primarily teaching that we shouldn't be worried about food, clothing, and what you drink, because you have a God who is crazy about you. However, when you are faced with a cross that's a different matter.

How do you distinguish when worry is a sin and when it is not?

I think it's a sin when it keeps you from doing what you are called to do.

God created humanity with feelings that we have to navigate with and through. We have to take each feeling and inspect it on it's own. Some feelings we need to throw out and others we need to keep.

When those feelings stop you from moving forward in obedience that's when it's a sin.
 
What do you think? Is it wrong for a Christian to have feelings of worry?