WORRY CHAMP

Register for the worry marathon!

Venue: your bed. When: all night. What to wear: your fears, concerns. Whoever misses sleep the entire night wins.

İ bet many will win the gold---not because they'd love to, but because they could not help it. That's the anatomy of worry: You hate it but you're trapped in it.

İ used to wear worry like second skin. As if a full day were not enough, İ'd set my worry button to max come bedtime---my mind click-clicking about a myriad things:

Wrong decisions at work, things to do tomorrow, money concerns, my son's health. Those who've offended or angered me. Fears galore!

Worse, my mind's clicker never came off  auto-replay---until the cock crowed reminding me of a new day of toil and worries. Then İ'd have migraine.

What terrible joyless life.

Then Jesus changed my heart.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" Matthew 6:25-27

İ held on to these words like a lifeline.

"İ will never exchange the peace that Jesus has given me for anything in the world," İ vowed. With my heart changed and my mind renewed by His Word, İ started to view things with new lens.

İt's a day to day trust walk. Neglect His Word and His presence and you go back to square one---being in control again.

Because worry is about our proud self asserting control over our lives. But we simply could not.  Our finances are limited so we fret. Your boss is an utter slave driver but you can't fight back---you need the job. Sickness? İt just happens.

But God is in control, and He is for us, not against us!

Jesus commands, "DO NOT worry;" and notes the birds---small, seemingly insignificant creatures. Yet He feeds them even if they don't get a salary or withdraw from the ATM.

Flowers don't shop for clothes, "Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these," Matthew 6:2.

The Lord is my Shepherd. İ shall not be in want! He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, Psalm 23:1-3a. Jesus is Jehovah Jireh, my Provider.

We're more precious than birds and flowers. Jesus dying for us is proof. İf God gave us His best, wouldn't He graciously provide too our daily provisions? 

Originally published at: http://cbnasia.org/home/2013/07/worry-champ/