Worry in Christian preaching addresses the anxiety and fear that can distract believers from trusting God's providence and peace. It often uses images of restless minds, burdensome weights, or driverless cars to illustrate the futility and harm of unnecessary anxiety, emphasizing reliance on God's care and timing (Matthew 6:27; Philippians 4:6-7).
Many folks worry about things that never happen. It is like the
patient in the mental hospital, holding his ear close to the wall,
listening intently. The attendant finally approached.
"Sh!" whispered the patient, beckoning him over.
The attendant pressed his ear to the wall for a long time. "I
can't hear a thing," he finally said.
"No," replied the patient, "it's been like that all day!"
A child does not worry all day long whether his house will be there
when he gets home from school or whether his parents will have a meal
for him that evening. Children do not worry about such things,
because they trust their parents. In the same way, we as Christians
should trust our heavenly Father to supply what is best for us.
One man decided to put a marble in a vase for each worry during the
year. At the end of the year he had quite a collection of marbles,
but he couldn't remember what worry even one of them represented.
- Rupert T. Green
Dr. Carl Jung, the famous psychiatrist, has said, "The central
neurosis of our time is emptiness." How is this when our churches are
full? Is it that our worship is empty and meaningless with no
relevance to life?
- James C. Hefley, {A Dictionary of Illustrations}
Why should we carry needlessly
######Our burdens large or small When God
never intended that
######We carry them at all?
We foster many of our woes,
######So many things annoy; Our frown of
discontentment robs
######Our hearts of peace and joy.
We lift the future from God's hands,
######And though we fully know That
only He can foresee all -
######We fret and worry so.
Let's step out now in simple faith,
######And claim God's liberty - From
prison walls of worry like
######A bird that's been set free.
For why should we so needlessly
######Bear burdens large or small When God
never intended that
######We carry them at all.
- Georgia B. Adams
THE CURE FOR WORRY (Mt 6:25-34).
1. God Will Provide (Matthew 6:25; John 3:16; Philippians 4:10).
2. Birds Do Not Worry (Matthew 6:26; 1 Peter 5:7).
3. Worry is Useless (Matthew 6:27; Isaiah 26:3).
4. God Clothes Lillies (Matthew 6:28-30; Psalms 37:25; Matthew 7:11).
5. Heathens Worry--Don't Want to Be Like Them (Matthew 6:31-32; James 1:8).
6. Seek Kingdom First (Matthew 6:33; Philippians 4:6-7).
7. Live One Day At A Time (Matthew 6:34; Philippians 4:11-12).
----From The Green Plain Proclaimer, Virgil Hale, editor, vol 16, #38, 9/22/98.
A review of the book “Anxiety,” by Donald W. Goodman, contained the following wonderful quote about anxiety by Soren Kierkegaard (from “The Concept of Dread”):
No Grand Inquisitor has in readiness such terrible tortures as has anxiety and no spy knows how to attack more artfully the man he suspects, choosing the instant when he is weakest, nor knows how to lay traps where he will be caught and ensnared, as anxiety knows how, and no sharp witted judge knows how to interrogate, to examine the accused, as anxiety does, which never lets him escape, neither by diversion nor by noise, neither at work nor at play, neither by day or by night.
________
Michael J. Hostetler, {Illustrating the Sermon, }(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989) p. 49
Enough For Today
Read: Matthew 6:25-34
Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. --Matthew 6:34
Life can be monotonous. The road that lies before us seems to stretch mile after mile across a flat, barren desert with no oasis in sight. How then are we to handle wearisome responsibilities when there's no foreseeable relief from our burdens?
Oliver de Vinck, severely disabled from birth, lay helplessly on his bed for all of his 32 years, unable to care for himself. Day after day and year after year his parents put every spoonful of food into his mouth, changed his diapers, and still maintained a happy home.
One day Oliver's brother Christopher asked his father how they managed. He explained that they didn't worry about the long succession of tomorrows that might lie before them. They lived a day at a time, asking, "Can I feed Oliver today?" And the answer always was, "Yes, today I can do it."
Jesus taught us how we can handle life's routine: "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble" (6:34). In faith--and with prayer--we can break life and its often wearisome tasks into bite-size pieces, entrusting the unpredictable future to the grace of Him who promises that "as your days, so shall your strength be" (Dt. 33:25). --VCG
The road I'm on is twisted, Lord,
Its end defies my view;
Teach me to take each step in faith
And leave the rest to You. --Gustafson
God supplies all our needs - one day at a time.
submitted by: Dr. Tom Hall
Memo: To Do Today
From: God
To: Christian
Today, I will be handling all of your problems. Please remember that I do not need your help. If the devil happens to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do not attempt to resolve it. Kindly put it in the SFJTD (something for Jesus to do ) box. It will be addressed in My time, not yours.
Once the matter is placed into the box, do NOT hold on to it or remove it. Holding on or removal will delay the resolution of your problem. If it is a situation that you think you are capable of handling, please consult me in prayer to be sure that it is the proper resolution.
Because I do not sleep nor do I slumber, there is no need for you to loose any sleep. Rest my child. If you need to contact me, I am only a prayer away.
GOD
The following Principles are reprinted from Dale Carnegie's best-seller "HOW to STOP WORRYING and START LIVING" and are also available in the "Golden Book." His wisdom is as important today as it was when it was first published in 1948. The following summarizes many of his recommendations
for controlling worry.
1. Live in "day-tight compartments."
2. How to face trouble:
a. Ask yourself, "What is the worst that can possibly happen?"
b. Prepare to accept the worst.
c. Try to improve on the worst.
3. Remind yourself of the exorbitant price you can pay for worry in terms
of your health.
Basic Techniques in Analyzing Worry
1. Get all the facts.
2. Weigh all the facts ? then come to a decision.
3. Once a decision is reached, act!
4. Write out and answer the following questions:
a. What is the problem?
b. What are the causes of the problem?
c. What are the possible solutions?
d. What is the best possible solution?
Break the Worry Habit Before It Breaks You
1. Keep busy.
2. Don't fuss about trifles.
3. Use the law of averages to outlaw your worries.
4. Cooperate with the inevitable.
5. Decide just how much anxiety a thing may be worth and refuse to give
it more.
6. Don't worry about the past.
Cultivate a Mental Attitude that will Bring You Peace and Happiness
1. Fill your mind with thoughts of peace, courage, health and hope.
2. Never try to get even with your enemies.
3. Expect ingratitude.
4. Count your blessings ? not your troubles.
5. Do not imitate others.
6. Try to profit from your losses.
7. Create happiness for others.
The Perfect Way to Conquer Worry
1. Pray.
Don't Worry about Criticism
1. Remember that unjust criticism is often a disguised compliment.
2. Do the very best you can.
3. Analyze your own mistakes and criticize yourself.
Prevent Fatigue and Worry and Keep Your Energy and Spirits High
1. Rest before you get tired.
2. Learn to relax at your work.
3. Protect your health and appearance by relaxing at home.
4. Apply these four good working habits:
a. Clear your desk of all papers except those relating to the
immediate problem at hand.
b. Do things in the order of their importance.
c. When you face a problem, solve it then and there if you have the
facts necessary to make a decision.
d. Learn to organize, deputize and supervise.
5. Put enthusiasm into your work.
6. Don't worry about insomnia.
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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #4553]
There's one kind of mail from the bank that nobody wants to get - you know, that notice that you've overdrawn your checking account! Especially when they sock you with a penalty for it. It can happen because you've been traveling or unusually busy, or you know, kind of cutting things pretty close financially, or just because you inadvertently wrote some checks before your recent deposit has cleared. You can't try to buy or pay before the money is there to cover it, or you'll just end up paying for that.
Now, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Overdrawing Grace."
You get in trouble when you run ahead of the deposit that you need to cover what you're doing. Especially when it's God's deposit to provide the resources you need to cover the challenge you're facing. See, He's promised He would do that - but only in daily deposits.
That's why Jesus tells us three times in the Sermon on the Mount, "Do not worry." (Matthew 6:25,31,34) He concludes His challenge to live without worry in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Matthew 6:34. "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Now, Jesus portrays worrying as borrowing tomorrow's trouble before you get to tomorrow. When you do that, you overdraw God's grace deposit in your account because He puts enough in there for today, but not for tomorrow.
In Deuteronomy 33:25, God promises that "Your strength will equal your days." You get Monday's strength for Monday's burdens. If you try to run ahead emotionally to what may happen on Tuesday or Wednesday or a week from now or a month from now, you're on your own. You won't have Tuesday's grace until Tuesday. You won't have next month's grace until next month. So you're overdrawn and you don't have what you need to cover your anxiety. Worry hauls tomorrow into today. And it's just too much.
God makes this wonderful promise in Psalm 68:19 that He "daily bears our burdens." Again, His help is distributed in 24-hour increments. And those classic verses in Lamentations 3 (22, 23) remind us that His compassions "are new every morning." Today's mercies ... for today's challenges.
You may be looking ahead at something that looks totally unmanageable, unbearable, unsolvable. The strength, the grace, the wisdom that this is going to require is more than you've ever had in your life. But you've never had this much grace in your account because you've never needed this much grace before. But when you get there, God will deposit everything you need to cover the demands. However, if you insist on worrying about it today, you're running ahead of the deposit. And there's always a price to pay when you overdraw your account because you try to write the check before God's resources are there. God's grace is inexhaustible. There will always be enough - but God dispenses it in just this 24 hours.
If you're feeling overstressed and you're feeling overwhelmed today, one major reason may be that you are bringing too many of tomorrow's burdens into today. It's called worrying. And "one day at a time" is the only way God has ever prepared us to live - daily bread, daily strength, daily mercies.
So, just do today, will you? God will never let your daily need be more than the grace that He puts in your account to cover that need. If you live one day at a time, you will never overdraw His grace.
________________
Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"
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Tunnels And Bridges
Read: Hebrews 2:1-18
In that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted. --Hebrews 2:18
A little girl was taking her first train ride. Wide-eyed with fascination, she watched as telephone poles, cars, and farms whizzed by. When the train approached a river, she became frightened and cried out, "Mommy! The train is going into the river!" But a bridge carried it across to the other side.
Later, as the train sped toward a mountain, the child again called out in fear, "Mommy, we are going to run into that mountain!" But a tunnel at its base let the speeding train pass through. "Oh," said the youngster, "someone must have gone ahead and made a way for us."
That's what Jesus has done for all who trust Him as Savior and Lord. The writer of Hebrews portrayed Him as the "captain" of our salvation (2:10). Jesus has not only faced the dangers of sin's destructive force, but He also forged a way through death itself and emerged victorious. He defeated Satan, delivered us from sin's condemning power, and He will carry us through the terrors of death.
When fears loom before us and we feel threatened by the power of sin and Satan, let's remember our captain. He is the one who reassures us along life's path. He has gone before and prepared the way for us. --DJD
For Further Study
What fears and concerns do you have?
What should you do with those fears? (1 Pet. 5:6-7).
What does the Lord promise to do for you? (Heb. 13:5).
We can go through anything because Jesus goes before us.
Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. --Matthew 6:34
Meredith Willson's musical comedy The Music Man is known for its memorable toe-tappers, but it also contains a number of perceptive lines. In one serious scene, Professor Harold Hill, a fly-by-night con artist, expresses genuine love to Marian the librarian. But she is always looking to the vague future, never quite living in today. Hill tells her, "You pile up a lot of tomorrows, and you'll find a lot of empty yesterdays." Professor Hill may have been unscrupulous, but he understood the importance of the present.
Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909), former US Senate chaplain, said, "Never attempt to bear more than one kind of trouble at once. Some people bear three kinds--all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have."
Jesus told us, "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things" (Mt. 6:34). If we knew all the good things that were going to happen tomorrow, we would be overly excited today and disappointed tomorrow. If we knew all the bad things in our future, worry and fear and grief would paralyze us today.
The believer in Jesus Christ puts his faith in the God of the past, present, and future. By faith, we can walk securely, one day at a time. That day is today! --HWR
Why do you worry about the years
That your feet have not yet trod?
Live instead with trust, not fears,
And in fellowship with God. --Anon.
We lose the joy of living in the present when we worry about the future.
Ilustrace: Èetl jsem o jednom muži, který pìstoval kuøata. Mezi nimi byl i mladý kohout jehož pøíležitostné kokrhání velmi obtìžovalo souseda. Jednou brzy ráno si soused zavolal farmáøe a postìžoval si mu: „Ten váš mizernej pták mì nenechá usnout celou noc!
„Tomu nerozumím, znìla odpovìï. „Sotva nìkdy zakokrhá, a když už, tak jen dvakrát nebo tøikrát.“
„To není mùj problém“, soused nato, „To co mì znepokojuje není, jak èasto kokrhá, nýbrž to, že nikdy nevím, kdy by mohl zakokrhat“.
When you shift mind into neutral and just let it idle, where do your thoughts go? Do you worry about money? We are to be careful with money, but Jesus taught that we are not to be full of care about it. If you have given yourself to God, you do not have to worry your life's necessities. God Himself has assumed responsibility for your food and clothing. Speaking of our need for food Jesus pointed to the birds. [Matt 6:22]
That does not mean we get what we need by doing nothing. Birds must scratch and search for food. The point is, they do not worry about it. Jesus instructed us to center our lives on God's kingdom than clothing, food and drink will be ours as well. Look in this way: If you center your life on money, you will ultimately leave it or it will leave you, and you will also lose out on God. But if you center your life on God and doing His will, all these other things are thrown.
Every once in a while, we have the treat of seeing a guinea hen in our backyard. My wife was talking to a neighbor about guinea fowl the other day, and he told us some interesting discoveries he had made about them. Apparently, they have this amazing ability to literally fly straight up when they have to. So, when a coyote is chasing, let's say, a chicken, he's got a good chance of having a chicken dinner because his prey takes off on an angle. But guinea fowl can just suddenly take off and go straight up - thus seriously disappointing Mr. Coyote. Our neighbor said, "Yep, they're talented - but they're stupid!" That's because of a phenomenon he observed when some guinea hens were running in his wife's flower garden. They literally got lost in the flower patch and they just kept running back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, actually trampling that flower garden. They just kept running - baffled as how to get out. Uh, guys - look up! You can fly right out of there!
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Unnecessary Running."
Unbelievable. The guinea fowl gets all worked up ... running back and forth ... wondering how to get out ... when all he has to do is look up. Wait a minute here ... this sounds all too familiar.
Jesus describes how we do a lot of unnecessary worrying and running in our word for today from the Word of God. In Matthew 6, beginning in verse 25, Jesus says, "Do not worry about your life." In verse 28, He asks, "Why do you worry?" In verse 31, His command is again, "Do not worry." Then He describes the guinea fowl-like race that many of us run - and the "look up" that can liberate you from it.
Talking about the daily concerns of having enough stuff, Jesus says, "The pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Basically, Jesus is saying the anxiety level, the sanity of your life, depends on what you are pursuing, what you're really passionate about. If it's earth stuff, welcome to Worry Land. If it's the stuff that matters to God, the things that will last forever, welcome to the realm of flying above all the insanity of life's trivial pursuits.
If you belong to Jesus Christ, I'm sure in your beliefs you think God's stuff is more important than earth stuff. But your daily living, your choices may suggest that the reverse is true. It could be that you've allowed yourself to get caught up in the race for what earth has ... in an earthbound definition of "financial security" ... in trying to get lots of human approval and recognition. And you're running back and forth like a guinea hen in a flower garden. Oh, there's lots of activity, but not much progress.
The difference between personal peace and personal turmoil is an issue of priorities - which kingdom are you putting first? If what matters to God - your time with Him, your service for Him, the condition of your relationships - if those things have been shoved to the margins by other, less eternal pursuits, then you're trapped in a race that knows no peace.
But you could look up today - you could see your higher calling to live for what will last. Your Heavenly Father knows your needs - you don't have to run all over the place trying to meet them. As the Bible says, "Set your heart on things above" - and start to fly above the race that has worn you out and consumed your peace.
________________
Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"
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Is there a magic cutoff period when offspring become accountable for their own actions? Is there a wonderful moment when parents can become detached spectators in the lives of their children and shrug, "It's their life," and feel nothing?
When I was in my twenties, I stood in a hospital corridor waiting for doctors to put a few stitches in my son's head. I asked, "When do you stop worrying?" A nurse said, "When they get out of the accident stage." My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.
When I was in my thirties, I sat on a little chair in a classroom and heard how one of my children talked incessantly, disrupted the class, and was headed for a career making license plates. As if to read my mind, a teacher said, "Don't worry. They all go through this stage, and then you can sit back, relax, and enjoy them." My mother listened and said nothing.
When I was in my forties, I spent a lifetime waiting for the phone to ring, the cars to come home, the front door to open. A friend said, "They're trying to find themselves. In a few years, you can stop worrying. They'll be adults."
By the time I was almost 50, I was sick and tired of being vulnerable, I was still worrying over my children, but there was a new wrinkle. There was nothing I could do about it.
But I continued to anguish over their failures, be tormented by their frustrations and absorbed in their disappointments. My friends said that when my kids got married I could stop worrying and lead my own life. I wanted to believe that, but I was haunted by my mother's wan smile and her occasional, "You look pale. Are you all right?" "Call me the minute you get home." "Are you depressed about something?"
Can it be that parents are sentenced to a lifetime of worry? Is concern for one another handed down like a torch to blaze the trail of human frailties and the fears of the unknown? Is concern a curse? Or is it a virtue that elevates us to the highest form of life?
One of my children became quite irritable recently, saying to me, "Where were you? I've been calling for three days, and no one answered. I was worried." I smiled a wan smile.
The torch has been passed.
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"And He said to His disciples, "For this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing." (Luke 12:22-23, NASB)
All the water in the world
However hard it tried,
Could never, never sink a ship
Unless it got inside.
All the hardships of this world,
Might wear you pretty thin,
But they won’t hurt you, one least bit ...
Unless you let them in.
- Anonymous
Are you a worrier?
If you’re like a lot of people, worry just might be one of the things that makes life miserable. It’s not uncommon for people to lose sleep, drop weight, develop "nervous tics," suffer ulcers or other gastric disorders, or get pretty sick in other ways, all from worry. Worry just might be one of the elements that feeds a grand variety of mental and emotional disorders, and thought we don’t usually diagnose things this way, worry is the cause of countless spiritual maladies as well.
Not long after my wife and I married, we were talking about some events happening in our lives. I shared with her something I had dreamed up while a teenager to help me deal with worry. It goes something like this: "If you do, you will, but if you don’t, you won’t. If you’re not able, you don’t have to."
I suspect that won’t make a bit of sense to anyone but me, but it helps me with a framework for thinking things through and deciding which things are worth my deep concern. As I’ve thought about that little "ditty" in the years since it came to me as a teenager, I’ve decided it deserves some deeper thought and explanation. I really believe there are kernels of truth there that can help relieve worry.
First, IF YOU DO, YOU WILL. Now, perhaps that should be, "If you can, you should," or something like that. The point is simply this: things within your ability are the things you can do. If they are beyond your ability, you can choose either to extend your abilities (a real possibility in many cases), or accept the fact that whatever you’re dealing with is one of those things that you cannot change. But, it does encourage action when the capability is present. So, if you’re facing something you can effect, do so. If not, accept it. Whatever you do, don’t get mired down in a pity-party over things you can’t change.
Second, IF YOU DON’T YOU WON’T. Perhaps that one should be, "If you can’t, you shouldn’t." I think I just said this above, but it bears repeating. If something is not within your ability, either expand your ability, or accept reality.
Third, IF YOU’RE NOT ABLE, YOU DON’T HAVE TO. Is this getting repetitious yet? If you’re not able, you’re not able. Do you know how many people beat themselves up over things they are not able to change? Do you know how many people waste time worrying about things they really could change? Perhaps the point is this: if something is within your ability, do something about it. If it’s not, try changing yourself first, by developing new abilities, then attacking the problem.
Remember one thing above all else - worry doesn’t fix anything. In fact, worry will add an extra burden to any problem. It clouds the mind, wrecks the emotions, and kills the spirit. How does a befuddled, nervous, spiritually dead person accomplish anything worthwhile?
You’ve got to get a handle on worry. Some people seem more prone to worry than others, but it’s possible for anyone to reduce the extremes. Legitimate concern can serve as a powerful motivator. The fact that we care deeply about some issue is a positive. Worry, however, paralyzes us, and leaves us impotent.
Next time you’re tempted to worry, get a grip. Try to figure out if you can do something or not. If so, do. If not, don’t. Either way, worry isn’t the answer.
________________________________
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Psalm 37:1 begins, "Do not fret," and those words are repeated later in the chapter. The dictionary defines "fret" as "to eat way, gnaw, gall, vex, worry, agitate, wear away."
Whenever H. Norman Wright hears this word, he is reminded of the scene he sees each year when he hikes along the Snake River in the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Colonies of beavers live along the riverbanks, and often he sees trees that are at various stages of being gnawed to the ground by them. Some trees have slight rings around their trunks where the beavers have just started to chew on them. Other trees have several inches of bark eaten away, and some have already fallen to the ground because the beavers have gnawed through the trunks. Worry has the same effect on us. It will gradually eat away at us until it destroys us.
In addition to telling us not to fret, Psalm 37 gives us positive substitutes for worry. First, it says, "Trust [lean on, rely on, and be confident] in the Lord" (Psalm 37:3 AMP). Trust is a matter of not attempting to live an independent life or to cope with difficulties alone. It means going to a greater source for strength.
Second, verse four says, "Delight yourself also in the Lord" (AMP). To delight means to rejoice in God and what He has done for us. Let God supply the joy for your life.
Third, verse five says, "Commit your way to the Lord" (AMP).
Commitment is a definite act of the will, and it involves releasing your worries and anxieties to the Lord.
And fourth, we are to "rest in the Lord; wait for Him" (Psalm 37:7 AMP). This means to submit in silence to what He ordains but to be ready and expectant for what He is going to do in your life.
Stop worrying and start praying (Philippians 4:6-9; Psalm 34:1-4). The passage in Philippians can be divided into three basic stages. We are given a premise: Stop worrying. We are given a practice: Start praying. And we are given a promise: Peace. The promise is there and available, but we must follow the first two steps in order for the third to occur. We must stop worrying and start praying if we are to begin receiving God's peace.
The results of prayer as a substitute for worry can be vividly seen in a crisis in David's life that prompted him to write Psalms 34. (See 1 Samuel 21:10; 1 Samuel 22:2). David had escaped death at the hands of the Philistines by pretending to be insane. He then fled to the cave of Adullam along with four hundred men who were described as distressed, discontented, and in debt. In the midst of all this, David wrote a psalm of praise that begins, "I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth" (Psalm 34:1 RSV). He did not say he would praise the Lord sometimes, but at all times, even when his enemies were after him.
My three-year-old grandson was really concerned about me. Grandma was at his house, taking care of him while Mom and Dad were gone - I wasn't able to be there. And Grandma was lying in bed with our little guy, trying to help him get to sleep. But he had some questions first. "Are you going to stay at our house all night?" Well, Grandma assured him she was. "But who's at home with Granddad?" Grandma assured him I was there alone, but that I could handle it. "But isn't Granddad going to be lonely?" Again, Grandma told our grandson what I would be okay. And finally he thought of some childlike theology that allowed him to go to sleep that night. He said, "I know. Jesus will take care of him." And that He did!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Taking Care of The Consequences."
I think a lot of us could get to sleep a little more easily if we could rest our worries right where our grandson rested his - "Jesus will take care of it." That may be a childlike theology, but it's the secret to some grownup peace of mind.
I love the simplicity and depth of a Bible verse that has only eight words in it - but those eight words say volumes. It's Psalm 4:5, our word for today from the Word of God. It simply says, "Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord." In other words, do what you believe God wants you to do, whatever it may cost - and then trust Him for whatever consequences may come from your obeying Him.
So many people hesitate to do what God is telling them to do because they're worried about all the "mights," "coulds" and "what ifs" that may happen as a result. It's like we answer God's leading with our list of "yeah buts" - "Yeah, but this might happen; yeah, but what if I don't get a good response; yeah, but what if the money doesn't come through; yeah, but what if there's bad fallout from me doing what You want?" Do you know how many people have missed God's plans for their life because of the "yeah buts" - their fears about the backlash, the risks, the bad reaction?
In fact, you may be holding back on doing what God wants you to do right now - because of your fear of the consequences. Well, here is the liberating truth of the Word of God - the consequences of obeying God are God's responsibility! You offer right sacrifices - and then you trust God for what happens after that. God's ancient people stood on the threshold of a glorious Promised Land that God was ready to give them - but they refused to go there because they feared all the bad things that might happen. So for forty long years, they got wilderness instead of Promised Land!
Now, Peter, on the other hand, got it right when he was wondering if he should step out of that storm-tossed boat and walk on the water with Jesus. He simply said, "Lord, if it's You, I will." That's the only thing you need to worry about - "Lord, if it's You..." If it's Jesus asking you to do this, go for it. Consequences, the unanswered questions, the resources that you have no idea where you're going to find - it's all up to Him. It's your job to obey.
That's why the old hymn bottom-lines it this way - "Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey." My grandson knows the answer when you're worried about things - "Jesus will take care of it."
________________
Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"
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You won’t have to worry because …
1. The Bible still has the answers.
2. Prayer still works.
3. The Spirit can still move.
4. God still inhabits praise.
5. There is still Anointed preaching.
6. There is still Anointed singing.
7. God still pours out blessings.
8. There is room at the cross.
9. Jesus loves you.
10. Jesus still saves.
(The Y2K reference is now dated! but … Jesus is Y2K compliant! You can and should say Y2K, meaning “Yes-to-the King”)
”There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven … “ (Eccl 3:1) — For reading & meditation: Ecclesiastes 3:1-4
Refuse to be obsessed with time. It is right to be concerned about time, but it is not right to be obsessed with it. Do you live life by the clock? Then you are a candidate for stress. When film-makers want to create tension, they show a clock relentlessly ticking away. Such tactics are pointless when applied to the ordinary issues of everyday life. Nervous glances at a watch will generate tension when you are caught in traffic, but they will not make the traffic move any faster. Fretting will do nothing to alter the situation. So learn to relax, and do not become intimidated by time. Some people live life as if they are on a racing track, and set themselves rigid lap times for the things they want to accomplish during the day.
Two motorists were given the task of driving for 1,700 miles. One was asked to drive as fast as he could without breaking any speed limits; the other was told to drive at any comfortable pace. At the end of their journeys, it was found that the faster driver had consumed ten gallons more gas and doubled the wear on his tires; by driving at a speed which, in the end, proved to be only two miles per hour faster than the other driver!
A man said to me in a counseling session when I advised him to slow down: “The trouble is that I’m in a hurry — but God isn’t!” Learn the wisdom of letting things develop at their own pace, and follow the maxim that says: “Don’t push the river – let it flow.”
PRAYER:
O Father, save me from being obsessed by time. Help me to see that I have all the time in the world to do what You want me to do. And when I am over-concerned, I am overwrought! Help me, dear Father. Amen.
FURTHER STUDY:
• Eph. 5:1-21; Col. 4:5; James 4:14
1. How can we redeem the time?
2. To what does James relate this?
”Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Phil 4:6) — For reading & meditation: Philippians 4:1-13
We continue meditating on the principles we can use when our lives are threatened by stress: Recognize the symptoms of stress. No alarm bells ring in our homes or offices when we are suffering undue stress, but there are adequate warning signs.
People under stress generally become irritable and overreact to relatively trivial frustrations. They show a change in their sleep patterns, and become increasingly tired and restless. They derive less pleasure from life, experience no joy while praying or reading the Bible, laugh less, and become plagued with feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt. They sometimes develop psychosomatic complaints such as tension headaches, indigestion and other things. Some people have what is known as “target organs” — physical organs that are the first to suffer when they are under stress.
Harold Wilson confessed that whenever he had to fire a colleague, he suffered acute stomach pains. Henry Ford suffered cramps in his stomach whenever he had to make an important business decision. Trotsky, when under pressure, used to develop bouts of high temperature, and frequently had to spend time in the Crimea recuperating. One businessman I know always has a glass of milk on his desk from which he takes frequent sips in order to calm his nagging peptic ulcer.
Are you able to recognize your own particular patterns of stress? You owe it to God and yourself to find out. The waste that goes on in Christian circles through believers channeling their energies into coping with stress, rather than into extending the kingdom of God, is appalling.
PRAYER:
O God, sharpen my ability to recognize the things I do that contribute to stress in my life, so that all my energies can be channeled into spiritual activity, not self-activity. For Jesus’ sake. Amen
FURTHER STUDY:
• Luke 12:15-34; 2 Tim. 1:12; 2 Cor. 11:22-33; 12:7-10
1. What was the key to Paul’s trust under stress?
2. List six reasons Jesus gave for not worrying about tomorrow.
Last Week I threw out Worrying, it was getting old and in the way.
It kept me from being me; I couldn’t do things my way.
I threw out those Inhibitions; they were just crowding me out.
Made room for my New Growth, got rid of my old dreams and doubts.
I threw out a book on MY PAST (didn’t have time to read it anyway).
Replaced it with New Goals, started reading it today.
I threw out childhood toys (remember how I treasured them so?)
Got me a NEW PHILOSOPHY too, threw out the one from long ago.
Bought in some new books too, called I CAN, I WILL, and I MUST.
Threw out I might, I think and I ought.
WOW, You should’ve seen the dust.
I ran across an OLD FRIEND, haven’t seen him in a while.
I believe his name is GOD, Yes, I really like his style.
He helped me to do some cleaning and added some thing’s himself.
Like PRAYER, HOPE and FAITH, Yes I placed them right on the shelf.
I picked up this special thing and placed it at the front door.
I FOUND IT – its called PEACE. Nothing gets me down anymore.
Yes, I’ve got my house looking nice. Looks good around the place.
For things like Worry and Trouble there just isn’t any place.
It's good to do a little house cleaning, get rid of the old things
on the shelf.
It sure makes things brighter; maybe you should TRY IT YOURSELF.
The Power of Worrying
Here’s a good inspirational message. Keep it in your hearts. Death was walking toward a city one morning and a man asked, “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to take 100 people,” Death replied.
“That’s horrible!” the man said.
“That’s the way it is,” Death said. “That’s what I do.”
The man hurried to warn everyone he could about Death’s plan. As evening fell, he met Death again. “You told me you were going to take 100 people,” the man said. “Why did 1,000 die?”
“I kept my word,” Death responded. “I only took 100 people. Worry took the others.”
This interesting tale portrays so well what the National Mental Health Committee reported a few years ago – half of all the people in America’s hospital beds are constant worriers. Mental distress can lead to migraine headaches, arthritis, heart trouble, cystitis, colitis, backaches, ulcers, depression, digestive disorders and yes, even death. Add to that list the mental fatigue of nights without sleep and days without peace, then we get a glimpse of the havoc worry plays in destroying the quality and quantity of life.
Worry is, and always will be, a fatal disease of the heart, for its beginning signals the end of faith. Release the regrets of yesterday, refuse the fears of tomorrow and receive instead, the peace of today. FREE YOUR MIND, YOU WILL BE GLAD YOU DID.
– Unknown
A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work
— Cited in The Best of BITS & PIECES
Don’t worry about what the world wants from you, worry about what makes you come more alive. Because what the world really needs are people who are more alive. — Lawrence Leshan
According to our nation’s Bureau of Standards, a dense fog covering seven city blocks to a depth of a hundred feet contains less than one glass of water. All of that fog, if it could be condensed into water, wouldn’t quite fill a drinking glass.
Compare this to the things we often worry about. Like fog our worries can thoroughly block our vision of the light of God’s promises, but the fact is, they have little substance to them.
Day 1
Do not be calm about anything, but in everything, with worry and murmuring and lack of gratefulness for the good things God has given you, express fear and doubt in God’s promises to others.
And the captivity of Satan, which spreads to all areas of your life, will fill your heart and mind. (Philippians 4:6-7, Jacobs’ nega-phrase)
“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when God displaces worry at the center of your life” (The Message)
Day 2
Allow yourself, along with the rest of the world, to be terrorized by sons of Ishmael who fly planes into towers and 63-year-old school bus drivers who’ve gone wacko. Don’t waste your time putting on the whole armor of God — the protection God has planned and provided for you — to arm yourself for a spiritual war against Satan.
“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)
“Don’t be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life — body and soul — in His hands.” (Message)
Day 3
To come off strong when you’re really feeling fearful, watch lots of WWF wrestling. Take notes and adopt Andre the Giant’s best moves.
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might … for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places… “ (Ephesians 6:12).
“God is strong, and He wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.” (Message)
Day 4
When someone tries to intimidate you, don’t stand for it! Find an excuse, even if you have to tell a white lie, to go elsewhere. Or else tell him off — just haul off and kick him in the teeth.
“Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” (Ephesians 5:14)
“Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet.” (Message)
Day 5
Take your Palm Pilot and your Walkman with you at all times so you can block out undesirable distractions from what you have designated as your focus for the day.
“Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always … and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.” (Ephesians 5:17-18)
“Truth, righteousness, peace, faith and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them through out your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes (and ears) open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.” (Message)
Day 6
Avoid eating pretzels — hard or soft or Auntie Anne’s — or any related foods so that, unlike President Bush, you don’t take a chance on passing out and missing an update on the most recent suicide bombing.
“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear” (Luke 21:25-26)
“It will seem like all hell has broken loose — sun, moon, stars, earth, sea, in an uproar and everyone all over the world in a panic, the wind knocked out of them by the threat of doom, the powers-that-be quaking” (The Message)
Day 7
Keep TV / radio / Internet on at full blast at all times so that you are aware of the latest on food and fashion — as well as the latest fright-full observations and fear-full suggestions the media has to offer. Spend all your time and extra money stashing staples and gallons of water in your basement.
“But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:31-32)
“What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way He works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how He works.
“Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions.” (Message)
–By Joy Jacobs, author. Used by permission.
Here’s a word — or two — from Joy!
I’ve been a Christian since I was a pre-schooler. I had a godly, praying mother and a dad who spoke in churches. I graduated from a Christian college and attended seminary. My husband Bob has been in ministry since 1962. All three of our sons are in ministry. I’ve written several books on women and couples of the Bible, as well as co-authoring “Single, Whole & Holy: Christian Women & Sexuality.”
But … in the home where I grew up, anger, depression, and fear caused confusion in my heart that followed me through years of my life. My book “When God Seems Far Away” arose out of a lot of questions, which God began to answer through the meanings of His name.
At this point in my life, I don’t want to take a chance of passing on patterns of fear and worry to my children or grandchildren. My goal is complete liberty in Christ! Recently, I’ve found the workbook “Breaking Free” (Beth Moore) to be very helpful. In the chapter “Removing the Obstacles,” Beth asks readers to paraphrase Philippians 4:6-7 from a negative standpoint. That got me started!
In a letter to a friend, Emily Dickinson famously confided that “Consider the lilies” was the only biblical command she had ever faithfully kept. Perhaps only those with the poet's eye keep this instruction as a rule; the rest of us struggle with the command that precedes it: “Do not be anxious.” Jesus prescribed consideration of lilies as a remedy for anxiety. Lilies, he told all those listening that day on the mount, do not toil or spin. They are vulnerable and short lived, but they are splendid.
I feel anxious every day. I know that anxiety is not pleasing to God, so I try to rid myself of it. The surest way that I know to get rid of my anxiety is to get rid of my problem. So when I feel anxious, I often start trying to figure out how the problem will be solved. I entertain various hypothetical scenarios of resolution. I ask others for advice. I form a plan of action, lining up the steps I can take to eliminate the problem that is making me anxious.
But this is not the way Jesus taught his followers to deal with their anxiety. Solving your problems is one way of ridding yourself of anxiety, but it does not require faith. Although my anxiety level may be inversely related to my ability to envision the future solution, faith is not the same thing as looking into the future (in fact, it is the opposite). Trusting God is not the same thing as figuring out how God is going to solve your problems.
Jesus pointed out to his followers that birds don't earn their food by sowing and reaping, and neither do we earn God's involvement in our lives by micromanaging them. Anxiety is not a riddle to be solved; we don't earn God's blessing by working out the solution to our problems. No, we give them to Him to work out. God has not given us the future, but he has given us the assurance that He will be there, and that He will attend to our every need.
Let's not be guilty of considering “Do not be anxious” as one more item on our list of things to do. It is not another command to burden us; it is a gift. Jesus told us that we should not be anxious because there is no need to be anxious. God is sovereign over the smallest things. He is working everything for the good of those who love him. When He tells us to cast our cares upon Him, He is telling us that He is willing to bear the responsibility for the outcome.
As a man on this earth, Jesus knew what it was to feel as vulnerable as a lily. He also knew that we would draw strength from considering their fragile beauty as they bask in the sun that has never failed to rise upon them.
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Copyright © 2005 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.
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One morning an excited Bostonian rushed into the office of a Dr. Everett. A local newspaper had published an article about him, he said, which severely criticized his conduct. He wanted to know if Dr. Everett thought he should demand that an apology be printed, or if he should take legal action, asking for damages.
It was a good time for the doctor to remain calm and cool. Listening quietly while his visitor raved and fumed and sputtered, he finally had a chance to give the man some counsel.
“My dear sir,” he said, “I would do nothing. Half the people who got that paper never saw the article. Half of those who read it did not understand it. Half of those who did understand it did not believe it. Half of those who believed it were of no importance anyway.”
At one time somebody told President Lincoln that Stanton, his Secretary of War, had called him a fool. Lincoln replied that it must be true, for “Stanton is usually right.”
A teacher of elocution went a long distance one night to hear Rev. Beecher deliver an address. When the sermon was finished, he pushed up to the front and said to the speaker, “Mr. Beecher, I am an elocution teacher from the State of New Jersey. I came over to hear the greatest American preacher, but I am terribly disappointed.”
“What is the matter now?” asked Beecher.
“Well, sir, I counted eighty errors in grammar in your sermon.”
“Is that all?” asked Beecher. “I would have wagered my old hat that there were over eight hundred if you hadn't told me.”
We so often get our blood pressure up over something someone is supposed to have said about us. Maybe they said it, and maybe they didn't. If they did say something about us, perhaps the report which has reached us is terribly exaggerated. Most rumors or stories, if ignored, will die a natural death in a short time. One thing is sure, our friends will not believe them.
If someone is telling the truth about us, we surely should not object to that. If it is not true, why worry about it?
________
James Wallace, Reprinted from Our Times, June 1949, source: Signs of the Times, Copyright (c) March 2005, Pacific Press, http://www.signstimes.com
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It was a reasonable thing to do. After all, the people of Israel had not eaten for some time. When God sent bread from heaven, they not only ate it, they also saved enough to last them for a while. But what is reasonable is not always right, and hoarding manna was explicitly against the command of God. “I will rain down bread from heaven for you,” the Lord had said to Moses. “The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions” (Exodus 16:4).
Moses clearly related this command to the people: “No one is to keep any of it until morning” (Exodus 16:19). But some people don't like to take a chance. The manna had never been seen before; how did they know whether it would fall again the next day? These doubters hid some away and waited until morning. I wouldn't have liked to be in those tents when they opened their stash to eat the manna for breakfast. Overnight it became infested with worms and acquired a horrible stench.
God chose to make the people of Israel live in daily dependence upon him. It would have been less trouble for everyone if he had sent a week's supply of manna at a time, or even a year's. Instead, the desert sojourners went to bed six out of seven nights of the week without any food for the next day.
I don't like to go to sleep without having food in the house for breakfast. In fact, I don't really like to go to sleep without knowing how God is going to solve the problems of the next day. But just as God taught the people of Israel to live in daily dependence upon Him, He wants to teach us how to trust Him to provide what we need, when we need it... and not a moment before.
I have tried at times to live on God's past grace, subsisting on memories of his goodness and presence. Although reflecting on God's faithfulness in the past is a vital part of faith, we can't stockpile spiritual blessings so that we won't have to continue to seek them. I have alternately tried to taste what the future might bring, but this is not something God has yet given to me. We are not meant to live off the past or in the future. We are meant to trust God to meet the needs of today. Each morning, the Israelites awoke with the knowledge that God had sent manna the day before. He had promised to send it the next day as well. But the manna that they were to gather was only enough for today.
If we spend our energies worrying about tomorrow, we won't be nourished by what God has provided for us today. I hate to see believers fall prey to thinking that if they can just “get it together” they won't have to live in daily dependence upon God for their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. Even when the Israelites grew to expect manna, God didn't change his distribution schedule. “The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan” (Exodus 16:35).
Until we arrive in the settled land of our rest, God will provide us with daily bread. Let us savor it in faith, lying down at night in confidence that what we need will be provided and going out in the morning to gather the grace He has given for today.
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Copyright © 2005 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.
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O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home!
“O God, Our Help In Ages Past,” Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
In 1714, the people of England were anxious. Queen Anne lay dying, and she had no son or daughter to succeed her. Who would be the new monarch, and what changes would that make? Isaac Watts had reason to worry. His father had been imprisoned under the previous regime because his views did not please the ruling family. As a young child, Isaac has been carried by his mother to visit his father in jail. But Queen Anne had brought a new tolerance, and freedom for the elder Watts. Now that she was dying, what would happen?
Isaac Watts turned to Psalm 90 on this occasion and penned what may be the greatest of his more than six hundred hymns. In essence, it is a poem about time. God stands above human time, and in Him all our anxieties can be laid to rest. The greatness of our eternal God was a favorite theme of Watts. When the events of the day bring worry, the God of all ages remains our eternal home.
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Adapted from The One Year® Book of Hymns by Mark Norton and Robert Brown, Tyndale House Publishers (1995), entry for January 29.
In my old, yellowed copy of C. S. Lewis's LETTERS TO AN AMERICAN LADY, I have one sentence underlined that I return to again and again. Lewis tells his correspondent, who tends to be anxious, “Remember one is given strength to bear what happens to one, but not the 100 and 1 different things that MIGHT happen.”
I need this reminder often, because I have a proclivity to worry early and avoid the rush. You would be much less likely to find me worrying about something I may face tomorrow than the calamities that may fall on me twenty years from now. The perils of the future are vivid in my imagination. But because they exist only in the realm of imagination, the only comfort available to me is just as imaginary.
Have you ever looked at someone else's misfortune and thought, “I couldn't handle that”? If so, you were exactly right. God has not given us the grace to handle what He has not yet asked us to bear. The grace promised to us in Scripture is available only in the present, and only when it is needed. After reminding us that Christ can sympathize with our weaknesses, the writer of Hebrews invites, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). A literal (albeit awkward) rendering of this verse from the Greek promises the Christian “grace for a well-timed help.”
What does a well-timed help look like? Does it look like Superman sweeping out of the sky to rescue the endangered one from peril? Ordinarily not. If anyone deserved to be removed from suffering it was Jesus, but God in his purposes chose for Jesus to endure through suffering rather than avoid it. More often than not, He chooses to help us endure rather than removing the trial.
I find it fascinating that the same Greek word translated as “help” in Hebrews 4:16 is translated as “ropes” in Acts 27:17. In this scene, Paul travels on a ship that gets caught in a violent storm. The wind and waves are so fierce that the sailors fear the ship will split apart. They pass ropes (“helps”) under and around the creaking vessel in order to hold it together like a net. Sometimes, the well-timed help that God provides doesn't calm the waves, but it holds us together until the storm dies down.
The psalmist describes God as “a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). He will not give us the help before we need it, and He may not remove us out of trouble, but He will be there with us to hold us together. When the troubles do come, we can approach his throne with confidence, fully expecting to receive the grace of his well-timed help.
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Copyright © 2006 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.
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I am starting to become a believer of weight training. Lifting weights once seemed to me so unnecessary -- a curious activity for people who wanted to feel like athletes, while the real exercisers were off somewhere running. But as it turns out, I was wrong. Incorporating weight training into your exercise routine is beneficial on many levels: raising metabolism, increasing strength, reducing the risk of injury, heart disease, and other illness. I even read recently that lifting weights can help lift depression. Far from my initial theory, I have no doubt that using weights properly can build both muscle and health. And I find this a helpful illustration even as I am discovering it physically true.
Counting to ten with a weight in my hand recently, I found myself worrying about upcoming events, things I needed to do, things didn’t do well enough, and so forth. To be honest I can’t remember exactly what I was worrying about that day. But I remember thinking about the weight I was physically lifting and the weight I was mentally carrying -- and marveling at the illustration in my hand.
I believe it’s possible to use life’s resistances to build character and faith. Even so, as it is in weight lifting, a weight is only beneficial to the body when it is lifted and RELEASED. Muscles grow during times of rest; to never release a weight would forfeit the benefits of weight lifting and make way for serious injury. When it comes to worrying, I think I might resemble a person lugging around a barbell, stubbornly refusing to set it down.
F.W. Boreham tells a story about a woman who spent her entire life as a worrier. As a small child she would sit in her father’s lap and momentarily lay aside the weight of worry as he took his thumb and smoothed out the wrinkles on her forehead. “Now keep it smooth,” he would say. “Don’t let it pucker again.” But it was of little help. Now a grown woman facing the final days of her life, she sat confessing to pastor Boreham -- without seeing anything incongruous in her words -- that it worried her that she had been such a worrier all her life. I suspect in some way we are all worriers like this poor woman, failing to see the absurdity of many of our worries.
I can find many places in Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount where reacting with a sense of worry seems almost appropriate, and I would guess in this assessment I am not alone: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not murder.’ But I tell you that anyone who is even angry with his brother is subject to judgment” (Matthew 5:21-22). “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who even looks at someone lustfully has already done so” (Matthew 5:28-29).
Who can stand in the kingdom Jesus describes in this sermon? For worriers, there seems a great deal of material. But this is exactly what is so startling about Christ’s words about worrying, which come as almost a hiatus in the middle of his sermon. In between an exhortation to be perfect and a description of the narrow gate, he proclaims gently but confidently, “Do not worry.” To those trembling with the fear of certain failure, it is an impossible command -- one over which he seems to proclaim: IT IS MY LIFE THAT MAKES ALL THINGS POSSIBLE.
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 important than food, and the body
more important 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? Who of you by worrying can add
a single hour to his life? (Matthew 6:25-27)
Worrying is something like picking up the weight that Christ has removed and deciding to carry it around again, causing injury with our refusal to set it down. As Paul writes, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). If we will approach life’s worries with the hope of building faith and growing closer to God, then we must let go, setting the weight we would carry again and again before the Cross. The only benefit of worry comes in lifting it up and setting it before Him.
Of course, I realize this is easier to say than it is to do. But it is a reminder akin to Jesus pausing in the middle of his weighty sermon and smoothing out the wrinkles on our foreheads. Over each weight and worry, he repeats the resounding benefit: I WILL GIVE YOU REST.
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Copyright © 2006 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.
There are two days in every week about which we should not worry,
two days which should be kept free from fear and apprehension.
One of these days is Yesterday with all its mistakes and cares,
its faults and blunders, its aches and pains.
Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control.
All the money in the world cannot bring back Yesterday.
We cannot undo a single act we performed;
we cannot erase a single word we said.
Yesterday is gone forever.
The other day we should not worry about is Tomorrow
with all its possible adversities, its burdens,
its large promise and its poor performance;
Tomorrow is also beyond our immediate control.
Tomorrow’s sun will rise,
either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds, but it will rise.
Until it does, we have no stake in Tomorrow,
for it is yet to be born.
This leaves only one day, Today.
Any person can fight the battle of just one day.
It is when you and I add the burdens of those two awful eternities
Yesterday and Tomorrow that we break down.
It is not the experience of Today that drives a person mad,
it is the remorse or bitterness of something which happened Yesterday and
the dread of what Tomorrow may bring.
Let us, therefore, Live but one day at a time.
Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? —Luke 12:25 Hans Christian Andersen, author of such well-known fairy tales as “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” had a phobia of being buried alive. As a result, he always carried a note in his pocket telling anyone who might find him unconscious not to assume he was dead. He often left another note on his bedside table stating, “I only seem dead.” Such was his anxiety until he finally succumbed to cancer in 1875.
We may think such a fear is strange, but do we have fears that will someday look just as irrational? Is it possible that the day will come when we look back and marvel at our own anxieties? Will we one day wonder at that foolish person who chose to worry rather than to pray? Will time eventually cast us as a pitiful person who was plagued by fear because we did not face life with the resources lavished on us by the Almighty Lord of the universe?
Worrying doesn’t change anything. But trusting the Lord changes everything about the way we view life.
Forgive us, Lord, for our inclination to worry. Help us to see how foolish it is for us to worry about what You have promised to provide. Don’t let us bury ourselves alive with fears. —MRDII
A Strategy For Winning Over Worry
Identify specific worries.
Work to change what you can.
Leave what you can’t change with God.
When we put our cares in God’s hands, He puts His peace in our hearts.
It’s easy to say, “Don’t,” but sometimes there is good cause for “concern.” Isn’t that a better word? We do get into situations (sometimes our own doing) that create a good deal of anxiety. That’s part of the human experience. Sometimes you can’t just fold your arms and hope it will go away, because whatever it is requires some action. Worry that motivates a positive reaction isn’t all bad.
Taking the right action with God’s help is the valid approach. Hebrews 10:23 (nlt), “Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep His promise. Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds.” God is faithful, so in those times of worry “cast all your cares upon Him,” but try to do something positive about it yourself, as well.
We have lo-cal, lo-salt, lo-fat and lo-sugar — may you also have a lo-worry day.
Arnold Bennett, the British novelist, had a publisher who boasted about the extraordinary efficiency of his secretary. One day while visiting the publisher’s office, Bennett asked her: “Your boss claims you’re extremely efficient. What’s your secret?”
“It’s not my secret,” said the secretary, “it’s his.” Each time she did something for him, no matter how insignificant, she explained, he never failed to acknowledge and it. Because of this, she took infinite pains with her work.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer, … let your requests be made known to God. —Philippians 4:6
A man was sitting on a park bench shredding old newspapers and spreading them around. “What are you doing?” asked a bystander. “I’m spreading this paper around to keep the elephants away.” The visitor looked around the well-kept city park. “I don’t see any elephants,” he said. The man smiled. “Works pretty good, doesn’t it,” he replied.
Worry is like that. We expend a lot of energy on problems that don’t exist. Yes, I know we all face real problems, but we often create additional ones by thinking of all the bad things that might happen but never do.
One of the great challenges for worriers is to turn every care into a prayer and then to stop there, leaving it with God. Some people find this difficult to do, perhaps because they are pessimistic or sensitive by nature. But there is hope!
Paul’s counsel in Philippians 4:6 is not a mechanical formula but a tested reality. He had found peace and contentment (vv.7,11). Yet, notice the phrase in verse 12, “I have learned.” Learning takes time. It is a process marked by trial and error, and by perseverance. Aren’t you glad that our teacher, the Lord Jesus, is patient with us—even when we tear up papers and spread them around? —DJD
Help me, Lord, to place my worries
At Your feet in prayer,
Then to trust Your love and goodness
As I leave them there. —Sper
Worry is carrying a burden that God never intended us to bear.
“Americans are smiling less and worrying more,” said Daniel Gilbert in The New York Times. A new Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index shows that “happiness is down and sadness is up,” and that anxious Americans are smoking more and sleeping less.
Many would put the blame on the poor economy. But most Americans have far more than their grandparents ever did, and those grandparents weren’t depressed all the time.
The real problem is not a lack of money, but a lack of certainty. People don’t know if their future will be better or worse than it is now.
To see why that’s so difficult, consider the results of a Dutch experiment: Some test subjects knew they would receive an intense shock 20 times. Others were informed that only three of 20 shocks would be intense. Yet the subjects facing mostly mild shocks sweated more and had faster heartbeats than the others. Why? People feel worse when something bad MIGHT occur than when something bad WILL occur. So it is with the prevailing angst over the economy. It isn’t a matter of insufficient funds. It’s a matter of insufficient certainty.
I was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma earlier this year. It was shocking; cancer diagnoses usually are. The treatments were unpleasant; cancer treatments usually are. I thank God that my final chemo treatment was two months ago and my scans showed no sign of the disease remaining.
As I begin my new phase of life as a cancer survivor, a new enemy has crept in: anxiety.
I find myself worrying that it will come back. I worry about possible long-term effects from chemo. I worry that I’ll be afflicted by another type of cancer or a completely different disease in the future.
While I was in the hospital waiting for my initial biopsy results, I had a strange peace. After months of uncertainty, we had a name for the symptoms I was experiencing. There was a standard treatment with an excellent response rate, and I was under the care of experienced doctors. During treatments I had some difficult moments, but I looked forward to the end and couldn’t wait to get back to normal.
Now that I have moved on to the next phase, I’m finding that anxiety can be crippling if not addressed and confessed daily.
As we suffer trauma, sometimes in the moment we don’t fully process what’s happening. We’re just in fight mode and do what we have to do to get through. When the dust clears and we start to make sense of everything, the deeper feelings come out.
Anxiety feels different when you have actually experienced something life-changing. The event serves as justification for future worry: That awful thing happened that one time, so who’s to say that this new thing I’m worried about is not a legitimate concern?
Jesus gives us plenty of instruction about anxiety in Matthew 6:25–34. He tells us plainly: Don’t worry about your life. Don’t worry about tomorrow. But why are these commands from our Lord so hard to follow?
I’m convinced that to move on, we have to give up. We have to give up a lot of things that we love, that we cling to, that we rely on. If we don’t, we’ll never make it.
We certainly have to give up the illusion of control. You can live a healthy lifestyle, but you can never guarantee that you won’t get cancer or another debilitating disease. You can drive safely, but you can’t prevent someone else from crashing into you. You can cling to your loved ones, but you can’t guarantee their safety. There’s literally no other option but to trust God.
I have repeated Matthew 6:27 to myself often during this period of my life: “Can any of you add one moment to his life-span by worrying?” This is a very practical statement from our Lord -- worrying doesn’t change circumstances. I wasn’t able to prevent getting cancer by worrying about it, and God saw fit to heal me without any assistance from me.
To worry about our lives is to demonstrate a lack of trust in God and His good plan. He tells us repeatedly in His Word that He loves us and cares about us. He showed us His love in a very definitive way at the cross. Jesus’ sacrifice involved more physical, emotional and spiritual pain than most of us will ever have to experience, but it was part of the good plan of our good God.
We also have to give up our idols -- the things and people that we value more than the will of God.
For me, my biggest idol has been my marriage. At the time of my diagnosis, I was engaged to a wonderful man. We worked with my doctors to plan my treatment schedule around the wedding date, and we had a wonderful ceremony right at the mid-point in my treatments. I had longed for marriage for so long, and I wasn’t ready to let go for anything. Even the thought that I might not be able to live a long and happy life with my husband was too much to bear.
God’s priorities for us might be different than our priorities. He promises to provide for our needs as we seek first His Kingdom (v. 33), but He knows what we need better than we do. We need to be prepared that He might allow us to lose the things we love the most, including our families or our own lives.
I encourage anyone who has experienced trauma or debilitating anxiety to seek assistance from a counselor or doctor. But it’s also worth it to reflect on what you’re holding on to. If we hold on tightly to our lives, we will worry that things won’t work out the way we want them to. Jesus has already guaranteed that we will have troubles (v. 34), so there’s no question that we will all experience seasons of pain, loss and disappointment. We need to give up so that we can trust God and free ourselves from the anxiety that will keep us from seeking and desiring His will.
My wife and I were returning home on an evening in October. As we drove, we were both concerned about the five-year-old son of our dear friends. Over a 24-hour period, Noah had become quite sick. Even as we were praying silently, we received word that the doctor had ordered a brain scan. In that one moment our hearts swung from concern to anxiety. Yes, we have been told by the Lord we cannot add a single hour to our lives by worrying. But that evening the Lord Jesus graciously bore with our limitations for he knew in his heart that we were indeed very worried.
What would your prayer be at such a moment? What if you were in the place of these parents? How would you get through this long night?
When Abraham left Haran he was 75 years old. At this point, God had already promised to make him into a great nation. But his son Isaac would not arrive until after a quarter century of waiting! Years later, Genesis 22 depicts the Lord asking Abraham for that very son as a sacrifice. In verse two the Lord makes his asking known. Verse three begins by stating, “Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac.” What is it that transpired between verse two and verse three? The answer is short and simple: a night. But the agony was neither short nor simple. If King Darius could neither eat nor sleep on the night when Daniel was put into the lion’s den, how much more was the agony of Abraham? This was arguably Abraham’s longest night ever. The night has its unique way of amplifying fears and anxieties. There in the long night, the shadows seem longer, the lights seem dimmer, and the enemy seems bigger. The psalmist spoke of one such night when he wrote, “I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears” (Psalm 6:6).
If you are facing your long night it may help to remember that you are not alone. Abraham went through his. Many of the prophets went through theirs. Most importantly, the Lord Jesus went through his at Gethsemane. In such moments we do well to remember that the night may be long, but it cannot be forever and that long nights have a unique way of unraveling treasures from the heart of God. As the psalmist wrote, “At night his song is with me” (42:8). Jeremiah, too, wrote in his Lamentations, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (3:22-23). By the ordinance of a loving God even the longest night of agony must make way for a new morning of hope. Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning (cf. Psalm 30:5).
Sadly, for our friends, their long night had only begun. Noah’s scan would reveal a mass near his brainstem and he would be scheduled for neurosurgery. Like Abraham their burden was both unexpected and unimaginable. As Abraham saddled his donkey that next morning a heavy burden was saddled to his heart. If only he could have snapped the cords that held this burden to him! Yet paradoxically, for him relief would come only after he allowed himself to be bound to this burden, for the cords were tied by the very hands of God.
Interestingly, in Genesis 22:5 Abraham says to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” Was he speaking the truth when he turned a singular into a plural? Should he not have said, “We will worship and then I will come back to you.”? Had not God asked him to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering on one of those mountains? Had he worked out some other human plan to save his son or was he deliberately creating a false impression in the minds of his servants? Was this only a father’s way of hiding from his beloved son the treacherous intent of his heart? Was Abraham a victim of his own wishful thinking as he found himself without hope on the dead-end road of his commitment? Or was there perhaps something more going on?
On the morning of Noah’s surgery, we prayed with him before the doctors would attempt to remove the mass. Our friends were given a new courage that morning, reflecting a special peace from God. After eight hours of successful surgery and a biopsy report that read “benign,” little Noah was brought out of the operating theatre. To everyone’s joy, he came out with his “hi-beam smile” and broke the silence when he whispered, “Daddy, let us go back home!” The long night had indeed given way to a new day of promise.
When Abraham said “we will return,” I believe he was not making a grammatical mistake. On the contrary, he was making a statement of faith -- faith in the God who had given him Isaac and into whose hands he had placed him back. In the long night, our only legitimate way of escape comes from God who is faithful and who will not let us be tempted with more than we can bear (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:13). And God is indeed faithful! We never truly lose what we place in God’s hands.
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Arun Andrews is associate apologist with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Bangalore, India. Copyright © 2008 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.
Anxiety is widespread among teenagers. If you lined up 100 teenagers between the ages of 13 to 18, you could expect approximately every third teenager (31 percent) to experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their teen years. And almost every 10th teenager (8.5 percent) would experience anxiety that causes severe impairment.[i] As the parent of an anxious teen, you may feel a sense of fear, uncertainty, or powerlessness. How can you help? What if you can’t help? How severe is your child’s anxiety? At what point should you consider counseling?
Perhaps you even feel a sense of frustration. Wouldn’t your child feel less anxious if he would listen to you and stay off his phone? Or maybe you have stepped into “fix-it mode,” searching for causes and next steps to take. You want your child to find relief, so your natural tendency may be to brainstorm solutions and offer suggestions of what you think will help. While suggestions can be helpful, oftentimes the best place to start is by having an open and ongoing conversation with your teen about their experience. Here are some questions to help you begin.
Questions to get the conversation started
What is anxiety like for you? Many teenagers don’t realize when they are anxious. Their back tension, racing thoughts, counting rituals, insomnia, nervous energy or other anxiety symptoms feel normal because these experiences are the only thing they know. Teenagers often need help verbalizing their anxiety symptoms so they can begin to recognize when they are anxious. Ask specific questions to help them gain awareness. What does anxiety feel like for them? What thoughts race through their minds? Where do they notice anxiety symptoms in their bodies?
What seems to trigger your anxiety? Teenagers also often need help connecting their anxiety to specific situations in their life. Is the tension in their shoulders related to homework? Do the racing thoughts occur when they spend too much time on the phone? Does the anxiety tend to happen at a certain time of day, in a specific location, or around particular people? Ask questions to help your child begin to make these connections.
When is the first time you remember feeling anxious? You can also investigate when the anxiety first started and what was happening in your child’s life at the time. The onset of anxiety can often be traced back to distressing events such as a parent’s divorce, an experience of bullying, or the death of a family member. The impact of events such as these can linger for many years. Sometimes, present symptoms of anxiety can be resolved when teenagers have the chance to process past distressing experiences.
How do you think your habit of _______ impacts your anxiety? Many teenagers have bad habits that make their anxiety worse. Don’t we all? Parents often recognize that their teenagers would feel better if they would go to bed at a more reasonable time, stay more active, spend less time on the phone, or stop other stress-inducing habits. But how can you help teenagers make important changes if they bristle the moment these topics are mentioned? While you may need to enforce rules surrounding certain problem areas, it’s often best to start by helping teenagers assess their habits for themselves.
Teenagers need to begin taking ownership of how some habits such as isolating, talking to certain friends, overusing social media, or binge-watching TV impact their anxiety. Help them investigate areas such as these by framing your concerns as questions, instead of statements or lectures. For example, how does it affect them when they spend the afternoon on TikTok? If they notice that it negatively affects their anxiety, what do they want to do about this?
Are there any calming activities you would like to use as an alternative to habits you realize may be problematic? Small changes such as getting outside for regular walks, taking five minutes a day to breathe deeply, or taking breaks from homework can make a difference. Talk about some possible changes, but don’t send them off to implement these practices alone. Go with them. Go on that walk together. Breathe deeply together. Stay off social media together. Go out of your way to communicate that you are on their side and in this struggle with them.
How does your relationship with God help you when you feel anxious? And if it doesn’t seem to help, how are you making sense of that? The way we frame conversations about anxiety and faith with teenagers is important. Teenagers are often black-and-white thinkers. They sometimes misinterpret our encouragements to “bring their anxiety to God” as pressure to simply pray harder and read their Bibles more. They can then feel guilty, confused, or angry when they do these things and still feel anxious.
Instead of asking a teenager “are you praying?” or “are you reading your Bible?”, we need to make the connection between anxiety and faith more compelling. More invitational. More honest about the mysterious ways God does and doesn’t work through Scripture and prayer. Less focused on hints of legalism and more focused on the relationship we can experience with the Lord.
God does not stand over us and demand that we pray more and read our Bibles more when we are afraid. Rather, we get to go to Him for help. We get to be completely honest with Him about our experience. How can you help your teenager grasp this comfort? This is an opportunity to share your own experience of how you go to the Lord when you feel afraid.
Do you want to try counseling? Some teenagers fight the idea of counseling. Other teenagers want counseling but hesitate to ask for it because they have real or imagined fears about how a parent may respond. It’s worth initiating the conversation to see if counseling has crossed their mind. If they do desire counseling, always honor this request.
Is there anything that I am doing or anything that is happening in our home that makes you feel more anxious? This is a difficult question to ask, but I encourage you to go here. You may or may not agree with what your teenager says, but either way you will gain valuable information. It’s important to assess how the atmosphere of your whole household affects your teenager’s anxiety. Children are like sponges, absorbing their parent’s energy and emotions. This is especially true of young children, but we can’t ignore how teenagers also soak up the emotions of adults. When a parent feels anxious, angry, stressed, or worried, a teenager picks up these feelings. When a parent feels calm, a teenager absorbs this sense of peace.
So when you notice anxiety in your teenager, it’s always an invitation to consider your own inner life. If you find anxiety, fear, worry, or stress within yourself, it’s likely affecting your teenager as well.
However, before you discuss with your teenager the questions listed above, consider answering them for yourself. Do you know when you are stressed or anxious? Are you using the habits you encourage your teenager to use? Sometimes helping your anxious teenager begins with addressing your own inner struggle.
Exploring your own anxiety should not lead to discouragement or self-criticism, though. We all feel anxious at times. Rather, beginning with yourself may be a needed invitation. God has given you an opportunity to slow down and nurture your own anxious heart. As you do so, you will become more equipped to understand and help the anxious teenager in your care.
Sermon in Philippians series. Four ways to handle stress. Phil. 4:1-7
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HOW TO HANDLE STRESS
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I. Are you a stressed-out person?
A. Road-rage and atrocities fill the news.
B. Here are some God-given principles for relieving stress.
II. Get along with everyone.
A. Are you fighting with anyone right now?
B. Fighting is common among Christians.
C. Try to get along. Romans 12:16-18
III. Be happy about everything.
A. Rejoice!
B. Be gentle.
C. Focus on Second Coming.
IV. Worry about nothing.
A. Worry stifles our joy and pumps out stress.
B. You are not God.
C. Worry is worthless. Matthew 6:25,34
V. Pray about everything.
A. Replacing a negative with a positive.
B. Have a thankful attitude.
VI. Have peace in everything.
#4361
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Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. --Matthew 6:34
Meredith Willson's musical comedy The Music Man is known for its memorable toe-tappers, but it also contains a number of perceptive lines. In one serious scene, Professor Harold Hill, a fly-by-night con artist, expresses genuine love to Marian the librarian. But she is always looking to the vague future, never quite living in today. Hill tells her, "You pile up a lot of tomorrows, and you'll find a lot of empty yesterdays." Professor Hill may have been unscrupulous, but he understood the importance of the present.
Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909), former US Senate chaplain, said, "Never attempt to bear more than one kind of trouble at once. Some people bear three kinds--all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have."
Jesus told us, "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things" (Mt. 6:34). If we knew all the good things that were going to happen tomorrow, we would be overly excited today and disappointed tomorrow. If we knew all the bad things in our future, worry and fear and grief would paralyze us today.
The believer in Jesus Christ puts his faith in the God of the past, present, and future. By faith, we can walk securely, one day at a time. That day is today! --HWR
Why do you worry about the years
That your feet have not yet trod?
Live instead with trust, not fears,
And in fellowship with God. --Anon.
We lose the joy of living in the present when we worry about the future.
Is there a magic cutoff period when offspring become accountable for their own actions? Is there a wonderful moment when parents can become detached spectators in the lives of their children and shrug, "It's their life," and feel nothing?
When I was in my twenties, I stood in a hospital corridor waiting for doctors to put a few stitches in my son's head. I asked, "When do you stop worrying?" A nurse said, "When they get out of the accident stage." My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.
When I was in my thirties, I sat on a little chair in a classroom and heard how one of my children talked incessantly, disrupted the class, and was headed for a career making license plates. As if to read my mind, a teacher said, "Don't worry. They all go through this stage, and then you can sit back, relax, and enjoy them." My mother listened and said nothing.
When I was in my forties, I spent a lifetime waiting for the phone to ring, the cars to come home, the front door to open. A friend said, "They're trying to find themselves. In a few years, you can stop worrying. They'll be adults."
By the time I was almost 50, I was sick and tired of being vulnerable, I was still worrying over my children, but there was a new wrinkle. There was nothing I could do about it.
But I continued to anguish over their failures, be tormented by their frustrations and absorbed in their disappointments. My friends said that when my kids got married I could stop worrying and lead my own life. I wanted to believe that, but I was haunted by my mother's wan smile and her occasional, "You look pale. Are you all right?" "Call me the minute you get home." "Are you depressed about something?"
Can it be that parents are sentenced to a lifetime of worry? Is concern for one another handed down like a torch to blaze the trail of human frailties and the fears of the unknown? Is concern a curse? Or is it a virtue that elevates us to the highest form of life?
One of my children became quite irritable recently, saying to me, "Where were you? I've been calling for three days, and no one answered. I was worried." I smiled a wan smile.
The torch has been passed.
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Over and over again during his 72-day ordeal in the Andes, Nando Parrado would tell himself, “I am already dead, I am already dead.” That mantra allowed him to vanquish the fear that gripped him — and perhaps also explains why, when given a miraculous second chance at life, he has lived ever since with such gusto.
Mr. Parrado, 56, is perhaps the best known of the 16 survivors of the crash of an Uruguayan Air Force plane in the Andes Mountains in October 1972, as it was carrying his rugby team to a match in Chile. Mr. Parrado’s mother and younger sister were among those who died there in the Andes, his sister succumbing to injuries and cold as he held her in his arms. It was he who, with a single companion, trekked through the harsh cordillera with virtually no supplies or protection and eventually guided rescuers back to the crash site to save his friends and teammates.
Since that deliverance, chronicled in the best-selling book “Alive” and a subsequent movie, Mr. Parrado has been a race car driver, television host, motivational speaker, business entrepreneur and, most recently, author of a book called “Miracle in the Andes.” But no matter what he does, he says, his actions are guided by the lessons he learned and the conversations about life, death, God and religion that took place during his struggle to survive.
“We were lucky, extremely lucky,” he said. “We didn’t have any food, clothes or water, and they weren’t searching for us. So how could we survive? I lost everything, my family, friends and future, but I was resurrected. I came back to life from the grave.”
After the ordeal, Parrado became a successful businessman in Uruguay. But in 2001 and 2002 this country was drawn into the financial crisis that struck its much larger neighbor, Argentina, with banks and businesses collapsing. Mr. Parrado’s friends and partners were frantic, spending sleepless nights worrying their companies would not survive, and marveled at his composure.
“Those endless nights in the Andes were terribly, terribly, terribly cold, and so we burned all the money we had,” he said. “I can tell you that a $1 bill burns in the same amount of time as a $100 bill.”
When you shift mind into neutral and just let it idle, where do your thoughts go? Do you worry about money? We are to be careful with money, but Jesus taught that we are not to be full of care about it. If you have given yourself to God, you do not have to worry your life's necessities. God Himself has assumed responsibility for your food and clothing. Speaking of our need for food Jesus pointed to the birds. [Matt 6:22]
That does not mean we get what we need by doing nothing. Birds must scratch and search for food. The point is, they do not worry about it. Jesus instructed us to center our lives on God's kingdom than clothing, food and drink will be ours as well. Look in this way: If you center your life on money, you will ultimately leave it or it will leave you, and you will also lose out on God. But if you center your life on God and doing His will, all these other things are thrown.
Over and over again during his 72-day ordeal in the Andes, Nando Parrado would tell himself, “I am already dead, I am already dead.” That mantra allowed him to vanquish the fear that gripped him — and perhaps also explains why, when given a miraculous second chance at life, he has lived ever since with such gusto.
Mr. Parrado, 56, is perhaps the best known of the 16 survivors of the crash of an Uruguayan Air Force plane in the Andes Mountains in October 1972, as it was carrying his rugby team to a match in Chile. Mr. Parrado’s mother and younger sister were among those who died there in the Andes, his sister succumbing to injuries and cold as he held her in his arms. It was he who, with a single companion, trekked through the harsh cordillera with virtually no supplies or protection and eventually guided rescuers back to the crash site to save his friends and teammates.
Since that deliverance, chronicled in the best-selling book “Alive” and a subsequent movie, Mr. Parrado has been a race car driver, television host, motivational speaker, business entrepreneur and, most recently, author of a book called “Miracle in the Andes.” But no matter what he does, he says, his actions are guided by the lessons he learned and the conversations about life, death, God and religion that took place during his struggle to survive.
“We were lucky, extremely lucky,” he said. “We didn’t have any food, clothes or water, and they weren’t searching for us. So how could we survive? I lost everything, my family, friends and future, but I was resurrected. I came back to life from the grave.”
After the ordeal, Parrado became a successful businessman in Uruguay. But in 2001 and 2002 this country was drawn into the financial crisis that struck its much larger neighbor, Argentina, with banks and businesses collapsing. Mr. Parrado’s friends and partners were frantic, spending sleepless nights worrying their companies would not survive, and marveled at his composure.
“Those endless nights in the Andes were terribly, terribly, terribly cold, and so we burned all the money we had,” he said. “I can tell you that a $1 bill burns in the same amount of time as a $100 bill.”
Last Week I threw out Worrying, it was getting old and in the way.
It kept me from being me; I couldn’t do things my way.
I threw out those Inhibitions; they were just crowding me out.
Made room for my New Growth, got rid of my old dreams and doubts.
I threw out a book on MY PAST (didn’t have time to read it anyway).
Replaced it with New Goals, started reading it today.
I threw out childhood toys (remember how I treasured them so?)
Got me a NEW PHILOSOPHY too, threw out the one from long ago.
Bought in some new books too, called I CAN, I WILL, and I MUST.
Threw out I might, I think and I ought.
WOW, You should’ve seen the dust.
I ran across an OLD FRIEND, haven’t seen him in a while.
I believe his name is GOD, Yes, I really like his style.
He helped me to do some cleaning and added some thing’s himself.
Like PRAYER, HOPE and FAITH, Yes I placed them right on the shelf.
I picked up this special thing and placed it at the front door.
I FOUND IT – its called PEACE. Nothing gets me down anymore.
Yes, I’ve got my house looking nice. Looks good around the place.
For things like Worry and Trouble there just isn’t any place.
It's good to do a little house cleaning, get rid of the old things
on the shelf.
It sure makes things brighter; maybe you should TRY IT YOURSELF.
Enough For Today
Read: Matthew 6:25-34
Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. --Matthew 6:34
Life can be monotonous. The road that lies before us seems to stretch mile after mile across a flat, barren desert with no oasis in sight. How then are we to handle wearisome responsibilities when there's no foreseeable relief from our burdens?
Oliver de Vinck, severely disabled from birth, lay helplessly on his bed for all of his 32 years, unable to care for himself. Day after day and year after year his parents put every spoonful of food into his mouth, changed his diapers, and still maintained a happy home.
One day Oliver's brother Christopher asked his father how they managed. He explained that they didn't worry about the long succession of tomorrows that might lie before them. They lived a day at a time, asking, "Can I feed Oliver today?" And the answer always was, "Yes, today I can do it."
Jesus taught us how we can handle life's routine: "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble" (6:34). In faith--and with prayer--we can break life and its often wearisome tasks into bite-size pieces, entrusting the unpredictable future to the grace of Him who promises that "as your days, so shall your strength be" (Dt. 33:25). --VCG
The road I'm on is twisted, Lord,
Its end defies my view;
Teach me to take each step in faith
And leave the rest to You. --Gustafson
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