Thursday, March 3, 2011

Do Not Worry

"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more then clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value then they? Which of you by worry can add one cubit to his stature?"
Matthew 6:25-27

How many times each week do I catch myself worrying about some matter or another? If I should write down every little worry, I am afraid I could fill a small book in a matter of months. In fact, I once read about a man who did just that. Every time he had a worry he wrote it down, then refused to worry about it any longer until his worry day. Every week on his worry day (Wednesday, I believe) he would read over his worries from the last week and see what had become of them and if he still had cause to worry about them. Do you know that of all his hundreds of worries, only a few amounted to anything?

We find comfort in thinking that we somehow can change whatever may happen by fretting over it. In reality, if we just chose not to worry, we would be happier. After all, not much of life is worth our worry anyway, as "Mr. Worrier" found out.

Take down your Bible and read what the Lord has to say about worry. I have always loved the line, "Which of you by worry can add one cubit to his stature?" Not I. I may have added a few wrinkles to my face, but I definitely have not grown any taller because of my worry.

It is out of our hands. God has it under control. Whether you have been worrying about your school grades, or about not having a job. God has it all under control. Yes, I do know that that does not guarantee that we will like His outcome, but I firmly believe that the Lord's ways are higher then my own (Isaiah 55:8-9) and I trust that His ways are best, even at those times when I just can't "see" the good.

"You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You" (Isaiah 26:3). This is my verse for the week. I have no reason to worry. I just need to keep my mind focused on my Father. He has it all under control.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very true. Thanks for the reminder!
This is something that I had to keep reminding myself of during my search for a college. Now that I'm in school, I have to keep telling myself that as I look for a career, haha.

Kathryn said...

Yes, aren't we pitiful when it comes to worry? We struggle long and hard, finally lay our worry aside, and then we cannot rest, but must pick up another one. Thank the Lord for His great mercy!