12/21/2024
My devotional reading this morning began with an incredibly insightful statement. Pastor E. M. Bounds began by writing "Worry is the epidemic evil of mankind. Everybody is influenced by worry.", and as I thought about this observation, I came to the conclusion that He was so right. We do worry about many things in our lives... even everyday things. It made me think of my mother who was the consummate worrier. I would often tease her by saying that if she didn’t have something of her own to worry about, she would borrow someone else’s troubles and worry about those. I am making worry sound trivial, but it isn’t. Let’s visit this subject today.
“do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:6-7 ESV
I listened as a Pastor I know spoke to us in a sermon about two things that he had taken to the Lord. First, he spoke of recently lying in his sickbed with Pneumonia where he prayed with every labored breath he breathed for his granddaughter who the doctors thought had an inherited condition that would shorten her life. Secondly, he spoke of how sick he had been at the time, and how he had called his own doctors when he was in pain and unable to breathe, and the way he prayed for healing.
As he spoke about his granddaughter, I could hear the worry in his voice and imagined the desperation in his prayers. Then, he told of his granddaughter rushing into the room where he lay and in hugs telling him that the tests revealed she didn't have the hereditary condition they had feared, and that what she did have could be easily treated. The pastor spoke of how God had answered his prayer regarding her.
Regarding his own health problem, he had called the doctor and was told to come into the hospital immediately for a CT scan and testing. He told us of how he prayed in preparation for the scan, and how those prayers had brought him peace. His outcome was healing.
Two prayers, and two very different reactions to those situations. In one he fretted and prayed continuously out of fear for his granddaughter, and in the other he received the glorious peace of God. I wonder if he saw this difference in them.
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:4-7 ESV
Though it is a hard thing for us to do, Paul wrote this passage to teach us that we should rejoice always and again as we bring our troubles to the Lord, and to receive His peace when we hand them to Him. With my Pastor, he was able to feel that peace when praying about his own condition... But was unable to feel it regarding his granddaughter’s. If he were in school that would be a fifty percent score, and in every course I have ever taken a fifty is a failing grade. Do we pass the test when we are confronted with trouble and stand at the crossroads between doubting, and trust… worrying, and peace? We can’t serve two masters.
““The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious 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 than clothing?”
Matthew 6:22-25 ESV
“And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”
Matthew 6:28-30 ESV
Worry doesn't keep God from hearing and answering our prayers, but it does rob us of His peace which is one of His greatest mercies and whose absence can harm our own health. Modern medicine has recently discovered that what the bible spoke of thousands of years ago is absolutely true... worry has a negative impact on us physically, mentally, and spiritually. Isn’t it interesting that Paul wrote of how trusting God “guards our hearts and minds”? This implies that our worrying is an attacker that seeks to harm or destroy us… our trust in God, our faith, our peace, and ultimately receive good health in every way is the result of trust… not worry.
So, we see that worry and stress are indeed harmful to us. However, God hears our prayers and wants us to hand over our problems to Him, and He wants us to go further even further... He wants us to trust in Him completely and receive His personal peace in knowing that He has heard us and will handle the situation within His perfect will. God does not want the various crisis in our day to day lives to ripple into every part of our existence nor does He want them to injure our health through worry and stress. The ultimate victory of worry is how it can defeat our faith and confidence in God, and His promises to us. There is one root cause to every worry we allow to creep into our lives, and it can even be used as a synonym… doubt. Worry is founded in doubt.
So, as we hand our issues to the Lord we should pray to receive His gift of peace. Trust in God to take every situation and deal with it perfectly within His will... then let it go as you hand is to Him. That is His desire for us... peace, and ultimately that we will trust in Him always.
Prayer:
Thank you, Father, for the trust I have in you, and the prayers I enter into with you, especially when I am teetering on the verge of feeling doubt and fear that causes me to worry. Father, I hand you my problems that have been plaguing me today, and I ask that your peace replace them, and that your calm will overcome the stress and worry that has been accompanying them. Lord, you are the relief I find in every stressful situation, and I trust in your ability to take my troubles completely. In this the season in which I am celebrating the birth of your son Jesus Christ, it hardly seems right for me to allow tension and worry to rule my life, so today I obey your Word and hand my cares over to you while asking for your peace and joy to fill me in return. By accepting this calm and allowing it to soothe my spirit, I am able to worship you fully and thank you for the coming of Jesus. I can see clearly in my mind's eye, and feel in my soul, the wonder of His birth and all that this event embodies for me, and the entirety of mankind. Thank you, Holy Father, for this merciful event and the blessings that come from having a complete trust in you. My faith is founded in knowing that even as you fulfilled the prophecy and promise of the Christ that is given throughout the Bible by sending your Him, your Son, to defeat death and redeem my sins, that you will also be true to your every Word. You will take my cares and troubles each day and removing the anxiety and worry that ride upon their backs, while seek to harm me, and my relationship with you. For this unwavering confidence I have in your faithfulness I am eternally grateful. I praise you in my storms and give you all the glory for the peace that comes over me… no doubt, no worry, only a peace, joy, calm, and the reassurance I feel in trusting you. Praise your name Father and bless your Son Jesus my savior and redeemer in whose name I pray.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen!
“Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
Psalm 46:10 ESV
Rich Forbes