05/18/2024
What kind of trouble is bothering us? Today let’s acknowledge that we suffer from all types of trouble, but the 900 pound gorilla in the room is WORRY! In my devotional reading this morning the author categorized troubles for us like this:
"Some troubles only exist in the mind. Some are anticipated troubles that never come. Others are past troubles, and it is foolish to worry over them. Present troubles are the only ones requiring attention and demand prayer. Some troubles are self-originated; we are their authors. Some of these originate involuntarily; some arise from our ignorance; some come from our carelessness." – E.M. Bounds
Bounds has given us a very good description of the troubles that we either perceive or experience in our lives, but of all of these, the only ones that we should actively deal with and bring before the Lord are the real and present troubles. The rest aren't troubles at all but are baseless WORRIES! Which of these have we fallen victim to in our lives today?
There are many of us who just have to worry about something at all times. Are you one of them? My mother used a term for this; she would often say "Don't be such a worry wart!"
That is an odd term, "Worry Wart". I did some digging and it originated in a comic strip that ran from 1922-1977 titled 'Out Our Way' by J.R. Williams. Interestingly it originally referred to someone who was a pest, but over time (by the 1950s) came to mean someone who worries incessantly.
Well, on occasion any of us can become a worry wart. We can let past troubles linger after God has already taken them from us, and we will worry about things that are just possibilities and not troubles at all. As I considered this it dawned on me that Bounds was right... We need only bring today's real troubles to the Lord and I found that scripture backs this up.
“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
Matthew 6:34 KJV
Trouble is real... Worries, on the other hand, can sometimes be real but can be perceived as well. In either case they are detrimental to our health. A little poem from the 1930s sums this up very well. Let’s read it together…
Don’t worry a wart,
Or a thing of that sort,
You’re taking a terrible chance sir;
For often they grow,
As doctors all know,
Into a formidable cancer.
Sandusky Star Journal (Ohio), 26 Feb. 1923.
Worry can harm us mentally, and physically, but it can also damage us spiritually. When we are anxious or uncertain about something in our lives it eats away at us and eventually makes it hard for us to pray, and to hand over to God the very thing that is bothering us. Excessive worry is founded on a lack of confidence in God's ability to help us and to take on our cares.
I have been guilty of handing a problem over to God, and then taking it right back before I have even reached the Amen of my prayer's. Is this something you have done as well? We can tell it is happening to us because our minds won't let it go, and worry remains with us.
God desires us to trust him and when we are absorbed in worry that is foolish behavior indeed! Worry doesn't allow us to experience the calm and peace that God desires for us. Our inability to trust Him completely will take its toll on our walk of faith and our relationship with Him.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.”
Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV
Our relationships with the people around us mirror the effect of a lack in trust. If you don't trust your boss then your work is impacted negatively. If you don't trust your spouse then your marriage is in danger. If you don't trust your government then social discontent arises. So today let's deal with the real and present troubles in our lives by bringing them before the Lord in prayer, and when we hand them over to Him let's trust Him to take them. The result should be peace of mind and not continued worry! Let's claim that peace and leave our worry wart persona behind. Let’s end our prayers with scripture that reinforces this in us... and rejoice in the peace that we receive.
“The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.”
Psalms 28:7 KJV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for taking my worries from me, even as I hand you all my troubles. Thank you Lord for helping me to identify the real troubles that I have in my life, and for giving me the ability to separate them from those that I have imagined, or contrived in some way. Help me Jesus to give you the loads I carry, and to accept your burden in their place, because you have told me outright that your load is light, and indeed it is. Help me to cast away the vaporous worries that haunt me, and to hand all those actual problems I experience to you so that they too will be relieved. In this way I pray that your peace will cover me, and that your calm will heal me mind, body, and soul. Father, Holy, Holy, Holy, are you who was, and is, and is to come. Holy are you who takes all my worries and crushes them into nothingness in your righteous right hand. Uphold me Lord, and give me the strength to turn away from all my worries as I hand them to you. Merciful are you in this way, and your grace is sufficiently equipped to bring me peace and rest in every problem I face. Praised be your name for the joy that follows, and the calm that fills my soul. Hear me Lord as I worship you without the distraction of worry, and lift you up in unfettered prayer. Let all those who know me see that I am a changed person, and that the anxiety which once ruled me has been replaced by you, and the spirit of Christ that abides in me. Let them see that my belief in you, and not anything of my own doing, is responsible for this change in me. In this realization I pray that they will give you all the glory for my new and peace filled life. Take now I pray the worries of today, and offer me your cup of tranquility in their place. Allow me to taste the body and blood of Christ as I eat, and drink from His cup. Let these blessed elements give me eternal peace and rest in you. Take now my worries, take now my troubles, take now my heart, my mind, my soul, and receive my all in all. Everything of me I lay now in your hand, and trust you will bless me, as I abide at peace in Christ forevermore.
“”Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.””
Matthew 11:28-30 ESV
Rich Forbes