>This principle has really been impressed upon my spirit lately. I’m not even sure how to go about blogging about it simply because there’s just so much to say about faith and believing God and anxiety.
It is a command in Philippians 4 to not worry, but in everything, pray. From Blue Letter Bible:
It is not for us to be worried about tomorrow. Jesus says in Matthew that tomorrow has enough trouble of its own. There are so many scriptures that teach us to not worry or be anxious. The story of Joshua; the story of David. Jeremiah 29:11. “The steps of the righteous are ordered of the Lord.”
Here’s my logic, which you also might share: I can do everything in my power to be a responsible person and good steward of all I’ve been given (time, money, relationships, etc). But when truly following Jesus, His will will be done in the end; He truly holds the world. “Who by worrying can add an hour to his life?” If anything, the stress that comes from worry and anxiety will only shorten our lives.
In our video session tonight for Anointed, Transformed, Redeemed, Priscilla Shirer pointed out how important prayer is. It’s our most powerful weapon. David, in the same predicament more than once, prayed before each time. He didn’t rely on the same answer for both times, but instead sought a new word from the Lord.
When I pray about finances or Korea or my family, I need to pray more than once. If a problem arises in any of these areas, the Lord knows best on what approach I should employ to help solve the problem.
So, what does faith look like adjacent to worry?
If my car breaks down, I will [actually this happened tonight]…
…think of every possible bad scenario. Call my dad, probably crying, and play out every solution in my mind. Panic.
…stay calm. Call my dad, let him know what’s up. Call a friend to take me home. Call off work tomorrow and then plan to call Toyota tomorrow. No reason to worry about money since we are good stewards and have a special savings account for car repairs.
If a customer treats me poorly at work, I will…
If I worry about the salvation of people I love, I will…
If I feel the enemy trying to remind me of my past, I will…
…thank Jesus for His faithfulness to forgive, and to heal, and dwell in the love that He has for me. Pray about apologizing to others for my actions out of anger, anxiety, etc.
Think before hand of how your reaction to trials will affect others, believers or not. How we react to life’s toughest circumstances says how much we trust God. Do we trust Him with 10%? Only certain people? Only a certain portion of our income? No. We need to trust Him 100%, every day and in every circumstance.
Obviously we are all works in progress. But as we know from Scripture He is faithful to complete the good work He began in all of us. We should not be discouraged by the prospect that we might fail. We will fail, many times. That is part of being human. But we can live blamelessly in the spirit of God by prayer and thanksgiving.
I am saying all this for my benefit as much as anyone else’s. I will say, though, that the Lord has brought me to a place of faith that I could not have seen six months ago. I saw only the tall wall in front of me. Now I’m standing on that plateau, looking down at where I came from. It wasn’t easy, but it’s been well worth the trip.
mercies per mile 