August 9, 2008

Worries

I am sitting at my brother Sean's and Julie's house in Canton, OH, on a Saturday night. My mind is beginning to reflect on a week of craziness.

It was Wednesday afternoon, I was helping a friend of mine put some siding on a house that he was working on. Sean calls and asks if I would like to come and speak on this upcoming Sunday morning. I was free this week so I was excited to be able to share God's word with some teens and young adults on a Sunday morning, but a little disappointed to not be going to my home church. I have missed being there very much. We began to talk about what was going on and he informed me that they have been going through the sermon on the mount, and that this week was the passage on worrying.

I immediately went into asking if I had to stay on topic or if I could veer off and let them continue the next week on the topic. Sean said they really wanted to stick with it. I told him that I really didn't want to talk about worrying, or the lack of, because I was in the midst of it at the time. He said, "I bet you are hating God right now then, huh?" I told him that it wasn't as much as hate, but that I wasn't really liking Him right now. What he didn't know was that my wife had called just an hour or two prior to tell me that the transmission in our van needed to be replaced. The cost is an outrageous number, and I had to tell her to pick it up and that we could not get it fixed right now, or maybe never.

Worrying was something I was doing, and didn't want to really hear God's thoughts on the matter at the time.

It is not hard for me to write this because I think it happens to me often. There are certain times about particular things that I just don't want to hear what God has to say. This was one of them.

It is too bad that I am the only one that fits into this category. I know that everyone else always wants to hear what God wants to say!!!!

God tells us in Matt. 6:25-34 to not worry because God cares for us much more than he does the flowers and the birds, that He will take care of us. Who can extend their life by even a minute worrying about it? He says to not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

Phil. 4:4-19 , Paul talks about how to deal with worry, don't. It seems as though it has to do with a couple of things.

First, to turn worry into a prayer of thankfulness and petition. Do not wine and think about what could happen if it doesn't go the way that you want, or could go this way or that, or that it won't happen at all. You see, if we begin to change the way we think, and what we think about, than our attitude towards what actually happens is changed. We don't have a specific ending or outcome, but we accept what God does. We need to be thankful for what we do have, and to petition, or let God know what we need or our concern, without being a whine fest and having preconceived ideas on how it should come out.

Second, we need to think on the things of God. Truth, thankfulness, right, pure, lovely, think on these things. If we are worrying, than we are thinking about something that might not even happen, and putting the outcome in our hands, and not actually giving it to God.

And third, be content with whereever you are at. No matter where, you have to be OK with where you are. If you are upset with it, then you will not be fine with what God is doing. No matter if you have nothing, or something, or a whole lot.

This has helped me tremendously this week. You see, I can look over this past year, and know that God takes care of my family and I. He told me that He would. That was His promise. I need to remember His promises, what he has done, and know that He will stand by them.

God is good, no matter if we are a two car family, or a car and a bike. That was the result on Friday, as I took off on a bike as the fam took the car.

God Rules.
Scott

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