Friday, May 23, 2014

How To Whittle Down Your Worry List

My Utmost For His Highest
 
Matthew 6:25 “don’t worry about your life”
 
“Don’t take the pressure of your provision upon yourself.  It is not only wrong to worry, it is unbelief; worry means we do not believe that God can look after the practical details of our lives, and it is never anything but the details that worry us. […] We say, “I will not trust when I cannot see” – and that is where unbelief begins.  The only cure to unbelief is obedience to the Spirit.” CHAMBERS
 
If you were to list your, let’s call them “concerns”, what would be at the top.  How long would your list be?  Now ask yourself … do these concerns have to do with wants or needs.  We all, every one of us, have issues in our lives.  That is not the point.  The point is, are you trusting yourself or are you trusting God.  Many if not most of the problems we face are beyond our ability to resolve them.  Some we have brought on ourselves .. some are just part of living in a fallen world.   We just can’t see how those concerns possibly can be resolved … and that is when our heart rate goes up and our hands get sweaty.  Many times, we have put ourselves in that situation … we have done something and then have sought God’s blessing .. that is backwards my friend.  We have given in to lust … not necessarily sexual lust …
 
1 John 2:15-16 “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.”  Those were the things that Jesus was tempted with in the desert.  That is what we are tempted with when we give in to our impulse .. impulse = temptation … It can be a relationship … or a purchase … whatever, you see it .. you want it … you take it … you regret it.  Do you remember how Jesus responded to the temptation? He said to the Devil,  “It is written … “ He responded with the Word of God.  And what is the Word?  The sword of the Spirit …
 
In Galatians 5:16-17, Paul wrote … “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”
 
You can cut the list of concerns way down by trusting God, recognizing temptation …  and then dealing with it before it leads you to sin.  You can’t do that on your own … it requires faith and it requires that you put the Word of God in you.  Then as Joshua 1:8 says, you will be successful .. maybe not rich … and the concerns list … well just hand it over to Jesus.
 
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

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