Worry (2)

'...I tell you not to worry about everyday life...' Matthew 6:25 NLT

Jesus said, 'Therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life...' (Matthew 6:25 AMP).

Now, the Lord is not condemning you for having a legitimate concern about your responsibilities. 

No, what He's condemning is having a mindset that keeps leaving Him out of the equation, or turning to Him only as a last resort. Destructive anxiety subtracts God from the future, faces uncertainties with no faith, tallies up the challenges of today and tomorrow, and forgets to include God's promises and His faithfulness.

Jesus told His disciples, 'I tell you not to worry about everyday life - whether you have enough.' Note the words 'whether you have enough'.

That's what we worry about, isn't it? Shortfalls, sickness, redundancies, economic downturns. 

Faced with the feeding of 5,000 people, the disciples had the same worry. Philip did an audit: '...Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite' (John 6:7 NIV)! 

How do you suppose Jesus felt in that moment? 

Standing next to them was the solution to their problems, but they didn't go to Him until their backs were to the wall and they had no answers. In their hands five loaves and two fishes looked like nothing. 

Yet in His hands it was more than enough to feed the multitude and solve their problem. As the bread kept multiplying, surely they must each have come to the point where they said, 'Lord, why did I ever doubt You?'

Let your problems drive you into the arms of Jesus. 
And when you get there, stay there!

Soul Food: Num 19-21, Matt 12:1-14, Ps 111, Pro 3:29-30

Written by Bob & Debby Gass
Tuesday, 4 February 2014

APPS available here

Worry (1)

'Don't worry about anything...' Philippians 4:6 NLT

Identify the source of your worries.

• Did you grow up in a fear-filled family, always feeling insecure, never measuring up, and never hearing words of affirmation and approval? 
• Are you listening to the prophets of doom, hearing only about what's wrong, and how much worse it's going to get? 
• What's the source of your anxiety? 
• What feeds your worries? 

Until you can express your fears you can't expel them. Putting your worries into words disrobes them. They look weak and silly standing there naked.

In his novel Life of Pi, Yann Martel's main character, Pi, finds himself adrift at sea on a lifeboat with a 200 kg Bengal tiger as his companion. While on the lifeboat, Pi begins to analyse his fears, both of the sea and the tiger.  

He gives this counsel: 'You must fight hard to express your [fear]. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don't, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.'

So pull back the curtain and expose your fears, each and every one. 

They're creatures of darkness and can't stand the sunlight. Financial fears, relationship fears, professional fears, safety fears - call them out in prayer. 

Drag them out and make them stand before God.

How do you do that? 'Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything... Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand...' (Philippians 4:6-7 NLT).

Soul Food: Num 16-18, Matt 11:20-30, Ps 107:33-43, Pro 3:27-28

Written by Bob & Debby Gass
Monday, 3 February 2014

APPS available here