Yesterday I was reading Matthew 6 and the main things that spoke to me were "don't worry", and "don't be afraid." Jesus mentioned the word worry or not to do it at least 6 times within just 10 verses!..must be pretty important then to focus on what the opposite of that is.
I believe that our Kingdom living will rest in the assurance that "...your Father knows the things you need before you ask Him."-Matt:6:8
Right after this Jesus tells us how to pray (Lord's prayer) and after establishing the fact that he is our Father who is holy, the first thing he says is "Your Kingdom come", and interesting enough the final thing he says is also about The Kingdom, -..."Yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory..."
I want Christ's words to speak for themselves now so here's Matthew 6:25-34(NIV);
Do Not Worry
25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.
29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
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So let us stop imposing on ourselves unnecessary hardship, stress, and frustration, if everything we need is first of all found in cultivating and maintaining a healthy relationship with His Kingdom and with Himself.
For a little chuckle and insight, I copied here some definitions of "worry" from a thesaurus;
Noun
1.
worry - something or someone that causes anxiety; a source of unhappiness; "New York traffic is a constant concern"; "it's a major worry"
headache, vexation, concern
negative stimulus - a stimulus with undesirable consequences
bugaboo - a source of concern; "the old bugaboo of inflation still bothers them"
burden, encumbrance, onus, incumbrance, load - an onerous or difficult concern; "the burden of responsibility"; "that's a load off my mind"
business - a rightful concern or responsibility; "it's none of your business"; "mind your own business"
2.
worry - a strong feeling of anxiety; "his worry over the prospect of being fired"; "it is not work but worry that kills"; "he wanted to die and end his troubles"
trouble
anxiety - a vague unpleasant emotion that is experienced in anticipation of some (usually ill-defined) misfortune
Verb
1.
worry - be worried, concerned, anxious, troubled, or uneasy; "I worry about my job"
vex, worry - disturb the peace of mind of; afflict with mental agitation or distress; "I cannot sleep--my daughter's health is worrying me"
fret - be agitated or irritated; "don't fret over these small details"
fear - be afraid or feel anxious or apprehensive about a possible or probable situation or event; "I fear she might get aggressive"
fret, fuss, niggle - worry unnecessarily or excessively; "don't fuss too much over the grandchildren--they are quite big now"
obsess - be preoccupied with something; "She is obsessing over her weight"
2.
worry - be concerned with; "I worry about my grades"
care
brood, dwell - think moodily or anxiously about something
mind - be concerned with or about something or somebody
3.
worry - disturb the peace of mind of; afflict with mental agitation or distress; "I cannot sleep--my daughter's health is worrying me"
vex
misgive - suggest fear or doubt; "Her heart misgave her that she had acted inexcusably"
cark, disorder, disquiet, perturb, unhinge, distract, trouble - disturb in mind or make uneasy or cause to be worried or alarmed; "She was rather perturbed by the news that her father was seriously ill"
eat on, eat - worry or cause anxiety in a persistent way; "What's eating you?"
nag - worry persistently; "nagging concerns and doubts"
worry - be worried, concerned, anxious, troubled, or uneasy; "I worry about my job"
reassure, assure - cause to feel sure; give reassurance to; "The airline tried to reassure the customers that the planes were safe"
4.
worry - be on the mind of; "I worry about the second Germanic consonant shift"
concern, interest, occupy
5.
worry - lacerate by biting; "the dog worried his bone"
incise - make an incision into by carving or cutting
6.
worry - touch or rub constantly; "The old man worried his beads"
rub - move over something with pressure; "rub my hands"; "rub oil into her skin"
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God bless you all and let's focus on and have confidence in Him as our Father who dearly loves us His children, and who WILL provide all we need.
Don't worry on "not worrying", just seek His Kingdom and His righteousness,...resting and trusting in Him.
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James 1:2-4 NIV
ReplyDelete2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
My Testimony: about worry and fear, Part 1
When it comes to worry, God has changed me and taken my trust in Him a full 180 degrees over the last 5 years. I am not saying I never worry about anything anymore or never will, but God has taken me and turned me upside down. I did not think I worried about stuff that much before either. But it was not till my trust was tried by fire that I discovered how weak my trust actually was.
Five years ago I was happily working as a social worker for a local hospital near Berrien Springs Michigan. I was well liked by patients, families and staff and always received praises from my supervisor. I had heard grumblings that the Director of Nursing, however, did not like me. On more numerous occasions than I can remember families would come to me with concerns, I would investigate it and tell them “such & such is the problem.” But I had no authority to change it. So the families would go to the Director of Nursing and express their concern. She would try to pacify them and tell them that the problem did not exist. Then the families would say, “but Dan Storie says such & such is the problem.” This created headaches for her, and as I would come to find out later she was not only irritated by this, I believe she also developed a personal vendetta against me.
Then one day, I was offered a promotion, a pay increase, and a pat on my ego, and the Director of Nursing would be my immediate supervisor. Other Social workers warned me not to take the position because the Director of Nursing had a reputation as a tyrant to work under, but blinded by my pride at being offered the job I accepted it. The Director of Nursing gave me about 4 months to get trained into the position and then she began to retaliate against the animosity she had built up against me. I made mistakes that allowed her to pounce on me with both feet. I have never been yelled at, humiliated and personally attacked by a supervisor that way before. I realized my job was in jeopardy, and if I lost that we would also lose our house, our car, and all of our things. Talk about anxiety, I had it, worry was not the word for it, I was sick with fear. My wife and friends were so worried about me they insisted I see the Dr. and start on anti-depressants. For the next two months I faced daily bombardment as I watched my world get snatched away.
My Testimony, Part 2
ReplyDeleteStill full of worry and fear I cried to God, “help me out of the situation, I trust you God.” But then I realized I did not know how to trust God, just saying I trust you and still being filled with fear was not really trusting. That weekend, I meditated on this and prayed about this for several days, baffled at how not to worry when I could not help myself but to worry. Sometime over that weekend God taught me how to surrender. I lost my fear, my worry and my anxiety. It was unexplainable. Because I still had everything to fear, my situation had not changed, on Monday morning, I had one week till my supervisor was back from vacation, then I might as well quit because my hope for transfer would be flushed down the toilet, but miraculously my worry about it was gone. On Tuesday I finally heard back from a position I had applied for, they wanted me to come in for an interview. On Thursday they informed me that they wanted to hire me. They wanted to contact my supervisor and get her recommendation and permission to transfer. I told them, she was on vacation but my former social work supervisor could give them a recommendation and the hospital administrator who was my supervisor’s boss could okay the transfer, they agreed to let them fill in for her, the details were worked out, by Friday afternoon and by before that next Monday when my supervisor returned I was officially being transferred to outpatient rehabilitation services, with a pay increase, and she threw away the papers recommending disciplinary action. Two weeks later I started my new job.
I continued to work in outpatient rehabilitation services as a social worker for the next four years receiving high praises for my work. About two years ago I finished my doctorate degree in Education. But I had such a great working environment in outpatient rehabilitation; I did not change careers at that time. Earlier this year I began thinking about the parable of the talents in Mat 25, I felt like the servant who hid his one talent under the ground and did not use it. I had been putting off a conviction for a long time, to use my doctoral degree in the mission field, but I have held back knowing the cost. So, feeling pressure from God speaking to my heart, I answered an application to the mission field through the General Conference Educational Missions for Greater China. And we received a positive response; they asked us to help start a Jr College in Central Taiwan. This is the funny part. I had to quit my job working for the hospital, the very one I was so desperate not to lose. We sold our car to help buy tickets to go, the car I was afraid to lose. We sold or gave away all our things, and what little money we made also went to pay for tickets too, we couldn’t take all our things to Taiwan so we sold them and gave them away. Our house, the very house I was afraid to lose, now we cannot sell, the economy in Michigan is very bad right now and a lot of people are out of work and nobody can buy our house. We can’t afford it either in the mission field so we told God, it is His house to sell or give back to the bank according to His will. So far it looks like it is going back to the bank.
But although we now have nothing as it says in James 1:4, “we are not lacking in anything” My past trials have matured me a little more than I was before, and God keeps working on me, little by little, to help me learn what it means to “seek first the kingdom of God and not worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will worry about itself.
Dan, I'm so glad you opened up to share with us these testimonies and your experiences..truly going from glory-to-glory!
ReplyDeleteSounds to me like you are more fully living the "Kingdom Life"...as you seek it you see it.
...That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought."
I just read that the kingdom also belongs to those who are poor in spirit, and those who are persecuted. Matthew 5:3,10
The Kingdom is yours...rejoice!
I usually pray looking out the window at my birdfeeders in the back garden. Not only do I love watching the wide variety of birds that visit, it’s a constant reminder of the verses you quoted. The bluejays don’t stress when the peanuts are gone... they just hang around waiting for me to fill the feeder. As soon as the peanuts are replenished, the neighbourhood echoes with a shrill cry and within minutes, four or five jays are flying in to grab their share.
ReplyDeleteSo I have to wonder: why am I not more willing to share the blessing God has given me with others?
I grow daylilies for the same reason—a living, blooming example of the grasses of the field. If God creates such incredible colours and shapes in a flower that only lasts a single day, what could he create in me if I allowed him free reign?