No Worries...

Alex was listening to a song on our way home from Detroit Monday called ‘No Worries”.  As I listened to the words I was reminded of how quickly we can give into the negative thoughts and emotions which surround us every day. Anxiety…  Frustration … Discouragement… We all, at some time or another, experience these emotions, but if we are not careful, they will become a staple in our emotional diet, causing us to withdraw, become depressed all the while sliding toward hopelessness.  It can happen before we think twice.  God wants to remind us there is HOPE…

·        “Lord, my family has forsaken me because I have chosen to follow you…”

Proverbs 18:24

I AM “a friend who sticks closer than a brother”. (Amplified Bible, Adapted)

·        “Lord, my husband has decided to leave me and our children after 12 years of marriage…”

Hebrews 13:5

"I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU." (NASB)

·        “Lord, my job is a risk, my husband is working as much overtime as he can, my electric bill is a due in a couple of days…”

 

Philippians 4:19

^“I shall abundantly supply all your need according to [my] riches.”

(Darby Translation, Adapted)

 

·        “Lord, I can’t believe my ‘friends’ are spreading such untruths about me…my character is being attacked because of their selfish motivations…”

 

Psalm 144:1,2

"I AM HE who trains (you) to fight fair and well.
I AM the bedrock on which (you) stand, the castle in which (you) live, (I AM

your) rescuing knight,
The high crag where (you) run for dear life, while (I) lay (your) enemies low."

(The Message, Adapted)

 

·        “My son has wandered so far away from you, my heart is breaking and I need help and hope!”

 

Proverbs 22:6

“Train children to live the right way, and when they are old, they will not

stray from it.” (NLT)

 

·        “I am struggling with the negative influence of those around me.  I want to follow you but don’t feel I have the strength to do so…”

 

1 John 4:4

"But you belong to (ME), my dear children. You have already won a victory

over those people, because (MY) Spirit who lives in you is greater than the

spirit who lives in the world." (NLT, Adapted)

 

Growing up I dealt with a bad case of the “worries”.  I worried about everything ~ how well I did in school, where I would go to college, would we be able to afford college, what would I be when I “grew up”, will my family fight when we are all together at Christmas, will my family even come over for Christmas (they were prone not to show up)…just to name a few.  I would be so nervous at home that I slept with my Bible opened to this scripture (and I even memorized it for good measure):

~ Matthew 6:25-34 (Amplified Bible)

²⁵Therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life, what

you shall eat or what you shall drink; or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life greater [in

 quality] than food, and the body [far above and more excellent] than clothing?

    ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your

 heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth much more than they?

    ²⁷And who of you by worrying and being anxious can add one unit of measure (cubit) to his

 stature or to the span of his life?

    ²⁸And why should you be anxious about clothes? Consider the lilies of the field and learn

 thoroughly how they grow; they neither toil nor spin.

    ²⁹Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his magnificence (excellence, dignity, and grace) was not

 arrayed like one of these. [I Kings 10:4-7.]

    ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and green and tomorrow is

 tossed into the furnace, will He not much more surely clothe you, O you of little faith?

    ³¹Therefore do not worry and be anxious, saying, What are we going to have to eat? or, What

we going to have to drink? or, What are we going to have to wear?

    ³²For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for and crave and diligently seek all these things, and your

 heavenly Father knows well that you need them all.

    ³³But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of

 doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.

   ³⁴So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its

 own. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble.

Don’t let worrying consume you.  Identify what worries you…  Research God’s word for a “word” to meet your need.  Claim it!  Memorize it!  Cling to it! 

In Him,

Stefanie

Comments

[Lindsey Stevenson]

Thanks Stef, I needed this today!!