I get so tired from worrying! Don't you? I have so much to do everyday, and I have so much I want to do that I never get around to beginning. My life is tick tick ticking away, and I fritter away the hours, doing what? Painting a masterpiece...no. Writing a best-seller? not one. Hugging my grandson? Well, yeah, but I'm only with him a few hours a week. Hugging my hubby? When we aren't both too tired. Cleaning the house!? Have you been to my house? No. Well, then...yeah, cleaning my house. HA!
No, just like many of you, I worry away the hours. That is such a waste of time you might think, and you would be right. But you don't know my worries. They are much more productive than yours. Of course they are! And, because I have put in so much time worrying, I have added exactly....0 years to my life. In fact, I may have subtracted a few.
Oh, I pray! I ask God to heal, seal, cinch a deal. I ask Him to intervene, make me clean, make me the greatest writer the world has ever seen. But what does He mean when He says, "Have no anxiety...." ?? Doesn't He see the traffic in Northern Virginia? If He does, then it is reasonable to assume that the emergency vehicles I hear, could, at any moment, be rushing to the rescue of any number of my family members, who no doubt need their mother, wife, grandmother, friend at their side to miraculously heal them with her prayers. So I spend a lot of my time praying without breathing, waiting for the sound of a key in the lock, or the "Hello." on the other end of the phone. What if I forget to pray for someone? God is still God, and He sees when a sparrow falls out of the sky. Have no anxiety.
What things are too big to ask God to accomplish? Again...not a thing.. Yes, God can bring peace. He can divert an asteroid from the earth. In fact, we are hurtling through space at speeds we are better off not knowing about, dodging all kinds of cosmic bullets, and God handles all of that like a conductor effortlessly drawing beautiful music out of a group of highly trained musicians. Can God make a purse out of a sow's ear? It depends on what he has purposed for the sow's ear, but yes, He can. And if He doesn't want the sow's ear to become a purse, it will forever be a sow's ear. Why would a sow's ear want to be a purse anyway?
We would be forever grateful if we truly trusted God to take care of whatever it is that is causing us anxiety. What if you never had to worry about your health...even if you have cancer....or any other chronic disease. What if you believed God had it all covered....how you could be cured, paying for the hospital bills? Do you think the doctors would notice? Do you think the world would notice. Don't worry about becoming a city built on a hill...or the salt of the earth. We will shine like a city set on a hill and speak like our words are seasoned with salt when we allow God to be God and thank Him in advance for taking care of all of our concerns in life. And then, after thanking Him in advance, we make our requests known to Him.
Of course, He already knows our requests. So why do we still need to ask? I don't know, but I know I need to ask. Because it is only after thanking him and making my requests known that I can have peace.
And, after all is said and done, isn't the peace "that passes all understanding" exactly what everyone is striving for in life, with all of the work, all of the worry, all of the searching? Peace.
