Thursday, May 2, 2024
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
This past Sunday, Pastor Jim gave us some good points to remember when we are struggling
with worry.
1. God’s promises are true.
His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire. 2 Peter 1:3-4
When worry sets in and we start to believe the worst about what is happening, we can quickly forget how good God has been and how he has kept every promise. His promises are true and there is no one we can trust more in this world than him. He has been a promise keeping God since the beginning of time. Even when we are in the midst of difficult circumstances, we can know that he is keeping his promises to us and if we are obedient to him, we will see those promises in our lives.
2. Worry happens when we doubt God’s promises.
When hard things happen sometimes we doubt God’s goodness, word, and love for us. We might believe that we deserve what is happening because of bad choices or past sins. We might feel like he has abandoned us. We might feel like he really doesn’t want good things for us because if so, why would he allow this to happen? If we let our minds go, we can start to believe all kinds of wrong things about God. We have to protect our minds - tell ourselves the truth about God's promises when we start to doubt.
3. God can move us from worry to faith.
Just like the verse above says – Seek him first. When we stop looking at our circumstances and fix our eyes on him , seeking him in all things, we will find the faith we have in him. We can trust him and have faith that he will do all he says he will do. That means that we need to fully surrender any idea that we may have of how all the things will work out. We have to trust his goodness and his plan for our lives. We can surrender and let go knowing that he always wants what is best for us.
When we worry we are taking the power away from God that he deserves. He is the sovereign king of kings who is in control of all things. He created us, ordered all our steps, and planned every day of our lives. He already knows everything that we will experience in our lives. He has been in every day before us and he goes through every day with us. Every difficult step along with every joyful step. He is there when it is hard to get out of bed and put one foot in front of the other. He is there when we bury loved ones, sign the divorce papers, hear the diagnosis, and when we can’t pay the bills. He never leaves our side, even when we feel alone. We can rest in knowing that he will always be in control.
Truly trusting God means acting like we believe God will keep his promises no matter what our circumstances are. If we truly believe in our hearts that he is who he says he is, then the words that come out of our mouths and the way we act should reflect that. Our faith in a promise keeping God should be evident to those around us on the worst days of our lives. What greater testimony could there be than our profession of faith in him when the walls are coming down?
