Worrying does not Glorify God

I have been writing a lot about the topic of worrying. Right now I would like to take it from theory to practice. Last night I submitted myself to God and asked him if I was practicing what I was preaching. I quickly realized that, although, I was getting better at trusting and praising God over worrying - He pointed out that as human beings we are driven by our feelings, our state of mental and physical health and also by environmental influences. We are never going to be perfect at anything in this life. We can only desire and strive to have HIM perfected IN us.

The last few days when I wasn't feeling very well, I fell into a gully of self-pity. I found myself falling back to my old ways and begging him to help in a situation that has been a heavy burden on my heart and mind.

My worrying affected my belief system which caused me to experience all the things that come attached to worrying!!! Emotions and thoughts like fear, anxiety, panic, sadness, grief, doubt, darkness, despair, vexation, fretting, etc. 

Is that the mindset and heart set that God wants us to be in? No, it is not! That is the mindset and heart set that Satan wants us to be in! Satan loves it when we are worrying. But, you know what he hates? He hates praise. He hates it when we trust God and give God glory before we see any results. When you read through the New testament what does Jesus say the most? He praises people for their faith. For believing before they even see. For trusting that he's in the boat when the storm is all around. Jesus loves when we believe him.

So, this morning instead of crying my prayers, I stood up, raised my hands and I praised him. I smiled and expressed gratitude that he is in control of everything! I thanked him that I don't have to worry because he has a plan! I felt the rhythm of my heart change immediately. Then, I realized, this is what we are supposed to be showing and telling the world! That he overcomes our fears and our worries. That he is faithful and good. He is just and his timing is perfect. That not only is he mighty and powerful but he is kind and gentle, all-knowing, all-loving, all-present! How can others see Christ in us If all we're showing the world is our worrying instead of our believing!

Let's encourage each other to take the focus off of ourselves and put it on him. He will heal us, he will work things out for our good, he will comfort us, he will go before us and fight for us, He will work in the lives of those we love... All of these promises are written in The Bible! That's why it's so important that we read God's Word.

It says in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

If we are faithful to do that and to trust in him then our worrying will turn to praise. He will be glorified and others will see his greatness and strength in our weaknesses. And that's what being a Christian is all about. It's about taking the spotlight off of our worries (doubting, unbelief...) and displaying God's power and love in our life instead.

Worrying is doubt and self-pity. Whereas, trusting is believing and glorifying God. When God is glorified, peoples  lives are changed and souls are saved.

Ask God to clean out anything that is blocking his light from shining through you onto others.

Praise or Panic

"Worrying is worshiping the problem. You make your problem bigger than God. Trust, rest and be still as you wait for God to work things out. Stop sacrificing the peace that God gives you at the altar of worrying." 

When We worry We Are putting everyone's attention on us and our feelings. God wants us not to worry and to trust him. That way everyone's attention is on him and he receives the glory. Not only does that bless those around us when we go through something hard but it also blesses us when we praise instead of panic. Praising God before the blessing is the faith that he wants others to see in us and it's the joy and peace that he wants us to live in. We are partakers of our Fathers blessings, not beggars.

Matthew 6:25-27 NIV

[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 than food, and the body more than clothes? [26] Look 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? [27] Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

1 Peter 5:7 (NIV): "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you."

Psalm 55:22 (NIV): "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken."

Free Flowing

God does not call us to give so much of ourselves that we end up empty! He calls us to let him flow through us so that we are never empty.

Luke 6:38, "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

In the Waiting

I've been really affected by the weather as Winter lingers and Spring teases. This morning in my devotional the first sentence was, " The winds of March are often cruel and blustery. " That really hit me. So, I spent the morning asking the Lord to shake me out of my weather funk. I had to quit letting these outside circumstances affect me. It seems like all I've been doing is waiting for these winds to stop and for the sun to kiss the earth again. On the other hand I also realized that this weather has kept me inside and I've been doing so much reading, writing and drawing near to God. That has been the blessing of it and I need to be thankful for that. I need to stop complaining about the weather and be thankful for this time of rest. My anxious desire for birds chirping and flowers blooming will come in God's timing. It says in the book of Job that the Lord opens and closes the store houses of rain and snow. (Job 38:22).  I'm aware that how much rain we get in the spring determines what fall is going to look like with its beautiful colors. I'm also aware that God sends the wind to aerate these waters that fall. He knows how much to give and when to pull back. He knows what the earth needs. He knows what we need.

Our anxious thoughts can ruin the blessings that God wants to bring us. When we take our eyes off him and focus on the things around us, we actually allow our minds to become like the violent winds.

The winds outside may be violent but because I turned to God, I now have a heart that is still and at peace. A heart that is full to overflowing with gratitude and has hope for what's ahead instead of anxiety in the now. 

Job 38: 36-38 "Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind? Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together?" 

I encourage you to read, " Job, chapters 38-42. You will never be the same. 

After Easter

Holy week has happened. Jesus has victoriously risen from the grave and conquered death. Now what?

Now it's time to remember. As we go through life there is nothing that we will experience that he has not gone before us and felt. Betrayed by a friend? He knows how you feel. Suffering in pain? He knows how you feel. Does darkness seem to envelope you? He knows how you feel. Is it an extraordinary season in your life with celebration and joy? He knows how you feel. Do you have to experience separation from a loved one or family member? He knows how you feel. 

There is nothing that you can go through that he has not experienced. And he wants to go through all of it with you. No matter what you've ever done in the past or maybe how things are right now, he wants to go through it with you. When it seems like the whole world is against you, he will stand with you. When you bow your head in shame, unable to even be your own best friend, He will stand with you. There's no darkness that can ever drive him away. 

Inviting him into your life is inviting light into your darkness. A friend into your loneliness, life into what feels dead. Plenty where there is empty, fullness where it is hollow... 

Romans 8:31-39 says,

"31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;

    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[a]

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Whether you need a shoulder to cry on or someone to share in your joy, Jesus invites you (Matthew 11:28-30), “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Jesus isn't just for Easter. 

He has Risen!

Matthew 28:6 NIV

He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

Holy Saturday

Jesus tasted death as a man, yet he conquered death as God. 

Because it was Saturday, Jesus's physical body laid in the tomb. He couldn't be prepared for burial until Sunday. During this time his soul descended into the realm of the dead. I'll let you study that more on your own. He went and proclaimed victory over death to those in the realm of the dead.

Right now, I'm thinking about when we finally get to heaven. We will have times of sitting around, listening to Jesus as he tells us all the details about this story and more. I can just imagine all of the "porch stories"  and "campfire tales of truth" ...  An eternity of having the secrets of the universe described to us and shown to us by the King of the Universe!! Jesus has conquered death! Hallelujah 🙌🏼 Praise his glorious name✝️ Tomorrow, the stone will be rolled away 🙌🏼

Good Friday

Skipping details that you can read on your own in the gospels. I'd like to pick up the narrative as Jesus stands in the presence of Pontius Pilate. Pilate asks the crowd to choose who he should pardon, as was the custom. The crowd, through lies and coercion screams out, "Crucify him!, Crucify him!" Pontius Pilate washes his hands of it and orders Jesus to be flogged. Again he is mocked and tortured while the guards use a nine-tailed leather whip with lead balls on the ends, to tear his back open down to the bone. The splintered rugged wood of the cross is heaped on his raw back. 

Reaching Golgotha, they pierced his hands and feet with nails the size of railroad ties and raise the cross up as he hung there bearing a humiliation and level of pain that we couldn't even imagine. 

Hebrews 12:2, "For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame..." Do you know what that joy was that made him endure the cross? It was you, it was me, it was his love for all of us. When he hung on that cross it wasn't just a crucifixion like any other. Heaped upon Jesus was the sin of the world. Past, present and future sin of every person who has ever lived, was living, and would ever live. He bore the sins of the world. 

Darkness covers the scene for 3 hours as Jesus hangs there. He has to use his pierced feet and hands to drag his raw back against the rugged wood to take each breath and to speak each last word. 

The Seven Last Sayings of Jesus

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34) - Word of Forgiveness

"Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:43) - Word of Salvation

"Woman, behold your son... Behold your mother." (John 19:26–27) - Word of Relationship

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34) - Word of Abandonment

"I thirst." (John 19:28) - Word of Distress

"It is finished." (John 19:30) - Word of Triumph

"Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." (Luke 23:46)

Because the Father is Holy, he cannot look upon sin. So, for the first time in eternity the Father had to look away from his son Jesus because our sin covered him. For the first time in eternity Jesus felt utterly alone and cried out, "Father why have you forsaken me!"

The earth shakes and the curtain in the temple is torn! No longer is there a barrier between us and God. Jesus gave his life to become that bridge. Our conduit to God is Christ Almighty! Because of his blood, our sins can be covered! Because of his sacrifice, we can be released from the debt of our sins. Death is conquered!Remember the two choices that I pointed out in yesterday's account? Mary and Judas. Although Christ paid the price for our sins on the cross. We have a free will whether to believe and accept that or to reject it.

The Roman soldier pierces his side and then Christ is taken down from the cross. He is buried in a tomb that is sealed by a large stone.

In closing I want to point out the story of the 10 lepers in Luke 17:11-19. They cry out for Christ to have mercy on them and heal them. He does heal all of them but only one returns to thank him. When it comes to Holy Week and what Jesus did for us, please don't forget to thank him.

To invite him into your heart to be your personal Savior and Lord, simply say this prayer: Father in heaven, I believe that your son Jesus died on the cross, and by his blood I am saved. I admit I am a sinner and I need a Savior. I invite you into my heart and my life. In Jesus name, amen.