There are a million and one thing that we can be concerned about. On an international level, we can be concerned about issues going on in Iran or Honduras. Here in the United States, we can be concerned with losing the health care we do have if socialized medicine is imposed on us. In very state, county, city and town, there are issues such as road repairs, taxes, parks and education. At our jobs, we might have concerns that Joe isn't carrying his fair share or that the boss is taking credit for our hard work. Finally at home, we have all types of concerns facing us--bills, home repairs, pregnancies, car break downs and unemployment.We can do either one of two things. We can let those concerns mount up and stress us out until we are ready to explode or we can allow God to carry all of our worries away. Obviously, if we take the first option, we will turn into people that we do not want to be. We will turn into people who lose their temper, are always depressed, annoyed or perpetually frustrated.
By taking the second option we will live a happier life and be that person we want to be. If we allow God to lift the weight of the world that is bearing down upon us we can be free to be happy, joyous and loving people. The question that looms is why would God be willing to take our worries and concerns from us. The simple answer is that God loves us in ways that we can never imagine. God wants us to be happy. God wants us to love.
That's not to say that we will not have any struggles. The expression--tired and it may be--is that God will never give us more struggles than we can handle. That would infer that God will indeed give us struggles. God allows us to struggle in order to make us stronger. He knows that we have free will and will not always follows His will. By not following His will, we may incur obstacles that are of our own making. If we are not strong and ready to face obstacles we may turn away from God and in the end lose. It's a loving God that imposes obstacles on us just as a loving father allows his son to fall in order that he can learn to walk, and then run.
The real challenge then is to be able to always turn to God and ALLOW Him to take our worries off of this. How do we do this?? The answer is the answer for whenever we face struggles--pray. We ask God to lift our burden. He will always answer our prayers even if it does not seem it. It may not seem as if He is with us but be assured He IS there. How much more difficult would our challenges be if He was not there for us. God may be the only one to know the answer to that question.
Does anyone have any examples of God carrying your load when you were struggling??
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Jamie-
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly what Craig and I did when he lost his job. We had very little in savings (enough for another month's bills). However, we both put our faith and trust in God. Let me clarify though that we also did not sit around and wallow in self-pity either.
We took to a scene from "Facing the Giants." The one where the older gentleman says, "Which farmer do you think received the rain, the one that sat around waiting for God or the one who went and prepared his field?" We prepared our field. Constant job searching, posting resumes, networking, you name it-Craig did it.
We also believed that this lay-off was God's doing. Craig had been saying for a year or more that he needed out of the job, he needed to do something else. He just never set off to do anything about it. We looked at this as God's way of telling him "If you aren't, I am."
The end of the story....The job gave Craig 2 months warning. They paid out ALL of his vacation time which gave us another month's income. Plus the month in savings. The month that we would have had to dip into savings was the month that he started his new job.
God is Great! He is an awesome and wonderful God! Philippians 4:6-7 is one of my favorite verses : "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
Michelle
Corrie Ten Boom said, "Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear." How true that is! It achieves nothing and wastes precious mental, spiritual, and physical energy!
ReplyDeleteGood post.