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Are you worried about the future? In Matthew 6:34 Jesus says: “Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day”. Jesus is telling you that he will support and sustain you in the concerns of a single day. Jesus is telling you that you can “master the demons of worry” if you confine them to a single day. He is telling you to leave yesterday’s guilt and tomorrow’s fears to God. If you go to tomorrow to borrow worry for today, you’re going to find that the interest is astronomical. It just grows and grows. “I will help you live today,” Jesus promises. Do not let your heart be troubled! We need to believe in him!
The late Norman Vincent Peale used to tell the story of a woman who came to him for counseling. She was filled with anxiety and fear -- “worried almost out of her senses,” Dr. Peale says.
It seems that she had suffered a minor heart attack a few months earlier and, even though she had made a good recovery, she was overwhelmed by the fear that she might die at any moment. She kept talking compulsively about this fear until, finally, Dr. Peale held out his hand, palms up, and said, “Put it there!” “Put what there?” the woman asked. “Your problem,” Peale said. “This thing that is worrying you, I know it’s invisible, but I also know that it’s genuine. I want you to stretch out your hand and place it in mine.” The woman hesitated. Then she put her hand in his. At which point, Dr. Peale got up, walked to the door, opened it, and made a gesture to indicate that he was throwing out the woman’s fear.
Then, he said, “The problem is no longer in the room. It’s outside the door. We need to deal with it, and we will deal with it. But first, we’re going to fill the place inside you where that problem was with some thoughts of God and faith and hope. We’re going to saturate your mind with the peace that Jesus Christ promised to all of us. And you will find that these thoughts are stronger than worry, stronger than fear.”
Of course, Dr. Peale’s gesture of throwing the woman’s fear of death out the door was only symbolic. We’d love to be able to throw out all our troubles in some miraculous way. But we haven’t the power. What we can do is saturate our minds and hearts with the Presence of the One who has such power.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God and trust in me.” The most important decision you will ever make is your decision about belief and trust in the Loving God who made you and wants you for His own. God is wanting to evoke a response from you that says, I must believe! I must trust!
The Kingdom of God, Jesus explained, is built on a foundation of endless mercy and forgiveness -- a foundation of limitless love.
Put you trust in God and I believe you will worry less. northsalemchurch@gmail.com