25 Therefore I say unto you, Take
no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink;
nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than
meat, and the body than raiment? 26 Behold
the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather
into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better
than they? 27 Which
of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? -Matthew
6:25-27 (KJV)
Worry is the great robber of the peace and
joy Christ intends for us to have. We know that worry creates
problems such as unease, restlessness, stomach problems, and hypertension,
yet we often worry anyway. I once heard it said that most of what
we worry about never happens and I have
found this to be true. Jesus warned us of the futility of worry.
We add nothing to our lives by worrying. Indeed, we suffer and
miss the joy and fullness of life when we allow worry to rule us.
What would it take, short of leaving this
world, for us to stop worrying? The other day I finally heeded
the advice of my dentist and began the process of having a crown placed
on one of my teeth. This involved a good amount of drilling and
would be an involved and potentially painful procedure, so along with
having the tooth numbed I agreed to use nitrous oxide, also known as
laughing glass. I had never used nitrous oxide before, so this
was a new experience for me, and I will say a pleasant one. As
I lie there, breathing the gas and undergoing the ordeal of having my
tooth drilled, I tried to come up with something to worry about.
Amazingly, I could not think of anything that was causing worry, stress,
or fear. “Wow,” I thought; “this stuff really works!”
I then decided to contemplate an asteroid the size of Texas hurtling
toward earth. Nothing; I could have chuckled at the idea.
What a shame it took a drug to get me not
to worry. Here I must pause and consider the power of faith in
Christ. Faith empowers us to rise above anything that hinders
our joy in the Lord. The dark forces in our lives need not detract
from our faith, but instead can strengthen faith. The late Adrian
Rogers once said that “faith is like film; it develops in the dark.”
No doubt you are facing situations that are creating
fear and worry. Allow Christ to strengthen your faith in those
difficult times. You may feel dark forces are overwhelming you,
yet Christ is able to strengthen your faith in these trials. Cease
from worrying and do not fret, for as the Scripture says it leads only
to evil (Psalm 37:8). Trust the Lord and walk forward in faith
and claim the peace of Christ. We are not alone, for the Lord
is always with us.
