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What Does God Know About Worry?
Everything, of course. That’s why we should follow his instructions about living a worry-free life. “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life.” Matthew 6:25.
Even though it’s worded a little differently each time, the command not to worry appears in all of the gospels, including a double warning in the gospel of John. “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” John 14:27.
Paul also teaches the worry-free life in his letters. “Do not be anxious about anything . . .” Philippians 4:6. As clear as that command is, the “how to” of dealing with worry is equally straightforward.
Philippians 4:7, “but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Not surprisingly, Peter echoes Paul’s solution to worry in 1 Peter 5:6-7: “Humble yourselves . . . casting all your anxieties upon him, for he cares for you.”
The writer of Hebrews says we can be sure of his help when we are troubled. He writes, “So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear . . .” Hebrews 13:6.
According to God’s Word, by bringing our worries and cares to the Lord, we are rewarded with the strength and peace to deal with life’s inevitable anxieties.
And, because God is always overflowing in his care for us, He promises to do this for us anew every morning. Lamentations 3:22-23, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning . . .”
What does God know about worry? Everything.
Trust Him. He’s got this. Leave your worries with Him.
Do You Hear Voices?
Voices! We hear voices each and every day. Some are screaming at us from the TV, telling us to order this, pay attention to that, don’t forget this. Others are posting on our Facebook page, Twitter feed, other social media sites, wanting us to sign this, like that, look at this.
Who merits our attention? To whom should we be listening? Whose voice is the worthy voice?
A crippled up old man appears in the gospel of John to answer these questions. (John 5:1-17). He doesn’t have a name in the gospel, but everyone at the pool of Bethesda knew him. He had been lying there for thirty-eight years, unable to take advantage of the pool’s healing properties. Jesus stopped by one day, and, in one instantaneous moment, took care of the crippled man’s lifelong problem.
Following Jesus’ instructions, the Man Made Whole gathered up his bedroll and walked away. Later, when asked by the religious leaders what he thought he was doing carrying his bed around on a Sabbath, he told them he was doing what he’d been instructed to do by the man who had enough authority to make him whole again.
The Man Made Whole was carrying his bed—in defiance of the religious authorities—because he recognized a man who was able to give life to his withered limbs was someone with authority, someone worthy of his attention.
This same man, Jesus of Nazareth, healed me one day.
He healed me of a lifelong sin problem, a sickness so severe I was doomed for eternal destruction. He did so by taking sin’s disease on Himself and paying the price for it Himself. Now, he commands me to take up my life and live it for Him.
His voice is a voice worth hearing.
Listen to His words from the rest of John 5, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.” (25-26)
Finding Hidden Treasures
Don’t you love to find a word from the Lord in your Bible that you’ve never seen before? That happened to me just recently when I was reading the last verses in the little bitty book of Jude, so small it doesn’t even have any chapters.
The verses I hadn’t noticed before were verses 24-25 of . . . well, just Jude.
“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen.”
While there’s so much in these verses, I’ve highlighted three phrases that blessed me especially.
Present you blameless: I love being reminded when believers stand before his presence one day, we’ll be considered blameless. How great is that? And notice how it happens—through Jesus Christ our Lord.
With great joy: Notice the one doing the presenting of us before His presence will do so with great joy. He—Jesus—will be delighted to make everyone who believes in Him known to His Father. It will be His pleasure to do so. He even asked the Father in John 17 for this to happen. “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory.”
Before all time: Our God is an eternal God. There has never been a time when He didn’t exist. He was before all time, and He will go on forever through all time, even when time is no more. This is mind-boggling, hard to grasp, and yet, strangely reassuring.
There’s so much more in these two verses, and in the days ahead, I plan to give more thought to the treasures to be found there. I have a feeling I won’t be disappointed.
Happiness?
It’s been a couple of rainy days here in Oklahoma. Not much sunshine. I’m not a person given to depression, and I really like rainy days, but I still found myself longing for some sunshine.
People just seem to be happier when the sun is shining. As I thought about happiness, I remembered a devotional I’d read about mankind’s universal search for happiness.
In the article, this quote is referenced, “All that we call human history–money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery–is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.” –C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
A bright cloudless day can’t really make a person happy. Only God can do that.
Turn your face toward the Son. Bask in the warmth and happiness of His Light today.
“You make known to me the path of life, in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11.
Lost Your Way?
It’s easy to lose your way in our world today. We’re inundated with a myriad of messages, images, and ideas. How do we choose what to believe, what path to follow, how to live? We can explore all our options, saturating ourselves with philosophies, practices, and beliefs.
But, like hikers exploring a new trail, there are some precautions we should take before we head off into the unknown. Otherwise, we’re sure to lose our way. These practices should serve us well, whether we’re looking at a belief system, a political choice, a new set of friends, or exploring health issues, anything requiring our time, money, and effort.
First, FIND a way to have a Daily Quiet Time.
Spend at least thirty minutes every day in Bible study and prayer. It doesn’t matter how you do this. There’s a Bible reading plan out there that will match up with anyone’s learning style and preferences. The important thing is to put yourself in a position where your Father in heaven can communicate His love, His plan, and His desires for you, and you can catch a glimpse of His Glory each and every day.
Second, FIND a way to worship God in a group setting, even through media.
Praising, loving, and serving God with other people will strengthen and enhance your faith. It’s about gathering with like-minded people who desire to give glory, honor, and praise to an Almighty Creator who sacrificed His only son to make sure we spend eternity with Him.
Third, FIND a way to express your faith.
Our belief in God requires an outlet. Otherwise, stagnation sets in. This expression can take many forms, and it may be different according to personality types. For some, it may mean singing, speaking, teaching, or preaching. For others, it may mean journaling, writing, serving, or counseling.
Hear the words of the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 6:16: “Thus says the Lord: Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.”
Rest for your soul as you find your way. What could be better than that?
We Keep Waiting
Are you tired of waiting? I know I am.
During this Covid-19 pandemic, it feels like the whole world is in a waiting room. I’m sure you’ve been stuck in a waiting room before, so you know that feeling of helplessness that comes over you after you been there an hour—or two.
While I’ve been waiting to be released from our city’s quarantine restrictions, I’ve found myself thinking about all the times I’ve been in God’s Waiting Room.
God’s Waiting Room is a place familiar to all praying believers. Those who petition the Father for answers, for relief, for deliverance, for guidance, for comfort, often find such requests are not answered immediately. That’s why God designed His Waiting Room.
If the waiting goes on for months, even years, God’s Waiting Room can become a place of discontentment, anger, frustration, and unbelief.
It’s happened to me. Don’t let it happen to you.
Through the years, I’ve learned waiting on God doesn’t have to be unbearable, not as long as I follow some basic principles.
1. Don’t wait alone. Waiting is always easier if the wait is shared, even if it’s virtual sharing.
2. Find something to do while waiting. Occupying body, mind, and spirit makes the wait easier.
3. Encourage others as you wait. Empathy for others who may be going through similar circumstances lightens your burden and blesses your soul.
4. Recognize God has a sovereign purpose in the length of your wait. Waiting is no different from anything else in your life—God is working all things for His Glory and your benefit no matter what it is.
Those willing to wait on God are given a special promise. It’s found in Isaiah 64:4: “No eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him.”
While you’re in God’s Waiting Room, He’s out there working for you.
Keep on waiting.
I Wear A Dusty Crown
I love the way David describes how God treats His children in Psalm 103. David says He “satisfies your desires with good things.”(Psalm 103:5).
Later on in this Psalm, David writes, “He remembers we are but dust.” He writes this in connection with the compassion of God. “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers we are but dust.” (Psalm 103:13-14).
God created human beings out of a common substance, a substance of little worth, just a handful of dirt. Inside this dirt-formed vessel, He placed an image of Himself. When a handful of dirt became a man, something of little value became something of infinite value—a living human being. Every human being born after Adam reflects this God-likeness.
Even though we bear His likeness, we’re still just dirt. He remembers this. He knows our frailties and all our weaknesses. He knows our dirt. He has compassion on our dirt. The Psalmist says, “He crowns you with love and compassion.” (Psalm 103:4).
Even though we’re made of dirt, we have a regal bearing. As God’s children, we wear the crown of His compassion and love.
Perhaps this is why David begins and ends this Psalm with these words. “Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.” (Psalm 103:22).
And Now For Something Useless
I was standing beside an elevator, having just pushed the Arrow Down button to call the elevator up to the second floor, when an elderly gentleman walked over and pushed the same button again. Then, he turned to me and said, “I know that was useless. The elevator won’t get here any sooner just because two people push it.”
At the grocery store, a little later that day, I tried to sign my name on a credit card scanner. After several attempts to make a semi-legible mark, the clerk waved her hand at me and said, “Oh, honey, forget it. Your signature won’t mean anything on there. That thing is useless.”
My day of useless things ended when I got home and tried to balance my checkbook. No, it wasn’t balancing the checkbook that proved useless. What was useless was pushing the “C” repeatedly on the calculator, clearing out the old amount before adding a new one. Like the gentleman at the elevator, I suddenly realized pressing the “C” a second time was an exercise in futility. The screen always went blank the first time I pushed it.
There’s a fourth useless thing we may be guilty of as well. It’s forgetting to worship our Creator. God reminds us of this in Isaiah 45:7 when He says, “I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things.”
Failure to acknowledge the God of the Universe, He who created light and darkness, who directs every aspect of our lives, is useless. In the same chapter in Isaiah, God says,” By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return:‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.” (Isaiah 45:23).
Waiting for the Blue Bar
If you would have asked me the moment I made my commitment to Christ if I loved the Lord, I would have said yes.
Now though, as I look back on it, it’s hard to measure that kind of love.
That’s because I know more about Him now, so I feel I love Him more. My relationship with Him now, as compared to when I first came into a relationship with Him, makes that initial claim of loving him seem as nothing.
I was thinking about this one day as I sat in front of my computer watching a new program get downloaded. A pop-up box dominated the screen with a line of text assuring me the process of downloading was taking place. Even though I wasn’t able to see it, I was supposed to believe it was going on in the background.
To help me visualize the progress of the download, a long bar appeared in the pop-up box. The bar was clear with no color showing. Because I’d done this before, I knew the moment the software elements were added to my hard drive, the bar would begin to fill up with blue. The colorization would begin on the left side and gradually make its way over to the right, culminating in a solid blue bar. Once that happened, the download was complete, and I was encouraged to begin using my new program.
How this blue download bar related to my thoughts about my love for Christ is easy to describe but hard to explain.
Picture the clear bar as the moment I accepted Him as my Savior. Then, picture the bar as completely filled in at some future moment in eternity when I shall know Him fully and love Him perfectly.
In this comparison, what kind of progress can I see on the blue bar right now? Practically none. Perhaps a little sliver of blue on the far left-hand side. Nothing more.
However, like the message on the pop-up box, God’s Word is continually reassuring me my life is being changed and the elements of my sanctification are being added. Though I may not see any progress, I must believe the message.
One day, Jesus promises His believers they’ll hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” (Matthew 25:23).
One day, the download will be complete, and we’ll be able to use our new program.
In the meantime, be patient and keep reading His Word, His Message of Hope.
Just One Of God’s Thoughts?
I love looking at NASA’s Hubble image of the day, and I subscribe to several daily news feeds which send me announcements about the latest space and astronomy happenings.
I’m drawn to the heavens because I’m able to see the incredible beauty of God’s handiwork there. “The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above declares his handiwork.” Psalm 19:1.
Scientists tell us when we look at the heavens above our heads, even with the most powerful of telescopes, we’re only able to see a minuscule portion of the universe. Human beings can never fully grasp the vastness of the world our Creator has made all in order to display His glory.
I believe God intended it to be that way.
God created an incomprehensible universe because He is incomprehensible. The immense heavens reflect an immense God, giving us, at best, only the barest pinhole glimpses of a God of unlimited power.
Someone has suggested perhaps the Universe is just ONE of God’s thoughts. How mind-blowing is that?
Trying to comprehend the power behind a Being who can create the Universe is impossible for a finite human creature. It’s just as impossible to understand the grace of God in making provision through His Son for human beings to live with Him in His Universe forever and to enjoy a personal relationship with him.
Psalm 8:3-4 “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”
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His Glory My Joy, a blog of Author Luana Ehrlich 
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