‘Don’t worry about anything,’ says Philippians 4 verse 6. ‘Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.’

I don’t know about you, but reading that verse proves far much easier to me than practicing what it says. Am I the only one with this self-excusing feeling that seems to say that worry is something you almost cannot control or keep out? It’s like I’m on the open sea, sailing scared in a creaking boat that moans and trembles at every touch of the mischievous winds. I seem to hear sinister whispers in the constant swish and push against my boat and face, and each time I look around she seems to be right there, like a knowing caring friend, ready to look ahead for me and with me. Worry seems to hang around me always, offering her binoculars of fear, urging me to take a peek, yea, stare and pre-live the dangers that lie ahead.  No, I haven’t done too well at resisting her –she’s so very attractive – and I have even often gone trembling to her at the slightest suggestion of approaching storm. Haven’t I sometimes felt even a sense of companionship with her – as with a friend that seems to be always there? Her presence and closeness prove so very overwhelming, fogging out the actual past and filling my mind with colorful hints of imminent doom.

But the ulcers she brings in my mouth – it took some while before I realized she brought them – are very painful. And every time they sting at the touch of the food she had told me I would not find, I laugh at me again. How long yet, before I learn to say no to her? How long till I learn to shut my mind to her torturing ways?I have known a million winds and storms, just like you, and my swaying canoe keeps on still. I have worried needlessly a million times, when I should simply have lived the Word. Past each point of apprehension I have realized, haven’t you, that God was working things out all along, for our good. I have looked back countless times and seen that worrying only helped me forget that help was on the way. And what amazing help I have seen! Sometimes they’ve come from totally unexpected quarters. Often they’ve come from regular angels who seem to have been specially dispatched along my trail, coursing quietly along and constantly listening upwards for instructions concerning me. So now I sail restfully on in my bobbing boat, trying my best to do what He has chosen me for. I am daily resisting worry’s lure, shutting my ears and heart to her false alarms. Confident of God’s good plans, I choose rather now to greet each day with a thankful heart. I thank Him for so lovingly working things out for me, and I thank you for being a part of it all.

Thank you!