To Carry All Our Worry

WEDNESDAY
November 21
To Carry All Our Worry
There is a plaque that some people have in their homes that reads "Why pray when you can worry?" It makes us laugh because we know how often we worry rather than come to God and give Him our concerns.
Someone once said that when our life becomes all tied up, give it to God and let Him untie the knots. How God must long to do this for us. Yet, amazingly we manage to hang on to our problems until we are about to snap. Why do we wait until we are desperate before we go to the Lord?

Read 1 Peter 5:7. Peter is quoting Psalm 55:22. What's the basic message here for us? See also Matt. 6:25-33.

It is a very simple text. There is no secret hidden in it, and it means exactly what it says. To cast means to do just that, to throw, to give away, so that what is causing the aching and the concern no longer has any connection to you. But, of course, our burdens are not just thrown anywhere. Our worry does not disappear into a void. It is given to our Father in heaven, who promises to sort it out. That's what Jesus is telling us in the verses in Matthew. The problem in doing this is not that it's hard; rather, it's that it just seems too easy, too good to be true.
Anxiety is caused by all sorts of reasons. It could be pressure from work. Unexpected criticism. Feeling that we are unwanted or unloved. Health or financial worries. Feeling that we are not good enough for God. Believing that we are not forgiven.

Whatever they are, one reason why we hang on to our problems is that we think we can sort them out better than anyone else. But Peter urges us to reconsider any such idea. The reason we don't have to worry is that God cares. But does God still care enough to intervene when a divorce is looming or we feel totally useless? The Bible says that He cares enough to transform any situation.

What are things that cause you worry now? However legitimate they are, however troublesome they are, is there anything too hard for the Lord? Maybe our biggest problem is that even though we believe that God knows about it and can fix it, we don't believe that He will resolve it the way we would like it resolved. Dwell on that last point and ask yourself how true it is in your own life.