Don’t worry about anything, but in everything through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 HCSB
There are two things most of us never seem to have enough of and that is money and time. Now, for many years I have known that when I tithe faithfully God takes care of my money. I have learned in the last few years that when I have a busy day planned where there doesn’t seem to be enough time to get everything done, that if I pray that God also takes care of my time. Just as I don’t dare want to waste money, I don’t dare want to waste time. I have learned that when I worry, that is a huge waste of my time. I’m trying to give that up, but honestly, sometimes it is easier said than done.
Our scripture passage tells us that we shouldn’t worry about anything. We should just be thankful to God and pray to Him and let Him know what we need and we can have peace of mind. That sounds simple enough, right? But why is it that sometimes when we pray to God, we try to hold on to it through our worrying?
When we do this we are wasting time. Just yesterday I spoke with a friend about the effect that pain has on our brains. She said that one of her professors had described it to her in this way. Our brain is like a pie. This pie is sliced into portions and certain portions handle certain things. However, when we experience a great deal of pain, the pain takes up most or all of the pie. In other words, our focus is on the pain. Now this makes a lot of sense to me because I suffer from migraine headaches and when I have a headache I don’t think very well. I try to avoid things like driving or dealing with finances or anything else that is important.
The same is true for me when I worry. When a situation has me worried, I am so focused on the worrying that it takes up most of my thought process. Last night one of our deacons at church said that it was a waste of our time to worry. This is so true. A prime example of this is our food pantry which our church does once a month through a local non-profit. We pick up the food on Tuesday and distribute the food on Saturday. This past Saturday there was a training that took some of our pantry volunteers, another couple had the flu, another couple had a family obligation. I asked some church members that usually don’t work the pantry to come and help out, they were glad to. I also asked some friends and family members that attend other churches to come and help out and they were glad to help as well. When Saturday rolled around, I had just enough people to handle each job. A few days prior to pantry I thought that I was not going to have enough people. I prayed and it was as though I heard the Lord say that He would provide. I chose not to worry. And true to His Word, the Lord did provide. When we worry, it takes time and attention away from the things that we need to do. Now, the devil loves this because he knows that when we worry, it can take our focus off of the work we do for God. It can even take our focus off of God. So we make the devil really happy when we worry.
The really interesting thing about our anxiety is that when we worry it is because there is a situation that we have no control over. I mean why would we worry over something that we can control, right? Well, I am not trying to make you worry, but we don’t really have control over anything do we? I mean we don’t wake up in the morning unless God allows us to do so. Haven’t you heard it said that man plans and God laughs. Proverbs 16:9 tells us that a man’s heart plans his way, but God directs his steps.
Remember that no matter what is going on that God is in control. Remember that when we love Him and are living our lives according to the calling He has placed on us that He works all things out for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28-30). So stop worrying, it’s just a waste of time. God’s got this!
Have a great day!