What Are You Worried About

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WHAT ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT?

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28)

I was thigh deep in the murky waters of the Brazos River a few weeks ago fly-fishing for large-mouth bass. As I worked my way around a brushy dead fall protruding into the river, I flipped my fly carefully under the branches hoping for the trademark attack of a violent and angry fish. Instead, what I saw gave my heart a start. The largest Water Moccasin I have ever encountered slithered its gray-black body off of the dead fall and into the water with me.
Worry. Anxiety. Fretting. The Bible explicitly instructs us to avoid these enemies. "Do not be anxious," Paul writes in Philippians 4:6. "Do not worry," Jesus teaches in Matthew 6:31. "Do not fret," David says in Psalms 37:8. I can't help but wonder if any of the three were ever thigh deep in the murk of a muddy river with a poisonous snake.
What are you worried about? It may not be a cold, gray reptile slithering toward you, but it can be just as scary nonetheless. When it comes down to it, I must decide if I am going to let God carry His responsibilities or if I am going to carry them for Him and be guilty of worry.
It has been my experience that letting God have what is His to carry is easier said than done. It is as if I believe massaging and manipulating the stress that plagues me is a noble calling, a duty I must fulfill in order to be diligent.
Just last night I lay awake tossing and turning, and I don't just mean on the bed. I tossed between giving my burdens to Father and then turning them back toward my mind. I'm not sure if I ultimately won or just wore out! All I know is the clock was reading single digits the last time I looked.
Worry is assuming responsibility for something that is God's responsibility. He is explicit about carrying burdens that are not ours to tote. Yet, I find myself laboring under loads that I was never designed to carry. Is it any wonder that I struggle and ache inside when I stress myself beyond my Maker's design and intended use? -- Preston Gillham is the former President of Lifetime Guarantee and the son of Bill and Anabell Gillham

God's WORD for YOU: Proverbs 3; Ezekiel 45-46; 1 John 2

Think About This: If you knew that there was One greater than yourself, who knows you better than you know yourself, and loves you better than you can love yourself; One who gathered into himself all great and good things and causes, blending in his beauty all the enduring color of life, who could turn your dreams into visions, and make real things you hoped were true; and if that One had done one unmistakable thing to prove, even at the price of blood - his own blood - that you could come to him, would you not fall at his feet with the treasure of your years, your powers, your love? And is there not One such? Would you not fall at his feet with the treasure of your years, your powers, service, and love? And is there not one such, and does he not call you? A. E. Whitham