God's Got This!

With everything that is going on in the country, it can be very easy to get trapped and caught up worrying about how things will pan out. I don’t know what will happen and it could be very easy for me to get caught up with all of it. Most of you know, that I could be quite political.

Let’s watch this short video that Pastor Ira Hawkins sent me. Hopefully this will help with some worrying that might be going on.

At least it was a little funny. It is good to smile and laugh sometimes it really does the body good.

I pray that you were able to read chapters 4,5 and 6 this week. Is there anyone that is feeling like God is going to do some mighty things through us if we allow Him control? I pray that we are starting to feel more like the Body of Christ. I pray that as you are reading the scriptures, God not only reveals something to you, but that He reminds you that we are growing together. Growing together should give you a sense of peace, calmness and comfort. Let’s read our main scripture.

The more that we work on our relationship with God, the more that God will work on our relationship with each other, the more Satan will be mad and attack us. The more Satan attacks, the more we need each other. The more we need to rely on God. We don’t need to fight these battles alone. We can’t let Satan separate the body. We can’t let Satan unsettle us and cause us to worry.

Don’t get me wrong! I am not telling you not to be prepared, but I am telling you not to worry. There is a difference. Jesus tells us…

1. Don’t stress about life.

Matthew 6:25, Matthew 6:26&27

There have been studies done on the effects of worry and here are some of the things that they found. Worrying can cause. High blood sugar levels, difficulty swallowing, dizziness, dry mouth, fast heartbeat, fatigue, headaches, muscle aches, muscle tension, nausea, trembling and twitching. Long-term worrying can cause problems with the immune system, short term memory loss and heart attacks, to name a few.

It is easy to say don’t worry. It is easier for me to help someone else with their stress and worries than to handle my own, but Jesus tells us not to worry. Not about what we will eat or what we will drink. This one should be pretty easy for most of us living in America. This should be easy if we drop our pride. We can’t be too proud to ask for help. I am not looking for a show of hands, but let me ask you this, “How many of you have food in your cabinet or refrigerator? How many give food to the church’s food bank? How many of you, if you were going through hard times would not be too proud to get food from the food bank?”

Pride can cause you to worry. And this goes beyond getting food from the church’s food bank. This goes into other aspects of life. Jesus also tells us point 2.

2. Don’t stress about things.

Matthew 6:25, Matthew 6:28-30

A man walks into the bedroom where is wife is getting ready for the day and she is looking into the mirror at the clothes she has on and he hears her say under her breath, “Oh I wish I was 6 again”. So, the man thought about that and he made plans for them to go away for the weekend. He took her to Florida and they went to Disney World. He bought her cotton candy and funnel cakes. They rode all the rides and did all the attractions. They were at the park from the time that it opened until the time the park closed. They did every possible thing that there was to do at the park. On the way back to the hotel, they went to Chuckie Cheese’s for supper. After that he took her out to get some ice cream. When they finally got back to they hotel, she collapsed on the bed in exhaustion and was starting to get sick. The wife said to her husband, “What have you done to me? I feel horrible!” He replied, “I heard you on Tuesday say that you wanted to be six again, so I made your wish come true.” With disgust she said, “A size 6, you goofball, a size 6”

Now there are 2 sides to this story, one side is the ladies are thinking,” Yep! Men don’t listen.” And the guys are thinking that would be so cool!

Actually ladies, part of that not listening may be true, but it is more like we love you the way you are and it is not your appearance that makes you who you are.

We should not worry about what we are going to wear and that includes guys as well. Some guys are worse than the ladies. I am not one of those guys. I can pull a shirt out of the closet and put it on and I am ready to go. I don’t really care if it is all wrinkled or the neck is stretched out or it has a stain. Almost to the point that I am in denial that the way I look doesn’t matter at all. Sometimes Cheryl will say, “You don’t plan on wearing that do you?” “Umm?!?! Yeah!” “Have you looked at yourself in the mirror?” You know looking at myself in the mirror won’t help me. I might be a little thick headed and stubborn, but I usually change, because I know that she is right. So, I am almost a bad example in the other way.

Corrie Ten Boom said, “Worrying is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength- Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.

We need to learn from our past, equip for the future, but we need to live today. In Proverbs 12 it tells us that worrying can rob you of joy.

We need to not look for earthly things to fulfill us but point 3.

3. Find peace and joy in the Kingdom.

This could also say “Lose your anxiety in the Kingdom.”

Matthew 6:33&34, Matthew 6:27

We find satisfaction in God’s Kingdom because when we surrender ourselves completely to God, He makes us into a new creature that has new desires. Our desires become more and more the same as His desires. The bible tells us that God is not slow in keeping His promise, instead, He is patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish but come to repentance. That should be our desire as well. Not that people get what they deserve, but that they get what we got when we didn’t deserve it.

When we are in sin, our desires are more selfish. We want things to be fair and when I say fair, I mean that we want the scale tipped in our favor. Can we be honest with each other? It’s just you and me. When we were/are in sin we think that other people doing the exact same thing is worse when they do it than when we do it. Or their sin of murder is so much worse than my sin of telling a little white lie. Both sins lead to hell. When we accept God as our savior and allow Him to have control, our outlook will be different. The undesirable becomes desirable and what was once desirable is now repulsive.

When we seek His kingdom first, we aren’t going to be seeking a kingdom on earth. We will store treasures up in heaven.