Social Post
This is the second day this week that I’ve arrived at my destination (unintentionally) more than a half hour early. So, I’m trying to use this time to write this (on my phone I might add).
Yesterday, a friend of mine posted this on Facebook:
When I walk in worry, I have already decided what God can and cannot do.
It just so happens that I’ve been reading a devotion this week on prayer and the acronym P.R.A.Y. to help you remember how. The A in PRAY stands for ask in that you should ask God for what’s in your heart but there is a catch. That catch is that your heart must align with glorifying God and his ultimate and sovereign plan.
Here is where the Facebook post comes into play, when we overly worry about something, we aren’t acknowledging God’s plan for our good: I don’t believe that we aren’t supposed to worry about anything. Sometimes worry helps us to look for avoidable problems. For example, a young child playing in the kitchen while food is being prepared on the stove. Maybe that’s not worry but caution but hopefully my differentiation is clear. God is completely sovereign and has a plan for everybody and everything. His plan included you before the creation of the universe. From that regard, worry is not submitting yourself to God’s sovereign plan. I try to remember, when things happen that I don’t like or wish I could change, that I don’t know what God’s plan is but it is for his glory and sovereignty.
“My son, do not lose sight of these— keep sound wisdom and discretion, and they will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck. Then you will walk on your way securely, and your foot will not stumble. If you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden terror or of the ruin of the wicked, when it comes, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught. Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.” - Proverbs 3:21-27
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’? “Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it? It is changed like clay under the seal, and its features stand out like a garment. From the wicked their light is withheld, and their uplifted arm is broken.” - Job 38:4-15
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” - Matthew 6:25-34
The world would say that deferring your fate to someone else is to be defeated. But when you consider that in regard to this next passage, there is a peace and contentment that the world can’t provide.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” - Jeremiah 29:11
