Dear SCC & Friends,
…casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you.
~1 Peter 5:7
Reflection #98
Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday. The confusion and fear of present-day culture is a fertile breeding ground for heightened anxiety, edginess and even despair. Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows; but only empties today of its strength. Anxiety may be defined as a feeling of worry, nervousness or unease, often coupled with a lack of control over a future outcome. We all experience anxiety at some level, but unchecked it leads to living our lives on the basis of what might happen before it has happened. It’s like a rocking chair that gives us something to do but never gets us anywhere. We can’t change the past but can be overwhelmed in the present by excessive worry about the future. Corrie Ten Boom, Holocaust survivor said it well, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’ ~Jer. 29:11
The truth is that anxiety and excessive worry are really more about our need for control. One survey said over 92% of what we worry about never happens, and we have little influence over the other 8%. I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened. ~Mark Twain~ Fear is a God-given emotion that alerts us to danger, and anxiety is a first cousin “lurking in the hallway.” I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had absolutely no other place to go. ~Abraham Lincoln~ Whether fearful or anxious, the Holy Spirit is given to help us overcome… Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ~Phil. 4:6-7 Casting all our anxiety upon Him is the key to yesterday, today and forever… For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. ~Phil. 1:6 Keep up the good work!
Made for these days,
Kevin