These last few weeks have been
rough and just when I thought maybe there would be a break, I got what I like
to call a life sucker punch. My five-year-old daughter has severe asthma
and has battled with it since she was about one. A couple weeks ago
she got really sick and could not breathe well, lost color in her skin and
stopped eating. It was bad; my rambunctious little beauty queen just
stopped being herself and I rushed her to the hospital. We had to
stay at the hospital because she was not getting enough oxygen and had a bad
respiratory infection. When I was able to bring her home, I thought
she would get better a lot quicker but that did not happen. I had to
take her back to the doctor three times and watch her suffer through this
illness, all the while fighting with her to take breathing treatments every
four hours as well as her other meds. I was running on not much
sleep and so worried about her health as well as trying to work as much as
possible so we could still pay all our bills. This is where being a
single parent gets so tricky and extremely rough. If you think being
a parent is hard, try doing it alone with a very sick child and limited
money. Praise the Lord she finally got better and I will just need
to give her an inhaler daily. Well then yesterday I got hit hard
financially, really hard to the point where I was at a total loss of how we are
going to make all our bills each month. I cried, well I wept, crying
out to God on the way home to pick up my daughter to take her trick or
treating. I got it all out in the car and worshiped Him the last few
miles to home, cleaned myself up and picked her up. God was with
me. I refused to worry even though waves of uncertainty washed over
me, over and over again. Though it felt like I had absolutely no
choices, I actually had two choices; to worry, fret and fear or to
give it all to God and trust Him no matter how hopeless this situation looks
like. I chose the latter of the two, but it is still a battle.
What is worry? We
all know that worry has the opposite effect of faith. According to
Googles definition; worry is
to give way to anxiety or unease; allow one's mind to dwell on difficulty or
troubles and a state of anxiety and uncertainty over actual or potential
problems.
Worry makes problems bigger; it
does not make them better. Although
we tend to believe that by worrying it will motivate us to find a
solution. Everything in our lives has or does tell us that we need
to fix our problems; we are the solution. God is the solution. The Bible does not tell us to fix our
problems but to pray, praise, press and rest.
"Be
careful for nothing; but in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let
your requests be made known to God," (Philippians 4:6).
"Continue in prayer, and watch in the
same with thanksgiving," (Colossians 4:2).
"Pray without
ceasing," (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
"I
will therefore that men pray
everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting," (1 Timothy 2:8).
The
worry free life is this; Total and complete blind trust in God. It only seems difficult because we have been washed
over by the world. What the world has groomed so many people to believe is that
we can only trust in ourselves, our own power and that to not worry is
impossible.
Let’s face it, just about every
day we are faced with the choice to worry or not. If it’s not in our
own lives, it’s in others around us or plastered on the news.
What to do when worry comes
knocking at your heart and mind:
Resist
the enemy!
When we decide to live a worry
free life and actively choose to put our problems, worries and seemingly
daunting circumstances into Gods hands (completely), the enemy will try to get us to take those
worries back into our own hands. What are some of the things and
thoughts the enemy will try to put into your mind?
Lie 1: God’s punishing you, so all your praying, asking and having
faith that He will solve these problems (solutions) will do nothing because it
was all your doing that got you into this problem.
Lie 2: You got yourself into this, so you better get yourself out
of this and quick. Scour every inch of your mind for a solution,
lose sleep! Hurry before it gets worse!
Lie 3: If God loved you so much, He would have protected you from
this.
According to James 4:7 we are
to submit ourselves to God and resist the devil. Once
that is done (and it will be an ongoing
process) the enemy will flee.
Resisting the enemy is to be on
guard. Guard your thoughts, your mind and your vision and
ears.
Praise
God
Use praise as a weapon and
flotation device. Praising
God does so many wonderful things; it takes our focus off our worries, problems
and circumstances and re-directs our focus onto God, our source. Praise
shows ultimate faith and trust in God; it shouts for joy and celebrates in
anticipation of the victory without first seeing the victory. In
Terry Laws book, “The Power of Praise and Worship,” he says this, “Our
moments of insurmountable circumstances are actually invitations from the Lord
to choose to praise Him.”
You
have an invitation to not worry; will you accept or decline it?
The decision is yours.
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