I have come to suspect that some of the people around me would like for me to be afraid—if not very afraid! Do they think that if others join them in considering what terrible things may happen before we get out of this world, that gives some credibility to their own fears? Or if enough people worry long and loudly about perceived calamity that will somehow ward it off? All the fuss will neither cause nor prevent the adverse circumstances which they fear.
Unless I am missing something, Jesus told His followers only once to be afraid. Recorded in Matthew and in Luke, He said, “Dear friends, don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot do any more to you after that. But I’ll tell you whom to fear. Fear God, who has the power to kill you and then throw you into hell. Yes, he’s the one to fear." (Luke 12:4, 5 NLT) The rest of the time, over and over and over again, He told them, "Don't be afraid" or "Fear not." His last discourse with the disciples included the words, "I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid." (John 14:27 NLT) The message could not be clearer.
Yes, there things in our world that can very well cause fear. But the Psalmist was firm in his choice of trust rather than fear. "Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You." Then he was able to declare, "In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me? . . . In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" (Psalm 56: 3, 4, 11 NKJV) One might suppose that this song was composed on a peaceful hillside as David watched his sheep. No, he has taken refuge from King Saul who is after him. He is in the enemy camp of the Philistines, and they have discovered who he is! Shouldn't you be afraid, David? "No, I will not be afraid."
First we decide, "When I am afraid, I will trust God." Then we work that out, day by day. We hear a scrap of news that strikes fear to the heart. We get an e-mail that warns of some dire "probability." The conversation we hear is negative and full of fear. Rather than going into an immediate defense mode, I suggest we stop and calmly repeat to ourselves, "In God I have put my trust. I will not be afraid." (And it wouldn't hurt to say it out loud too!) If media reports scare you, don't watch/listen. If forwarded e-mails are frightening, don't open them. If your acquaintances speak of fearful things, move on. Better to be a bit uninformed than fearful and angry. Guard your heart.
MaryMartha
Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved. Scripture marked NKJV is taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Showing posts with label worry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label worry. Show all posts
Monday, September 14, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Weeds of Worry
God wasn't just kidding when He told Adam that, as the result of sin, mankind would henceforth earn his livelihood by great effort. ”The ground will sprout thorns and weeds, you'll get your food the hard way, planting and tilling and harvesting, sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk." (Genesis 3:18, 19). Farmers and gardeners still wage unending warfare with weeds. A field crop may produce 100 to 1,000 seeds per plant, but weeds outdo beneficial plants. The Colorado State Extension service reports, for example, that dandelions typically produce fifteen thousand seeds per plant. The common pigweed plant produces one hundred seventeen thousand seeds per plant. If just nine pigweed plants go to seed, they can scatter over one million seeds! And these seeds are viable for forty years! Not only do many other weeds excel in the quantity of seeds produced, their seeds too can remain viable in the soil for an exceptionally long time. And that, Adam, is why we have such a hard time getting rid of some of the things that grow where they're not wanted!
Jesus told a parable about thorns. A farmer went out in the planting season, broadcasting seed throughout his field. Some of the seed fell in a weedy patch, and when the tender plants came up, the thorns choked them out. Explaining His teaching, Jesus said that the seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of riches, so that no fruit is produced. (Matthew 13: 3-8, 18-23)
Your "worries of this life" are not identical to mine, but we all have them. Wealth may not be our problem, but those who have riches find it cannot purchase some of the things they most desire: health, love, a good name. The lack of riches is equally deceitful, often causing us to think that if we just had "more," our troubles would go away! We would do well to deal with these "weeds of worry" as quickly as possible, lest they reproduce a hundredfold—or a hundred seventeen thousandfold!
MaryMartha
Other posts about worry:
Too Many Irons in the Fire
Be Like a Flower
Worrying
Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 2003 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
Info: how many seeds? http://www.ext.colostate.edu/ptlk/2113.html
Jesus told a parable about thorns. A farmer went out in the planting season, broadcasting seed throughout his field. Some of the seed fell in a weedy patch, and when the tender plants came up, the thorns choked them out. Explaining His teaching, Jesus said that the seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of riches, so that no fruit is produced. (Matthew 13: 3-8, 18-23)
Your "worries of this life" are not identical to mine, but we all have them. Wealth may not be our problem, but those who have riches find it cannot purchase some of the things they most desire: health, love, a good name. The lack of riches is equally deceitful, often causing us to think that if we just had "more," our troubles would go away! We would do well to deal with these "weeds of worry" as quickly as possible, lest they reproduce a hundredfold—or a hundred seventeen thousandfold!
MaryMartha
Other posts about worry:
Too Many Irons in the Fire
Be Like a Flower
Worrying
Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 2003 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
Info: how many seeds? http://www.ext.colostate.edu/ptlk/2113.html
Friday, April 24, 2009
Worrying
Have you ever watched a dog "worry" a bone? He grabs it, shakes it with his teeth, gnaws and growls, and makes a great show of mangling it. And the bone? It doesn't do anything. All the fuss is created by the worrier.
It's probably no accident that the anxious mental process in which we sometimes engage is also called "worrying." Actually, the circumstances themselves have only the significance we assign to them. When we empower them by our persistent recognition of them and our concentration on them, they are continually able to harass. All of the fuss is created by us!
This is not to minimize the legitimate concerns that we face, sometimes on an every-day basis. But worrying does not really address those concerns. Corrie ten Boom is credited with saying, "Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear." All of our "shaking and growling and mangling" of the problem accomplishes nothing. Jesus asked, "Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And if worry can’t accomplish a little thing like that, what’s the use of worrying over bigger things?" (Luke 12:25, 26)
My personal paraphrase of I Peter 5:7: "Give to God all the things you keep gnawing on and the things you try to scare away by growling. He cares about you!"
MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)
Scripture quotation is taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved.
Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com
It's probably no accident that the anxious mental process in which we sometimes engage is also called "worrying." Actually, the circumstances themselves have only the significance we assign to them. When we empower them by our persistent recognition of them and our concentration on them, they are continually able to harass. All of the fuss is created by us!
This is not to minimize the legitimate concerns that we face, sometimes on an every-day basis. But worrying does not really address those concerns. Corrie ten Boom is credited with saying, "Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear." All of our "shaking and growling and mangling" of the problem accomplishes nothing. Jesus asked, "Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And if worry can’t accomplish a little thing like that, what’s the use of worrying over bigger things?" (Luke 12:25, 26)
My personal paraphrase of I Peter 5:7: "Give to God all the things you keep gnawing on and the things you try to scare away by growling. He cares about you!"
MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)
Scripture quotation is taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved.
Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Be Like a Flower
One morning during vacation, I was sitting in a garden for some quiet moments before a busy day of sight-seeing. Seeing roses and other sweet blossoms there, I turned to the Gospel of Matthew to read Jesus words, “Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?” (Matthew 6:28-30) Jesus was telling me too, “Be like a flower—don’t be anxious, have confidence in God, He cares for you.”
I continued to read in the next chapter Jesus’ warning about judging others. “Be like a flower—bloom where I’ve put you, don’t worry about other people, give of yourself even if others don’t do the same.”
Then Jesus talked about plants bearing the fruit (flowers) that were theirs by nature. “Be like a flower—don’t try to be something you are not, I’m waiting to see if what you produce is like Me!”
In the parallel passages of Luke, Jesus taught about giving and loving indiscriminately, friend and “enemy” alike. “Be like a flower—give and love freely, look for your reward to come from Me.” Yes, the Scripture teaches that my gift will be returned to me, “pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into [my] lap,” but that does not necessarily mean my actions will be compensated similarly and by the very person to whom I gave. (See Luke 6:38)
I remember a poem from some long-ago literature class, a selection by Kahil Gibran from “The Prophet.”
I continued to read in the next chapter Jesus’ warning about judging others. “Be like a flower—bloom where I’ve put you, don’t worry about other people, give of yourself even if others don’t do the same.”
Then Jesus talked about plants bearing the fruit (flowers) that were theirs by nature. “Be like a flower—don’t try to be something you are not, I’m waiting to see if what you produce is like Me!”
In the parallel passages of Luke, Jesus taught about giving and loving indiscriminately, friend and “enemy” alike. “Be like a flower—give and love freely, look for your reward to come from Me.” Yes, the Scripture teaches that my gift will be returned to me, “pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into [my] lap,” but that does not necessarily mean my actions will be compensated similarly and by the very person to whom I gave. (See Luke 6:38)
I remember a poem from some long-ago literature class, a selection by Kahil Gibran from “The Prophet.”
Be like a flower!Giving
You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard
for fear you may need them tomorrow?. . .There are those who give little of the much
which they have - and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.And there are those who have little and give it all.
These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and
their coffer is never empty.There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.
And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is
their baptism.And there are those who give and know not pain in giving,
nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its
fragrance into space.Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from
behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.
MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)
Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved.
Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com
Friday, October 3, 2008
Too Many Voices
I watched a video movie the other evening, a foreign film in which the actors spoke Czech. I had a choice of soundtracks, Czech or French, and since I recognize a few French words—well, after all, my class was at 7:00 a.m.—I thought it might be easier to listen to French. (Wrong!) Naturally, I chose to add English subtitles too. So here I am—I’m seeing actors’ mouths making Czech words, my ears are hearing French, and I am reading English. And I’m thinking, “Wait a minute! There are too many voices here!”
That can happen to us in our everyday world as well. There can be a lot of clamor—not real voices, but persistent thoughts. There is what you are thinking about yourself and your actions. There is what you think you should be thinking about yourself and your actions. There is what you think “they” are thinking about you and your actions. There is what you wish “they” would think about you and your actions. There are other possibilities as well, but that’s enough voices already. In fact, too many.
My mother used to tell me, “You probably wouldn't worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do.” (Olin Miller, author) So turn off some of the disconcerting voices, even the overly critical self-talk one. And relax a little as your own “story line” unfolds.
MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)
Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com
That can happen to us in our everyday world as well. There can be a lot of clamor—not real voices, but persistent thoughts. There is what you are thinking about yourself and your actions. There is what you think you should be thinking about yourself and your actions. There is what you think “they” are thinking about you and your actions. There is what you wish “they” would think about you and your actions. There are other possibilities as well, but that’s enough voices already. In fact, too many.
My mother used to tell me, “You probably wouldn't worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do.” (Olin Miller, author) So turn off some of the disconcerting voices, even the overly critical self-talk one. And relax a little as your own “story line” unfolds.
MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)
Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com
Friday, July 25, 2008
Too Many Irons in the Fire
I had a restless night recently when my brain simply refused to shut down after I’d gone to bed. I have an “older house” with aging appliances, and the air conditioner had just died. (This is July, in Kansas—enough said.) Help was on the way, just not yet. I needed to make a phone call or two—but the telephone line wasn’t working right either. I had a project deadline to meet, and I felt anxious about that.
As I lay awake, wide-eyed, I remembered the old saying that I’d heard repeated many times by my busy parents. “You have too many irons in the fire.” Well, what does that mean anyway? The short answer is that one has too many things going at once, too many intentions to keep track of, and probably in the end something is not going to be done well or perhaps will fail altogether. Or, one loses sleep.
The saying goes back to the blacksmith’s trade. The smith or his assistant had to maintain good control of the bellows in order to increase the fire’s heat by adding the necessary air. He had to place the irons at just the right tempo, and he had to remove each when it was ready for its turn with anvil and hammer. “Too many irons in the fire” would mean an inefficient smith or one with an unskilled apprentice who wastes time and heat by not knowing what to do or precisely when to do it. The old methods have been replaced by modern forges and new tools and techniques, but we have retained for several hundred years the idea of “too many irons in the fire.”
Thinking about this, I calmed down and began to prioritize my worries. (If one is going to worry, really you shouldn’t try to do all of it at once!) I put the three major items in order of their importance to me, and decided what I would do about the top one first thing tomorrow. And then I went to sleep.
"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” Matthew 6:34 (Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 2003 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.)
MaryMartha
All rights reserved.
As I lay awake, wide-eyed, I remembered the old saying that I’d heard repeated many times by my busy parents. “You have too many irons in the fire.” Well, what does that mean anyway? The short answer is that one has too many things going at once, too many intentions to keep track of, and probably in the end something is not going to be done well or perhaps will fail altogether. Or, one loses sleep.
The saying goes back to the blacksmith’s trade. The smith or his assistant had to maintain good control of the bellows in order to increase the fire’s heat by adding the necessary air. He had to place the irons at just the right tempo, and he had to remove each when it was ready for its turn with anvil and hammer. “Too many irons in the fire” would mean an inefficient smith or one with an unskilled apprentice who wastes time and heat by not knowing what to do or precisely when to do it. The old methods have been replaced by modern forges and new tools and techniques, but we have retained for several hundred years the idea of “too many irons in the fire.”
Thinking about this, I calmed down and began to prioritize my worries. (If one is going to worry, really you shouldn’t try to do all of it at once!) I put the three major items in order of their importance to me, and decided what I would do about the top one first thing tomorrow. And then I went to sleep.
"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” Matthew 6:34 (Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 2003 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.)
MaryMartha
All rights reserved.
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