Worry much?

"Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life."-Philippians 4:5-6MSG

Today in ministry I shared this verse with a new Christian who is struggling with anxiety and worry, I also shared it with a young mother who is facing the reality that her son is going to have to experience surgery. Life gives us all plenty to worry about. The challenge isn't to escape worry and anxiety, but to allow those feelings to move us to prayer. I thought about that old song "Count your blessings"  In 1897, Johnson Oatman Jr. published his song entitled “Count your blessings”. The first verse of that song begins:

“When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.”

The challenge of Oatman’s song is the challenge of the Word of God. The song was based on the admonishment of the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

As we lay our lives over the teaching of Scripture, it challenges our perspectives on what is good and what is bad in our lives. Because, according to God it is all leading to the same place, the glory of the eternal purposes of God.

And ultimately it is our perspective that guides our lives. Are we living our lives from the perspective of fear or faith? What we often view as adversity can cloud our perspective. But the challenges of the Word of God seek to correct our perspective.

Consider when in Luke 12:22 Jesus challenged his disciples “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life…” Think about how this challenge of Christ is so counter intuitive to our view of everything that we do and how we live our lives. We live in constant anxiety endeavoring to improve what we view as the negative aspects of our lives, when in fact we should, as Jesus counsels, “Instead, seek God’s kingdom, and these things will be added to you.” (Luke 12:31)

In this context Jesus says not to worry about food, clothing, because it is our heavenly Father who clothes flowers and feeds birds, creatures that do not bear His image. So how much more will Christ care for us who are made in His likeness and image. The issue with Jesus in Luke 12 is not our stuff but rather our God. When we treat our stuff in a way in which we should seek God, the stuff leads to stress. The results our clear when we seek food for comfort it leads to obesity, when we seek clothing it leads to debt as we chase the ever changing trends. Rather we should seek the Holy Spirit as our comforter and seek to be clothed with garments of praise that glorify God.

Notice that the challenge Jesus gives is this; instead of looking at ourselves we should focus our attention on the kingdom of Christ and when we do we have the promise that God will add to out lives the things that we need. Jesus challenges us instead of being fearful in the face of adversity, but rather to be faithful. Faithfulness is the antidote for fear.