Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.” Philippians 4:6
She comes by it naturally. My wife Judy and I have three daughters. One of my great pleasures in life was to watch them grow into beautiful young women—both inside and out. I told them the other day that they should be very grateful to us—and especially their mother Judy—because they are each so attractive. In each one of them, you can see things that they have picked up from either me or Judy. I have one daughter who is a natural born worrywart. She manages to worry about just about everything. I wonder who she got that from? Well, let me just say it was not her mother. While I am not a worry wart, I could probably qualify as a worry something.
In a culture that is obsessed with appearance, guess what? I’m certain that a lot of those lines that people get Botox treatments for come from worrying. Wait…that isn’t all. Surely a lot of those gray hairs the ladies (and some men) try to hide also come from worrying. Now that I think about it, that might be why so many pastors have gray or white hair. It isn’t about worrying as much as it is trying to care for all the members that do.
It has been reported that 90% of the things that we worry about never even happen. Think about that. I was reading a devotion the other day and it included this very insightful quote by some unknown author. It said, “Worry is a conversation you have with yourself about things you cannot change. Prayer is a conversation you have with God about things He can change.” Isn’t that awesome. We worry about things that are usually totally out of our control. Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount, “Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying?” Now how is that for irony. Obviously, Jesus knew that the opposite was true. Worrying never adds—it always subtracts.
For years I have had plenty of long conversations with myself and they were often about things that I couldn’t change. Let’s read the first part of that quote again—“worry is a conversation you have with yourself about things you cannot change.” Check—been there—done that. Now let’s focus on part two. It says, “Prayer is a conservation you have with God about things He can change.” Wow—how powerful. It looks like it boils down to four simple words—worry less, pray more.
Paul gave us something better than anxiety pills and Botox. Here is what he said in Philippians 4:6, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done.” So, we need to discipline ourselves to worrying less and also pray more. Simple and powerful. There is one more element. Did you see it? Paul also said for us to adapt an attitude of gratitude—let Him know what is messing with us and then be sure and thank Him for all that He has done. Now there is one more thing we should do. We need to be sure and believe that our God is a “I’ve got this” kind of God. Do you know why? Because He is. Bro. Dewayne
Grits with Grace 