Why pray when you can worry?
Worry is like vinegar. A little seeps in and before you know it your teeth are on edge, your face is screwed up, your body tingles with tension and all sweetness is gone. It doesn't seem to take much either - a little worry in one issue (or a big worry about a little issue) soon spreads its bitterness to every other. Does it help to worry? No. Not even to motivate prayer? No. You can't do both at the same time, so why settle for the one that doesn't help?
The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I need to read that again, slowly.
Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self-control. Not sour grapes. Not worry. Worry tries to destroy these fruits from God. I think that worry is the enemy's way of getting us to practice disappointment, before we've been disappointed. It's his way of digging roots of bitterness into our souls entirely without cause, but somehow convincing us that the bitterness is justified, because it might happen. Never mind the might not. If we nurture these roots of biterness they are unlikely to produce sweet fruit: when the issue we are worried might happen does not come to pass, we feel that it is by chance only, rather by God's grace to us. Worry robs God of our trust.
But how do we not worry? Jesus makes it sound easy - he just says don't! - but then explains that the Father knows what we need. From recent experience, I can agree with that. God knows what I need before I do! But not worrying and not caring are two different things. I used to do my best to make myself as uncaring as possible, in order to avoid disappointment and therefore avoid worry. This strategy works about as well as saying "I'm never going to eat, so that I may avoid a stomach ache from indigestion". Fairly soon there is a stomach ache from an entirely different cause. But this idea only speaks to the mind - and certainly the last thing a man with indigestion wants is food. It is reasonable - God knows everything I need, God is good, worry can change nothing, therefore I don't need to worry. But sometimes knowing that in your head is quite a different thing from knowing it in your heart. (push the read more button below...)
- Posted by flyingkiwi on 22/06/2006.
- flyingkiwi's site
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