Worry

SCRIPTURE: Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Matthew 6:26-27 NLT

THOUGHT: I was about two seconds behind a crash with critical injuries yesterday afternoon. Strangely, what alerted me to it was the slew of debris that just ruptured out into the road from the collision. The lives of people were changed in an instant, and it could have been my life changed if I were two seconds faster.

Should it make me worry more, or double down on hypervigilant caution? I’m tempted, but I don’t think so. In light of the truth that God provides for even the birds and considers me more important, I think the better thing to do is grow in trust and shed worry. Those fears don’t really add years to my life, but they can subtract joy.

PRAYER: Oh Father, we worry for our children, we worry for our vocation, we worry for our country, we worry for your church, we worry for our very lives. When challenges threaten, help us not redouble our efforts to worry more, but instead redouble our efforts to trust you, no matter what happens.