“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” ( I Peter 5:7)
Worry for sure is one of the most deadly cancers there is affecting any life. While children would worry about the most apparently trivial aspects of life, like missing sugar in a cup of tea, adults are not immune either. Adults would fret over their jobs, promotion, health and adverse relationships that may affect them in any way.
Jesus was not oblivious of our concerns. In one instance he spoke directly to the matter: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life” ( Mathew 6:24-27).
Worry often presents itself through dampening thoughts that leave one restless. Here the most powerful weapon we have is the word of God: “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” ( 2 Cor 10:5). Say, your concern is about your future, only confess the word of God, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” ( Jer 29:11). Is it a concern over some needs, “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” ( Phil 4:19).
A person maybe inclined to worry because they’re only looking at matters from a physical angle. Moses lost in a desert could have tossed himself down with worry at his lost cause. Yet God was only working something in his life for a greater purpose. At the right time God appeared to him in the desert and said, “So now, go” ( Exodus 3:10). In other words, a dream which Moses thought had been lost, God had a time for it, which was but the perfect time!
Today, if there is any matter causing you to worry, all you need is to surrender it to the Lord, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (I Peter 5:7)
Prayer today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, where there is any matter causing me to worry I surrender all to you because you care and take care of my needs, all this I pray in Jesus’s name!
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17/05/2024 - 18/05/2024 All day“And I in righteousness I shall see your face; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with seeing your likeness” (Psalm 17:15)
One of the defining aspects we see in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ is that He began the day with prayer. “Very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mark 1:35). As he was always surrounded by crowds and after such a busy day before of preaching and engaging the Pharisees in debates this must have been a therapeutic moment for Christ when he would have some good time to himself.
But there was also more. For Jesus being away in a secluded place would also mean a chance to pour out His heart to God, meditate in quietness, plan for the day ahead and listen to the Father. Jesus must have looked up to this moment every day knowing its benefits. Conversations with His Father must have been real and intimate, bringing a certain soothing and uplifting of His spirit. You do not wake up and stick to something on a daily basis that is a drag – this must have been his best time of the day!
Martin Luther the leader of the protestant reformation is reputed to once have said, “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” Here is the point. In the olden days before the arrival of locomotive transport those who were setting out for a long journey on foot had to start early with the first cock crow before the punishing sun came out. One of the things they had to start with also was a good meal, which was fuel needed to give them energy through the long walk to their destiny.
There are no rules about waking up to pray as first thing- or even saying prayer at a defined hour of the day. God is everywhere and ever with us. He is accessible at any time of the day. But there is something special about prioritizing our lives that the first thing we do is to talk to God. Just like the early traveller we need fuel, for the long day ahead!
Prayer for today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, what a joy and privilege to make time at the start of any day, talk and hear from you, for the power I need through the day, this I pray in Jesus’ name!
