Isaiah 40:12 "Who else has held the oceans in his hand? Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers? Who else knows the weight of the earth or has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale?"
Daniel 2:21-22 "He controls the course of world events; he removes kings and sets up other kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the scholars. He reveals deep and mysterious things and knows what lies hidden in darkness, though he is surrounded by light."
I often feel like the circus performer who spins the plates. He runs back and forth trying to keep everything from crashing down.
Psalm 55:22 (NIV) "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken."
1 Peter 5:7 "Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you."
I find that I am good at "casting my cares on God", but I am not so good at leaving them with God.
Philippians 4:6-7 "Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."
When we take our worries and burdens to the Lord, we experience his peace. As long as we leave them at his feet we will continue to walk in peace. However, like the plate spinner, when we allow the lies of the enemy to convince us that we can do a better job of carrying our burdens than God can, we will be running helter-skelter trying to keep things in our life from crashing down upon our heads.
We see in Isaiah 40 and Daniel 2, God holds the oceans in his hands and controls the course of human events. Why then do we doubt that he can handle our little rather insignificant lives (in comparison to sustaining the entire universe)?
You may be thinking, "I don't doubt God's ability to care for my life and my needs." Really? When was the last time you worried about paying the bills or how to handle a situation at work? When was the last time you lost sleep worrying about anything for that matter? Isn't worry the opposite of faith?
Webster defines worry and faith as follows:
Worry: to think about problems or fears : to feel or show fear and concern because you think that something bad has happened or could happen
Faith: strong belief or trust in someone or something
The Word defines worry and faith like this:
Worry: SIN. Worry is a sin because we are commanded throughout scripture no to do it ( i.e. Philippians 4:6-7) and we are commanded to trust in The Lord. Proverbs 3:5-8 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Then you will have healing for your body and strength for your bones."
Faith: confidence in God to take care of what we give him and to keep his promises. Hebrews 11:1"Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see." Hebrews goes on to tell us, Hebrews 11:3 "By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen."
Joyce Meyers writes, "Worry is like a rocking chair—it's always in motion but it never gets you anywhere. So why do we struggle with it? And what good does it do? Worry is the opposite of faith, and it steals our peace, physically wears us out, and can even make us sick. When we worry, we torment ourselves—we're doing the devil's job for him! Worry is caused by not trusting God to take care of the various situations in our lives. Too often we trust our own abilities, believing that we can figure out how to take care of our own problems. Yet sometimes, after all our worry and effort to go it alone, we come up short, unable to bring about suitable solutions."
As we enter 2015 may we learn to stop spinning the plates ourselves and allow God to carry our cares and burdens.
Amazing: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhoos1oY404#
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