Internal and external pressure from our jobs, relationships, and important life decisions can make us anxious and worried. Anxiety literally means “to be torn apart on the inside.” Worry and anxiety can destroy our bodies, causing ulcers, headaches, heart trouble, a variety of other ailments, and all while sapping life’s vitality. When under stress, we make poor decisions, lose tempers, quit jobs, ruin relationships, ruin our futures, and often let our imaginations get the best of us by picturing terrible worst-case scenarios!
God says stop worrying! Worry is not a badge of honor or a cross to bear. Fortunately, God does not command us to worry, but instead tells us that worry is a sin to be repented of. A remedy is found for us in Psalms 37:3. There God gives us our alternative for worry.
- Trust in the Lord.
Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. (Psalm 37:3)
There are two worlds: the world I can do something about and the world that I have no control over. The world I have no control over is the world of my past (my yesterdays) and the world of my future (my tomorrows).
My body can’t live in yesterday or tomorrow. If I fret over yesterday’s failures or tomorrow’s problems, I will expend nervous energy which, instead of being used for something useful, will be internalized and wasted. This toxic anxious energy is what we call worry. Worry is the opposite of trust.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (Matthew 6:34)
“Trust in the Lord” – put the yesterdays and tomorrows back into the hands of God, and “do good”today. Today is the only world that you can live in and do something about trust the Lord with the rest.
- Do Good.
Today, if we are overwhelmed with all the things that need to be taken care of, there is a simple command for us to just, “Do good.” We might feel like we cannot see the forest through the trees with our many problems. Instead of being paralyzed with worry, grab a proverbial axe and faithfully chop down one tree at time. “Do good.”
There is an old saying, “Rome was not built in a day.” The great heroes of the faith did not become great saints in one day either. King David, Joseph, Daniel and Esther, and all the other greats had a long, slow, up and down journey which was lived faithfully, one day at a time. The past and future had to be trusted to God and good had to be performed one day at a time. Their days added up to years and the years into a faithful life.
“Trust in the Lord and do good!” Today!
“Yesterday is a cashed check and cannot be negotiated. Tomorrow is a promissory note and cannot yet be utilized. Today is cash in hand. Spend it wisely.” – John Edmund Haggai