When You WANT to Worry

Let’s face it.

We all worry. We know it doesn’t help anything, yet we choose it.

Humanly speaking, I want to say, “I can’t help it!”; yet in my heart, I know it’s a choice.

And sometimes I choose it.

I want to let it go, and yet I don’t. I need to ponder, dwell, and immerse myself in the situation until I’m drowning in it. The sea of “WHY?” and “what if?” and “what now?”–and I fret until my mind is void of answers.

And then He comes.

He whispers, “peace be still”, and I listen as He reminds me of TRUTH.

Psalm 139

You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
²You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
⁵You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.

⁷Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
¹²even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

¹³For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
¹⁵My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
¹⁷How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.

Yes, we choose it, even when we know we shouldn’t. Letting go and trusting our circumstances to our loving Heavenly Father is a choice. It doesn’t mean we will wipe every thought out of our head, or that we won’t still struggle with emotions of fear, hurt, anger or grief. It does mean that our HOPE is not in the outcome, but in the One who knows our past, present, and future. He hears our cry. He knows our heart. And He cares for our wounded, struggling souls.

At the Southern Baptist Convention this year, as I listened to Naghmeh Abedini speak about her husband’s captivity in Iran, I was blessed by her strength and encouraged by her faith. She might have every excuse imaginable to let worry for her husband’s well-being overwhelm her, but instead she chooses faith and action.

Our minds only see the temporary–He is eternal. Mrs. Abedini shared that in spite of her husband’s captivity, and in fact, because of it, many Muslims are coming to Christ. We will never fully grasp the scope of eternity from here, but we can live with eternity in mind, knowing “The One who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.” I Thess. 5:24

Don’t forget that today, friend. When worry and doubt creep in, remind yourself that He loved you so much that He was willing to send His Son into this world to redeem us. He has not forgotten you, nor will He let you walk alone–He promises us to go with us, whether it’s through a valley or up that impossible mountain. Trust Him even when it’s hard. Even when you don’t see the big picture. Even when you feel like you’re drowning in worry–allow Him to lift you up as you let them go–in to His capable, loving hands.