Don't Worry Be Happy.

One thing I use to pride myself on was that I did not worry that much about anything.  But as I have come to learn, the same things that you pride yourself on is the same thing that God is going to test you on the most.

It is easy not to worry about something when you know that you can handle it on your own.  For example, why worry about paying your bills when you have a high paying job?  Why worry about if you are going to get married when you are engaged? Why worry about the stability of your job when your company has been doing well for the past 30 years?

But happens when all that is taken away from you.  If you get laid off?  Have a pay cut or get fired?  What happens when your engagement is broken off and you are left to pick up the pieces?  What happens when there is nothing that you can do in your power to fix it.  What do you do?

Well some of these things have happened to me.  I have gotten laid off, received a pay cut, had an increase in expenses, and there was nothing that I could do to fix it.  And so I worried.  I worried a lot, and guess what, it got me know where.  Even more so, things were able to get done or paid one way or another, and it would have been that way no matter if I worried or not.

The point that I am trying to make is sometimes God will put us in positions so that we have no choice but to sit and depend on Him.  At first I resented this.  Why would I want to be broke? Why would I want to struggle?  This does not seem like the wonderful love of God that everyone is always speaking about.

But there is a reason for it all.  The things that matter to us are not the same things that matter to God.  God is sometimes just trying to show us that when you think that things are going to fall apart, and there is nothing you can do about it, all you have to do is surrender to Him and He will fix it.

It may mean that you are broke or struggling for several years.  God may not show up in the form of allowing you to win millions of dollars through a lottery ticket.  It may mean that you will have just barely enough to cover all of your expenses, so that you will learn not to worry.

If this confuses you let me explain it this way.  If your bills are $3000 a month and you are only bringing in $2000, then it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that you do not have enough.  Even though you may struggle as time goes by, some way some how everything is paid for and you do not go without anything you NEED, even though you may go without somethings you WANT.

The reason why God does this, is because He wants you to lean on Him for everything.  He wants you to know that He is in charge of everything and no matter what mountain is thrown your way, that you will be able to handle it with Him on your side.  When we struggle and we cannot get out of it on our own, and God somehow makes provision for us, it increases our faith in God.  It helps us understand that we cannot do anything without Him.

It sounds backwards doesn't it.  But God’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8).  He is going to do things that is not going to make sense to us but sometimes years later we start to understand why God allowed us to go through the struggle, pain, and hardship.  It is because once we face it and we know who has brought us out.  We know that no matter what we face, God somehow will bring us out time and time again, because He has done it in the past.

For me I used to worry a lot, when things went wrong.  Then I learned I could not control it and God would handle it.  And with that knowledge I learned not to worry so much.  As long as I was doing what I could do and not just sitting there like a bump on a log expecting God to fix everything, God worked everything out.  Not always in the way that I wanted or expected, but He did.

If you ever worry too much or start feeling sorry for yourself, think of it this way.  Jesus was walking around preaching to people.  He was homeless probably poorly dress.  But yet he did not feel sorry for himself and he was not in need for anything.  When he was hungry God provided for him in miraculous ways.  If he needed some place to stay, God worked it out.  If he needed a donkey to ride on, God worked that out too (Matthew 21).  He may not have been living on a mansion on a hill and clothed in silk, but he had what he needed and that was fine for him.  He did not worry about anything.


When the Israelites left Egypt, their clothes did not wear out for 40 years (Deuteronomy 8:4).  God provided them with food or (manna) from the sky, quail, and water from a rock (Exodus 16).  No it was not ideal, they complained about all the food they did not have and what they were missing.  But yet they did not go hungry and they knew that each and every day food was going to come.  Even if it was the same thing and they complained, they still knew they were going to get fed and not starve in the wilderness.

When Elijah fled and was wondering around in the woods.  God had a raven feed him and a poor widow give him her last bit of food.  So that he would be provided for (1 Kings 4).

The point I am trying to make is that in each of these situations, things may have not been ideal, they may have not been what they wanted, but they got the things they needed. Even in the midst of the wilderness or a hardship there was no need to worry.

In closing if you know God, then you know that God has your back.  You may be sitting in the dark with candles because your lights have been turned off.  You may not have any type of way to pay the bills that you have coming in.  You may have not even been able to buy yourself a new pair of shoes in the last 5 years.  You may be down and out about it and feel that God has forgotten about you.  But one way or the next, God will provide for you.  Pray and cast all of your burdens on Him and let Him do it.

The more you worry, the more nothing is getting accomplished.  The only person that worrying effects is you.  Can anyone tell me something good that has come out of worrying too much?  I would love to hear it.  So since nothing is getting accomplished by you worrying.  Then you mind as well not do it.

The Bible teaches us

“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?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:26-34 (NIV)