Thursday, June 21, 2007

Livin' The Sweet Life - Way Too Heavy


Do you worry? I know I do. I shouldn’t but I do. I worry about all kinds of things. I worry about majors like my health (I know, I know it’s hard to tell), and gas prices (up a quarter, down a dime…grrr), to the somewhat less significant like whether or not I’m going to get to Chile Rojo (what exactly happened to Verde) before they close, (I just love their white cheese dip). It really doesn’t seem to matter if it’s something small or large, monumental or trivial. Waaaaay too often I catch myself doing it, over focusing and stressing as the anxiety builds slowly within; dredging up that subtle feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. The same questions repeat in my head. How am I going to figure this out? What am I going to do?

Do you ever feel like this? Unfortunately, I think we all do at some point and time, it’s pretty much part of being a human with human emotions. Which begs the question, “Why do we worry so much?” Have you ever stopped to think about that? What’s at the root of all this worry? You know the answer, is really pretty simple and as a Christian it’s an answer that’s right there with you the entire time. It’s all about surrender. All too often we try to carry the full load of burdens by ourselves, but they are way too heavy. We forget or sometimes just refuse to ask for help.

Control is one of the most difficult aspects of ourselves to give over to Jesus Christ. Being directly in charge of our personal and environmental direction helps keep us comfortable. If we know exactly how, why, when, what, and where then we can have peace, right? Wrong! For some reason that just doesn’t seem to work does it. No matter how much control we have we still find things to worry about, don’t we. You know why? Could it be that we are trying so hard to do things and control things with our own strength that we have forgotten that we are supposed to cast our cares upon Jesus.

Psalm 55:22 says Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall. Wow He will sustain me, how awesome is that. Nothing is more liberating than throwing off the weight and burden of worry and relying wholeheartedly on His promise. He won’t let me fall.

The Bible says, in 1 Samuel 2:9 He will guard the feet of His saints, But the wicked shall be silent in darkness. "For by strength no man shall prevail. You know the truth is that through my strength alone I can do very little, in fact most of the time when I’ve tried to do things all on my own I just end up getting myself in bigger messes. It’s not until I reach my wits end and finally admit that I can’t do it and I lay it at the feet of Jesus and cry “Help!” that He shoulders that burden and carries it with me. I know then that it’s ok. The almighty creator of the universe isn’t about to slip and let it fall on me. If He could carry the weight of all mans sins he can certainly carry my concern over retirement savings. And that’s just it God wants us to rely on Him fully no matter what. Nothing is too small, absolutely nothing. We have to say, “God, I need help, I’m surrendering this to you, you are in control.”

Love ya'll,

Darin

2 comments:

sawyersWM said...

Ya Know Darin, that was a great thing. I know I worry. I think that the devil puts all that in our heads, to the point even that we are to proud to ask for help. That is part of his way of getting us to not surrender to the Lord. It makes no sense really. As Christians we know that Jesus carried the burden of all man, so why not let him help. We all know that is what he is here for, to help us through this cruel and manipulative world. There are so many petty things that we let get us down. The truth of the matter is...With God we can never BE DOWN. We should not feel bound down by anything, whether it be worry or sin. God is there with Open arms, to embrace us, listen to us and help carry these burdens. And you are right no burden is to small. God knows about our burdens even before we tell him, he is just waiting for us to ask for help...just waiting. I truly feel that we must hand over everything and submit our whole being, faults and even christian tendencies to the Lord in order to worship him fully, to be at peace with God and to fully feel the almighty power of the creator. If we constantly and continously lay down our burdens to the Lord our life will be joyful and we must give him all the glory for giving us the option to be able to serve such a WONDERFUL God. Love all you guys

Anonymous said...

This is a very true thing! I know that I fail at this so much myself! My God remind me of the times in my life when I have been so full of the joy of the Lord that people stopped me in the hallways to ask me why how I could possibly find happiness so much in day to day life! May God remind us all that his joy is our strength and that He provides for all of our needs through His grace and mercy, leaving us with never any reason to worry. More than that, may God always remind us that if Jesus knew that the Father was working all circumstances surrounding His sacrifice for the good of all, then we can easilly trust that God works all of our circumstances for good, no matter how we may dislike them.

Thank you for this message! I love you all and hope to see you again soon!