Faith is...(Part 5)

Faith is...ceasing to worry leaving the future to the God who controls the future.

Worry. Wow this could be the word of the year for 2009. We are worried about our jobs. We are worried about our finances. We are worried about North Korea, serial killers, plane crashes, government leadership, healthcare, the moral compass of America...I guess I could go on and on about this topic, but I think that you get the idea.

I remember hearing somewhere that anxiety is the Holy Spirit's beeper system to let you know to pray. I liked that thought, but I think that it is more accurate to see anxiety as our spirit's reaction to God being taken off our throne and us sitting down. I think that when we worry we in essence tell God that we are going to take care of something ourselves because the situation is too big for Him to handle.

Seeing that in print makes it seem foolish, but don't we all do this in some way? Here's a crazy thought: What if we prayed as much as we worried? How much more could God do in our lives?

Now I am not saying that I never worry or get stressed or get anxious. I am by far perfect in this regard. So I am preaching to myself as much as you. But this is perhaps the biggest area where we can be different from the surrounding culture.

It is said that the religions that have the biggest growth are the ones where the followers are sold-out and are different from the surrounding culture. So in this time of worry in our culture, what a better witness than the calm that comes from knowing that "the God who controls the future" is interested in my personal well being. That is something that all the other world religions can't say! Because no other religion has a personal god like the God that we serve. Now that is different! But...

It all comes down to faith.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will