Don't Worry

Quite often, I wish I could talk myself out of worrying like I do to other people. I tell myself time and over again “to practice what I preach”. I must confess, it is easier said than done. Despite the fact that I have committed things to the Almighty and I have no doubts whatsoever that He would answer, I still find myself being worried. Is this peculiar to me or do people feel this way too?

Recently, I found myself sliding back into the habit of worrying and I prayed to God earnestly to please help me. You bet He answered; our God is still in the business of answering prayers. As soon I began worrying again, I remembered a song we used to sing while I was young, it goes thus:

Why worry when you can pray
Trust Jesus and He will lead the way
Don't be like doubtful Thomas
Just rest upon His promise
Why do you worry when you can pray?

I have made that song my anthem. The Holy Spirit has also been ministering to me with some Bible verses that I would like to share, just in case anyone is in the ‘boat of worrying’ with me.

Are you a permanent resident?

I bet we all know that permanent residents of countries that have such facility have almost, if not the same rights as citizens. But todays message is not about migrating to other countries, it is actually to tell you not to become a permanent resident, because it can be to your detriment.

Quite a number of Christians have become permanent residents in the "land of hope". We keep hoping things will get better, hoping to get a good job, hoping to get married, hoping to become an employer, hoping 'the mountain will be removed, hoping the Goliath of our lives will die, hoping the walls of Jericho will come crashing down someday. It's a good thing to be hopeful but is it not written in the Bible that "hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life"? Proverbs 13: 12. My Bible also tells me that He gave power to those who believe to become the sons of God John 1:12. As a son of your parents, when you were a child, you didn't just hope your parents would pay your school fees did you? Instead of just hoping, I believe, we got up in the mornings and got ready for school rest assured they already took care of the school fees. My question is, why do we find it difficult to put our faith to work when we ask our Heavenly Father for things? Why can't we simply exercise our authority as God's children?  

Forgiveness

This is something I struggle with, and at times, I’m not even sure I know what it means. I believe quite a number of people feel this way too, forgiveness is a subject matter that we keep talking about but permit me to say, we never fully comprehend.

Some people say to forgive is to forget. Richard Pettinger in The meaning of forgiveness (read it here) says “to be sincere in our forgiveness of others we should not even remember the incident. Sometimes forgiveness can be conditional, we shall tell somebody we have forgiven them, but maybe later we will bring it up to use it against them. This is not real forgiveness. Only when we do not think about the experience have we really forgiven others". I kind of disagree with this school of thought. To me, you have forgiven someone when you no longer feel angry and you don’t resent the person that offended you. When you can truly think of the person without feeling any need to revenge and wish him/her well.