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Fear (4)
Yesterday and tomorrow both want our attention. Yesterday wants us to second-guess our decisions and worry if we did the right thing. That’s wasted energy. It wants to keep us looking backwards, going over and over the things we did and said. Sometimes it wants us to remember the good times so that we worry we’ll never experience something so good again. Tomorrow can cause us to miss opportunities. We worry what’s going to happen if we go somewhere, or do something, or make the wrong decision – so we end up doing nothing. The endless ‘what if’s’ lead us to fear and inactivity. But tomorrow may come, or it may not. There are no guarantees. The things we worry about may happen, or they may not. Jesus said, ‘Don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.’ Jesus was talking to people who were worried about having the basic necessities in life, like food and clothes. And He said to them, ‘Don’t worry about these things…your heavenly Father already knows all your needs’ (v. 31-32 NKJV). God wants us to live one day at a time, focusing on the present. And when we understand that in God we can find everything we need for today, it makes it a lot easier to keep our fear-levels down. The Bible says: ‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God’ (Philippians 4:7 NIV). So when problems come, as they often do, we can give them straight over to God. And we can also give Him our past and our future. Then we can live our lives one day at a time, trusting Him.
What Now?
Every time fear about the past or the future comes into your mind, stop and pray ‘God, help me focus on the present and remember that you know all my needs’.
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