Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Weekend Speaker Redmond - Pastor Greg Rohlinger

Weekend Speaker Issaquah- Pastor Rusty Gerhart

Theme:  I Can's Stop Worrying

READ:  Matthew 5: 1-16 

Think: Do you tend to expect the worst? Do you panic when you get a letter with IRS stamped on the envelope or when you hear a rumor about layoffs at work? The word worry has a root in a word meaning “to choke or strangle.” And that’s what worry does to us - to our ability to do what God calls us to do, to our attitudes and to our faith.  Worrying is self-defeating and its just a waste of time.

Jesus gave us the reasons for not worrying and he shows us how to overcome it. Here are some principles: 

• To worry about something you can’t change is useless. To worry about something you can change is just silly! And every time you review a worry in your mind, it just gets bigger. Worry blows problems out of proportion.
• You weren’t born a worrier. It is a learned response to life. In fact, you have to practice to get good at it. Fortunately worry can be unlearned. The only species in God’s creation that worries is human beings... its because we don’t think God will take care of us.
• Worry doesn’t work. It can’t change the past. It can’t control the future. It only makes you miserable. Worrying about a problem never solves the problem.

God has promised to take care of you if you’ll trust him with the details of your life. As a child, if you asked your father for lunch money you never worried about where it would come from. That was his problem. Let God be God in your life! God will take care of you, just have faith.

Do: Trust God with every area of your life: “But your heavenly Father already knows perfectly well that you need them, and he will give them to you if you give him first place in your life and live as he wants you to” (Matthew 6:32 LB).  And second, live just one day at a time: “So don’t be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time” (Matthew 6:34 LB).

The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.