Look at the birds in the sky.
They don’t sow seed or harvest grain or gather crops into barns.
Yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Aren’t you worth much more than they are?
Matthew 6:26
(Common English Bible)
If you are like me, you have a tendency to worry. Oh, we know what the Bible instructs us to do. But yet we worry.
It is a known fact that women worry more than men. Not that men don’t struggle in this area too. But women seem to wear it like a badge. We worry about our husbands, children; and we worry for our grandchildren. Sometimes we fret over finances or the future. The list can be endless what we choose to worry about.
So although I have picked “harvest” as the theme for September, the Bible verse for today from Matthew 26 incorporates the theme of harvest and worry.
One of the most commonly used Bible Verses for Biblical Counselling on worry is Matthew 26. It is a reminder of how valuable we are to the LORD. He promises to care for us, to feed us and tells us we are worth a lot to Him. God is instructing us not to worry.
So how do we apply this to our busy lives?
For one, we have to do some serious “self talk.” When our minds are flittering here and there while stuck in worry, we can choose to believe God will help us with our struggles or we can view our struggles as hopeless. We can let the enemy of our souls have his way in our minds or we can trust God. It has a lot to do with how we think. Are we choosing to believe God’s promises?
I remember my husband broke his ankle at work. He was very careful and not prone to accidents, but it happened. The doctor on duty misdiagnosed his ankle, and this eventually led to him having to take an entire year off work. We had one son still attending private Christian School. So how would we make ends meet? I was working, but that only brought in part of what we needed to live. We prayed, trusted God, and I continued to work.
God came through for us in big ways. The Bank informed us we had our mortgage covered by insurance. They also had my husband’s business line of credit covered because we had insurance. The bank informed us out of the blue. That wasn’t really the blue, or shall I say, out of the red, but God’s great mercy, help and love for us. There were other things along the way which I won’t go into, but huge demonstrations of God’s care for us. He took care of us. Our part is to pray, work, and trust God to provide!
We can read the Bible and get it in our heads, but sometimes it takes a trial for God to teach us we can indeed trust Him to provide. Then we get it in our hearts and apply what the Bible teaches us better. Whenever we encounter trials, we could worry about we have the choice to trust God or to fret and worry.
At this point in my life, I don’t want excess stress and worry. So, by God’s grace, I try hard not to just read the Bible but to apply it. What about you? Can you lay your worry down and lay it in God’s hand instead?
Instead of waking up fretting and worrying, we can wake up and read out loud God’s promises to take care of us, like he takes care of the birds in the sky.
As you harvest a firm trust in God, you will apply to your life promises in God’s Word that you can apply to your heart and life.
Words such as these…
“Do not be anxious about anything,
but in every situation,
by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving,
present your requests
to God.”
Philippians 4:6
NKJV