I’d like to speak to you
today about a subject that all of us are “bugged” by every now and then.
I’m talking about “anxiety” or of being “anxious” over something. Maybe
we can use the word “burdens” here to illustrate our lesson. It really
doesn’t matter what they are as they can appear in a different form for each
one of us. But, what’s consistent with “burdens” is that we all have
them.
First off, I’m going to
cite to you some words expressed on the subject by a pretty famous
person. When you hear who this person is, you might be surprised that
he’s the author of this statement. Surprised because of his background
and the early years of his life which were about as dissolute and depraved as
one can get. You see, I’m citing some words of John Newton, the writer of
the famous hymn “Amazing Grace.”
“I compare the troubles
which we have to undergo in the course of the year to a great bundle of
firewood, far to large for us to lift. But, God does not require us to
carry the whole at once. He mercifully unties the bundle and gives us
first one stick, which we are to carry today, and then another, which we are to
carry tomorrow, and so on. This we might easily manage, if we would only
take the burden appointed for us each day; but we choose to increase our
troubles by carrying yesterday’s stick over again today, and adding tomorrow’s
stick burden to our load before we are required to bear it.”
To me, that is a great
illustration of what Christ said in His sermon on the mount. The passage
from Matt. 6:34 that I cited at the top of this lesson. Because Christ
was there and participated in the creation of man (John 1:2-3) He knows how we
think. How we operate. That we have a tendency to be anxious about
things. Plus, we tend to compound those “things.”
Some of those “things”
He enumerated in the verses just prior to what He said in verse 34.
Things like “food” and “clothing.” IE: What are we going to eat; to drink
or to wear. But, we tend to be “anxious” about things that we shouldn’t
be “anxious” about. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be “concerned” about
some things of life, but in His sermon, He is talking about compounding those
concerns.
He says that each day
will have it’s own concerns. Present its own problems that have to be
dealt with. But we humans want to hang on to old problems and add them on
to the problems of today. But, we don’t stop there. We “borrow” problems,
burdens, from the future. The bad thing about this is that sometimes we
even “borrow” problems that never come to pass, don’t we?
My mother used to say
that we’d “worry ourselves to a frazzle.” To this day, I do not know what
a “frazzle” is, but to her it was not a good situation. Fitting to what
Christ said about being “anxious” and borrowing (“take therefore no thought for
the morrow”) and my mother “worrying herself to a frazzle” is something penned
by a guy named George Washington Lyon. Very succinctly he said: “Worry, the interest paid by those who
borrow trouble.”
Someone once said that
we shouldn’t worry or be “anxious” about something that we have no control
over. Personally, I feel that we all do exactly that and that it’s
because we have no control over it that causes us worry and “anxiety.”
But, one of the things
we do have control over is the condition of our souls. That is something
in which we do have control of and that requires that we get into, and stay in,
a covenant relationship with Christ. If we do that, and are that, then we
have no reason for “anxiety” about our soul and it’s future eternal home.
And that should be the number one “thing” that we want to eliminate as cause
for worry or “anxiety.”
Respectfully submitted,
Ron Covey
No comments:
Post a Comment