Faith Ends Where Worry Begins...

"Faith Ends Where Worry Begins - Worry Ends Where Faith Begins"

By Timothy S. Roberts, March 23, 2011

     Brothers and sisters, we may worry every day, but let's try to remember: Jesus told us not to worry...



Matthew 6:25-34 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”


“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in his entire splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own”


Luke 12:22-30 “Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?”


“Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things and your Father knows that you need them.”


     Those are only two of the many scripture verses that talk about worrying. But it often takes something else to teach us not to worry.


     Heidi and I found out during the fall of 2010 that I would need to, once again, have my left knee operated on. I was scared and worried. I am the bread winner in the house; the only stable paycheck with health insurance for this family; what were we to do during the time off without a paycheck? We prayed to God to help us and we had family and friends praying for us and with us for help on this situation. I had the surgery January 20, 2011 and what was supposed to have been a 2 - 2 ½ hour operation turned to almost 5 hours as there was a lot more damage to my knee and to my leg bone even in the short time since the last MRI and x-rays I had done a month before the surgery was scheduled.


     As planned, the doctor transplanted donated meniscus cartilage into my knee to help stop the pain I was always in because my knee joint was bone-on-bone by that time. But, due to the ongoing damage that had been caused to my knee from my work, my leg bone was also bowing in and he had to cut two wedges - one each into my femur and lower leg bones, inserting donated bone into the cuts and straightening my leg out. That was more of a major operation than we had planned on and I wound up staying overnight at the hospital for what was only supposed to have been day-surgery.


     Moving forward - we had friends who were thoughtful enough to bring a week’s worth of pre-made dinners and other food to our house to help us right after the surgery. Frankly we had nothing - no money, little food to begin with... if any time was a time to worry, now was a time to worry and we did. But - we prayed to the Lord for help and kept praying, even through that entire month when we had no money coming in at all. Rent didn’t get paid (which was far behind already), bills piled up, loan places called day and night hounding me for money I didn’t have to give them and here I was laid up and not being able to do a thing about it.


     The Lord answered our prayers a month later - with getting money back from my student loan, my short term disability payments finally kicking in and, two weeks later, unexpectedly getting my unemployment approved dating back to when I had filed just before my surgery. We had worried and we had prayed – but we left it in God’s hands. He heard our prayers and filled our needs with what He knew we needed. We had food, our bills got paid, loans got paid off and all the rent was caught up. Oh, how we thanked God for His blessings!


     Then our car began to act up - now we needed a new vehicle (preferably an SUV or minivan for the ministry God is leading us to). We prayed to God about it and He saw to it that our tax return was enough to get what we’d need, and we are now looking for a suitable vehicle.


     What lesson did all of this teach me? Our Father will provide what we need. Worry only leads to doubt and doubt will lead to wondering “if” God will help us or not. As I have found out, God will help you and provide for you - just ask for help and leave it in God's hands, trusting in Him. You probably won't get a “burning bush” response, but keep your eyes open, your heart right and you just might get help from an unexpected source that God sent.


     Sure we’ll still worry, that’s human nature: to worry, to want to provide for our families. It hurts us to know we can’t always do that on our own. But we must trust in God to provide what we need. About three years ago, when we were still pretty new in the faith, we badly needed new tires for our car and just didn’t have the money. We were just going to try save what we could and prayed the tires we had would hold up long enough. Sure enough, right after Christmas, Heidi found a payout check from a closed retirement account she had through a company she’d once worked for. The amount was just enough to get the tires and a few dollars extra. God made sure Heidi found that check after the holidays - so we would have what we needed and not what we may have only wanted for Christmas. Boy, did we ever thank God for that blessing as it was needed so badly!


     Thank God for the blessings you have and leave your worries in His hands faithfully. He will provide - one way or another. Remember: God usually reaches us and meets our needs through a person or an opportunity to get what we need – burning bushes aren’t common. In fact, if we saw a burning bush, nine times out of ten we would just try and put it out - without even thinking it may be God. To us, it would just seem like a fire someone started!




Proud to be a child of God


-Tim Roberts