by Kevin Burton
My wife Jeannette is a worrier. As I say it, she is “first string, all-conference.”
I’ve spent some time chuckling over that. I have spent less time considering how many votes I might get if the all-worrier team was really a thing. Could I merit an honorable mention?
I’ve had a season of elevated worry recently, so this message by Alistair Begg hit me just right. Begg is the speaker on the Truth For Life radio ministry. I don’t think his message is about worry per se, but this is where it hit me.
Begg is asking us to pause and consider What God has done for us.
“Believer, look back through all your experience, and think of the way in which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness, and how He has fed and clothed you every day—how He has suffered your poor behavior—how He has put up with all your murmurings and all your longings after the flesh-pots of Egypt—how He has opened the rock to supply you and fed you with manna that came down from heaven,” Begg wrote.
“Think of how His grace has been sufficient for you in all your troubles—how His blood has been a pardon to you in all your sins—how His rod and His staff have comforted you.”
“When you have then reflected upon the love of the Lord, let faith survey His love in the future, for remember that Christ’s covenant and blood have something more in them than the past. He who has loved you and pardoned you will never cease to love and pardon. He is Alpha, and He shall be Omega also: He is first, and He shall be last,” Begg wrote.
“Therefore, remember when you pass through the valley of the shadow of death, you need fear no evil, for He is with you. When you stand in the cold floods of Jordan, you need not fear, for death cannot separate you from His love; and when you come into the mysteries of eternity you need not tremble, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord,” (Romans 8:38-39 ESV).”
The KJV renders this as “I am persuaded…” Paul was saying he was sure, or convinced. Unfortunately for me I seem to need persuasion over and over again. What I know in my head, can sometimes escape my heart, and I go back to worrying.
“I worry about tomorrow and that’s a sin. I worry about my health and that’s a sin,” said Dr. R.C. Sproul in a message about the providence of God. “We’re not supposed to be anxious we’re not supposed to worry. But it’s natural for us to worry about things that can hurt. About the loss of this or the loss of that. We don’t want to lose our loved ones. We don’t want to lose our health. We don’t want to lose our safety. We don’t want to lose our possessions.”
“But even if we do, the Bible is saying that God is working all things for our good. Even our sicknesses, even our losses in this world come under the providence of God.” Sproul said.
“And it’s a good providence. If we could just believe that. If we could just lay hold of that. But it’s so hard because our vision is so short-sighted. We feel the pain now. We sense the loss now and we don’t see the end from the beginning as God does.”
Here’s a verse that needs to go into my next set of memory verses.
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us,” (Romans 8:18 NASB).
All these thoughts and verses have been a comfort to me and I hope they are to you as well. God is in control.
“Now, soul, is not your love refreshed? Does not this make you love Jesus?” Begg wrote. “Does not a survey of the vastness of God’s loving care stir your heart and compel you to delight yourself in the Lord your God? Surely as we meditate on the love of the Lord, our hearts burn within us, and we long to love Him more.”
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