Worry

I encourage you to stop by and visit all of the participants of Spiritual Sundays. Such an uplifting way to spend a Sunday! Read a variety of wonderful devotions, Bible passages, and listen to edifying music while praising the Lord on His special day of rest for your soul. A special thank you to Charlotte and Ginger for organizing this awesome event for us each week!

As the new week approaches, worry is starting to set in. I will be beginning my Orientation for my new job tomorrow and even though I am VERY excited, I am also very nervous! Why is my faith so frail at times... what began as a step out in faith, has turned into fretting and apprehension!

On Friday I went to the hospital to finish up some paperwork, had my physical and updated my immunizations. As I signed some final paperwork, I happened to read that my shiftwork is to be second shift instead of first shift like I had assumed it to be! I began to panic and quickly started to doubt my course of action in taking this PRN (as needed) position. I asked the gal helping me to please clarify what I had read and she told me that they couldn't guarantee the hours I am to work, it would all depend on where and when I was needed. I took this job to try to get my foot in the door - which God graciously provided for me, why am I now unhappy with the outcome?

When I lived in Washington, my husband and I were always apart. He traveled all of the time and therefore we communicated mainly by telephone. For three long years we were apart more than we were together. That can be very hard on a marriage! I moved here to Georgia so that we would have a chance to renew our relationship and have the evenings to spend together after our long days at work. My first job that I got here in Georgia was working second shift (3:00-11:00pm) Now- here I am again - faced with working second shift! My class is ALSO in the evenings - two days a week........

I see a lesson in all of this - do I pray for God to use me and then tell Him that I don't like HOW he wants to use me? Am I to question His answer or am I to faithfully carry out the work set before me? Am I to worry constantly and strive for things to be different? Am I now to question whether this is all God's will for me - or just my striving for change?

I need to learn to have faith in GOD'S direction that He wants for my life and stop the constant protesting when it doesn't align with what I want!

In my Bible studies for this morning I read some things that God shouted out to me:

Why do you say, O Jacob,
and complain, O Israel,
"My way is hidden from the Lord;
my cause is disregarded by my God"?
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the Everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and His understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:27-31

All of my worry about whether I will make enough money to help my husband and if I will have enough time to spend with my husband to try and strengthen our marriage - all of that WILL be worked out by the Lord who provided the work for me to do in the first place! I HAVE to have faith and believe this!

Another devotion that I read this morning spoke loudly to my heart:

"God does not grant the necessary grace before the trial. He builds the bridge when we reach the river. We often fear that we shall sink under the fiery trials that we see others endure. We see in the distance and are afraid of the mystery and anguish of what is to befall us; but we have not yet reached the crises, and grace is not vouchsafed before it is needed, 'Jesus comes with our distress' " - Mrs. Charles E. Cowman.

"The chains which bound Peter when he was in prison were struck off. He followed the angel sent to help him. On the way out of the prison they came to an impossible barrier, the iron gate leading into the city. But that "opened to them of his own accord" (Acts 12:10). "If you will do all the possible things, God will take care of the impossible." God did nothing for Peter that night, that Peter could do for himself. If the iron gate is locked and barred and staring you in the face, God's call is to do for yourself whatever He has asked you to do, and trust Him to do the rest.

The Lord in that great Sermon on the Mount said, "Be not therefore anxious for the morrow; for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

While we let ourselves worry, we are not trusting. But still it is the habit of ours to worry. Bishop Quayle had a sense of humor concerning himself. So he tells humorously of a time when he sat in his study worrying over many things. He relates that finally the Lord came to him and said Quayle, you go to bed; I'll sit up the rest of the night."
Streams in the Desert Volume Two Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

I have been forcing myself to get up in the morning and devote my first hour to the Lord. I have been reading my Bible faithfully and praying for those that God has put on my heart. I truly feel that God has used this time to clearly guide me in the way that I should go. Do I feel that God is speaking to my heart through my Bible study time? Absolutely! It practically jumps off the page when I read it! I am trying to do all things in faith- now I must rest in that faith!

I will rest in His will -I WILL trust....

I hope this has helped YOU today as it has helped me! Many of you also struggle with stress and worry - turn ALL of your cares over to Him and let HIM stay up all night and worry FOR you! Be faithful in the little things and let God carry the rest!
Blessings to all of you this day and always,
Kymber