FRETTING? Before I became a Christian, I fretted about what was happening, what might happen, what wasn’t happening, and what should happen. I fretted about the present, the future, and the past. “Fretting is wicked if you are a child of God,” said theologian Oswald Chambers in his devotional book, My Utmost for His Highest. “We imagine that a little anxiety and worry are an indication of how really wise we are,” he explained, but “it is much more an indication of how really wicked we are.” In Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Topsy had to reach a point of confession and repentance over this sin in her life. “I’s wicked,” she sobbed to Ms. Ophelia. And I have to admit that I’s wicked, too. “Fretting springs from a determination to get our own way,” Chambers observes, and it’s true. I’m confident that God is aware of my situation and able to act on my behalf. I’m just not sure his answer will fit my agenda. C. S. Lewis described it this way: “We’re not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.” King Hezekiah faced a valid threat. Sennacherib, the King of Assyria, sent a letter threatening to destroy Israel. It was a valid threat—his armies had decimated all the surrounding nations—and now he had Israel in his sights. Instead of fretting, however, Hezekiah did what we should do when we’re worried—he took it to God. Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: ‘O LORD, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, LORD, and hear; open your eyes, LORD, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God’ (2 Kings 19:14-16). Hezekiah’s godly actions are a model for what we should do when we are tempted to fret: Go to God. Pour out our hearts to Him. Remind ourselves who God is. Pray boldly, asking Him to glorify Himself by acting on our behalf. Rest in confidence, believing that He will hear and answer our prayers. Trust the answer. When I compare my circumstances to Hezekiah’s, I realize I have no basis for fretting. The God who delivered Hezekiah and the children of Israel is the same God who is eager to act on my behalf. When I trust him with problems far beyond my ability to solve, he is then free to come to my rescue. How about you? Are you fretting about something? I challenge you to take it to God and leave it there. In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. Psalm 5:3 --Lori Roeleveld
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 01:08:05 +0000
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