Thank you Alfred E. Neuman. You were probably the first one who injected into the soft gray matter of an impressionable young boy, who spent way too much time reading comics and "Mad Magazine", the concept of not being anxious or worried about the issues of life. Many a day in grade school, as I knelt in the cloak closet with my head between my knees waiting for the "all clear" siren, the vague notion of not worrying was superceded by the spectre of the Russians nuking me into oblivion. In other words, it didn't work. What, me worry?
I appreciate the sentiment Al, but I was worried.
I worried about everything. Mostly I worried about death. Next, was not having enough money. The pecking order proceeded from there, but there was never a shortage of things to worry about.
This month marks the 25th Anniversary of me stopping worrying. Woo-hoo!
It was the day I met Jesus. The most important part of that experience was knowing that I was forgiven and the assurance of heaven if I should die. Little did I realize back then just how much of Heaven I was getting.
Not worrying was just one of the many side benefits of knowing Jesus. My addictions were instantly healed. The guilt I was harboring from my 33 years of living terribly was assuaged. The runway really was cleared from any necessity to worry.
Matthew 6:31 (AMP) - "Therefore do not worry and be anxious, saying, What are we going to have to eat? or, What are we going to have to drink? or, What are we going to have to wear?"
May I extend that a bit, because the verse is surely designed to go past those examples.
"or ... How the future gas prices will affect me? Am I going to be able to feed my family with the skyrocketing food prices? How will I meet the deducitible for our health insurance? Make my mortgage payment...light bill...internet ...phone.............................".
No doubt here friends, things are going to get shaky in the world. Khadaffy is blowing up his own pipelines as he gets ready to flee for his life on the heels of Mubarak. Every corner of the globe will be effected by what is happening in the sandlots of the Middle East.
So..."What? Me worry?" No not me. I refuse. I intend to believe Jesus. I intend to live, instruct, teach, and preach to anyone who will listen exactly what Jesus taught me.
He told me not to live like the heathen and the sinner and the unbeliever, who are all twiseted up in knots, and rather than looking toward heaven in praise and adortaiton to the One who has the answers, instead raise a cacophony of wailing and moaning about their own anxieties, fears, and desperation. A choir of death which soothes the ears of Satan himself.
Instead He says to me, from verse 33, "But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides."
Let me tell you something. Here is what I believe. There WILL BE gas in my car. There WILL BE oil to heat my home. There WILL BE food in my cupboard. There WILL BE clothes on my back. There WILL BE water in my faucets.
Why me? Why am I so special? Because I have the favor of living in the house of a King! My Father knows how to take care of His children. In my Father's house there is no lack! Who's house are you living in?
My life here on earth is and should be AS IT IS IN HEAVEN!
Oh Lord, in what could be desperate times for the world, calm the hearts of those who forget that in the world there will be tribulation and trials, but that You have OVERCOME the world, and we are OVERCOMERS with you! We are in the King's Dominion!
I declare my space and my sphere of influence a "fear free zone". I declare that those who come within my "space" will be immediately engulfed with peace and joy and praise and worship and healing and deliverance, and an unshakeable resistance to the gates of hell!
Yes indeed! On earth as it is in Heaven!
Keepin' it Real,
Pastor Kevin <><
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