"Do not Worry"

It's been a long time, but this morning I decided to tackle my favorite hiking trail. I got ready by finding my hiking shoes, filling my water bottle and downloading John Mark Comer's sermon from Sunday on my iphone. 

I love listening to podcasts, but you get something more out of it when you are hiking up a steep hill, by yourself surrounded by trees dirt, and scrub bushes. 

Being taught about the Bible my whole life, there are some verses that I just want to roll my eyes to and say, "not again" because they are referred to ALL the time, and the words have lost it's meaning because of the times of being exposed to them. 

 "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." Matthew 6:31-34a NIV emphasis added is mine.

This verse is everywhere, and it had lost its meaning until today when John Mark brought us to it, 

I have lived in California for over 3 years. I still do not feel comfortable living in this state. I feel unsafe, unsure and like I don't belong. I am not afraid of being physically harmed, but I just don't know how things work here. I don't understand the legal system. I don't know how to respond to a bad thing happening and just try to keep myself out of sight of any trouble. 

That is a lot of worry. And I have held on to it for 3 years. Fear of the unknown. Feeling uncomfortable in the place that is my home. My mind goes all over the all the place. I don't let my fear of not feeling settled in where I live, overtake me. But it is always there, mostly in the background, sometimes in center stage. I have been working on the day-to-day life things. I have been worried about where my life is going. Should I stay, should I go? I work at a camp that almost always feeds me every meal. I have AMAZING tap water that always comes out of my sink. I have a closet full of clothes. If all that I had was handled to a person listening to Jesus, I am sure their first thought would be, " I have nothing to worry about anymore."  But here I am, worrying, I had managed to cover the things that Jesus mentioned, so I made up my own list of stuff to worry about. Anything to live and be like the world around me, anything to keep me from making his kingdom my first priority. 

Lately, I have been consumed with what I am worried about. Thinking about how to stop worrying about all that I worry about. 

This verse, clearly says that isn't the answer. Trying to solve the problem "How do I stop worrying about everything in my life" keeps worry as my priority. It just switches the lens on being consumed with it to consumed with how to get rid of it. 

Instead, I need to seek after the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Once I make that a priority God will take care of the rest. 

I feel like I have learned so much, as you are reading this, I am sure you are thinking, "Becky learns the same things OVER and OVER and OVER again, would she just apply it already?!?!" And that is how I am thinking as well. 

How do I apply and use all the amazing things that God has taught me to change my life and have me follow him the way he intends for me to follow. 

I think of all these that is the hardest of all, how do we keep ourselves from becoming a person who knows a lot about God, but doesn't life their life the way He wants it to be? It's the trap I fall into all the time. It is when I let go of the holy spirit guiding my life and replace it with a very Becky-based bias of how "God wants me to live my life." 

Moral of the Story:

Let go of all your stupid fear, cling to God with all you have and do whatever he wants you do do. It's the best thing that you can do with your life.