Live Without Worry
Dr. Valson Abraham
Dear friend,
One day, a breathless man came running up to John Wesley, the well-known preacher and revivalist, and shouted, “Sir, your house has burned down! Your house has burned down!”
John Wesley calmly replied, “No, it hasn’t because I don’t own a house.”
“But Mr. Wesley, sir,” the man insisted, “your house has burned down!”
Again, John Wesley replied, “No it hasn’t, because the house I have been living in belongs to the Lord. If it has burned down, that is one less responsibility for me to worry about.”
What John Wesley understood and the man didn’t was that God was his master. His master owns, controls and provides everything. If his house burned down, then God had already made provision for a new one. If we really believe that God owns everything, then we must believe that God also controls everything. It is also in God’s power to provide everything. Down deep, John Wesley knew that long ago, God foresaw that his house would burn down, and that God had already provided for a new and better one. When he went to bed that night, he had no reason to worry, and he did not.
John Wesley’s experience is a lesson to all of us. In real life, John Wesley put the words of Jesus to work: “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?” (Matthew 6:26)
A couple of verses later, Jesus tells us, “Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith.
These words of Jesus tell us several truths about our tendency to worry over circumstances:
1. Worry is unnecessary because of the nature of our Master. He owns, controls and provides everything. He is the God who looks out for us. Like John Wesley, we may be caught off guard by circumstances, but already, He has made provision for us. The God who took care of John Wesley is the same God who takes care of you and me.
2. Worry is unreasonable. The nature of our faith does not allow for worry because our faith is based upon a faithful God. Worry is inconsistent with faith.
3. Worry is not profitable. For all the energy you use in worry, it gets you nowhere and gains you nothing except unhappiness, broken health and sleepless nights. It may even shorten your life.
4. Worry is unwise. The future is secure for those who trust in Him. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. His compassions never change. Great is His faithfulness.
Is your life firmly planted upon the rock of Jesus Christ? The storms of life reveal who we really are and what we really believe. The storms of life reveal if we rest our lives on truth or lies. Sometimes God graciously allows storms to reveal our true natures so we can trust Him more and see that He truly does have things under control. King David experienced many storms that forced him to trust in God. Near the end of his life, he could look back on a lifetime of God’s provision in impossible situations, and he offered these praises to God and His faithfulness:
“Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O Lord, and you exalt Yourself as head over all…and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone.” (1 Chronicles 29:11, 12)
May that be the experience as we cast all our cares upon Him who cares for us!
