"Moving Out of The Rocking Chair"

I have heard it said that worry is like a rocking chair "it will give you something to do, but it won't get you anywhere." For the last 37 years I have been sitting in that rocking chair and I am ready to move to the lazy boy. Worrying has never prevented the circumstances that preyed on my mind. Worrying has never accomplished anything other than a lack of faith. Worry is saying "God, I don't think you are big enough to handle this so let me hold onto it and rock for a little while." I read a quote in one of my favorite books "Keep A Quiet Heart" by Elisabeth Elliot. She quotes H.E. Manning and this is what he said, "Perhaps because waiting for an inevitable disaster is worse than the disaster itself." How true is this statement? There have been many times in my life that the very thing I feared, the very thing that kept me awake was really nothing to be feared at all. I can remember being pregnant with our first child and being sent home on a Wednesday and told to return the next morning to be induced. At the time we lived in the country where the closest hospital was 45 minutes away so during the last week we stayed with my parents in Auburn. I can remember sitting on the edge of the bed that night crying on my daddy's shoulder because I was so afraid of the unknown. I had never had a baby before. I didn't know what to expect. I knew it wasn't comfortable. I knew pain was involved, but how much pain? Was it unbearable? I had so many unanswered questions. My daddy prayed for me and assured me that I would be ok and at the end I would hold a precious gift. I don't remember much else after that point and now 11 years later I don't even remember the labor, the pain or the C-Section. I was so worried. I was so afraid. I cried. I was restless and in the end the thing I feared the most produced an unspeakable joy as I held that precious 9lb 9oz baby in my arms. I almost allowed the worry and the fear to completely rob me of one of God's greatest blessings. How many other times have I done this? Let's just say, I'm not that good in math and I can't count that high. I have learned time and time again over the years that when God calls you to walk through something He will carry you all the way. His grace is enough! So then why do we waste the days and nights away by being fearful and worrying? Because we are a sinful people who have chosen to trust in ourselves. Jeremiah 17:5-8 "Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord. For he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will like in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought not cease to yield fruit." We see three people in this verse. 1. The man who trusts in his own strength. 2. The man who trusts in the Lord. 3. The man whose TRUST IS THE LORD. Often I find myself behind door number 1. "I've got this God. I can handle it." Keep rocking Monica, it gives you something to do, but you are going nowhere. This is such a lack of faith and almost blasphemy to think that I could do a better job than my Almighty Father. When I am walking by faith and not by sight I find myself behind door number 2. I trust in the Lord. I take my circumstances to Him. I trust him with my fears and worries. The worries come, I lay them at His feet and I walk away. My goal however is to go behind door number 3 and padlock it behind me. I want to be a woman whose TRUST IS THE LORD. The picture of this woman is one of strength. She is ALWAYS at peace because her trust is the Lord. She doesn't have to fear the heat of the coming days because she is so grounded in her faith in her sovereign God that she has no question about the uncertainty of the future. Her root system is deep and nourished. She never stops bearing fruit. She is so focused and rooted in Him that fear and worry have no room to exist. The Lord IS her trust and she holds tightly and firmly to that. The Lord is leading me on a journey of recognizing my sin of fear and worry and learning to make Him my TRUST. It is my prayer that I would always choose door number 3. Join me all this week as we continue to unfold truths from His word concerning fear and worry.