angelaschmeling

It would be stupid of me to ask if you worry about anything. If there’s anything that you get concerned about or causes you to loose sleep at night. That would be dumb of me to ask because I know everyone, at one time or another, is guilty of having worry in their life.

My husband recently preached on this very thing and one statement he made in his sermon was that where we worry most is where we trust God the least. Which means we don’t trust God fully. The almighty God of the universe. The one that knit you together and loves you so much He sent His son to die for you, we don’t trust that He will take care of our worry.

When we put it that way, it seems a little silly that we worry, doesn’t it? But yet we do and I am not exempt from this and I often find myself in trouble! I tend to worry about many things – my kids, my husband, my job, our finances, the future, the list goes on and on!

I’m sure we all know the verse that we try to cling to when we face these worries, or at least what we should cling to, found in Matthew 6:25-34

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

There is so much we can unpack in those verses about how valuable we are in the eyes of God! But I want to take this time and focus on verse 33.

 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 

Seek first – we need to keep our focus on Him, our trust on Him!

When we seek Him, we are not seeking our worry. We are not focusing on our worries, but turning towards Him!

I want to look back in the book of Genesis – just for a different angle on worry so bear with me here.

Genesis 19 goes through the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah. If you look at it, the cities aren’t much different than many presently in our country. Though Sodom and Gomorrah fell, this story shows God’s grace and mercy to those that have put their trust in Him.

We are going to start in Genesis 19: 15-17.

¹⁵ When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.” ¹⁶ And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. ¹⁷ So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.”

Now, Lot’s wife, not much is said about her. The Bible doesn’t even give her name. But we know one thing for sure in verse 26.

But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

She did the one thing that God commanded her not to do. Now, I wonder why she turned back when she was strictly commanded by an angel not to do so.

Did she worry about her friends that were left in the city? Did she worry that she left her favorite cooking pot behind?

Either way, she let the worry consume her to the point that she looked back. She turned her gaze, her trust in God and His plan and looked back to the worry that plagued her. And what happened when she turned back to that worry? She became a pillar of salt. Forever looking backward and never moving forward to what God had been calling her to do.

If we continue to worry instead of trusting, which isn’t always easy, we become stuck. Stuck in that place, stuck in that worry and never moving forward. Encased in a pillar of worry.

You and I are the salt of the world. But what happens if we get stuck in our worry?

You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

Matthew 5:13-15

If salt gets stuck in one place, it calcifies and cannot season. Therefore, we can’t season the future that God has called us to if we are stuck in that worry.

Fun fact – salt in the body is key in the operation of all signals within the cells and to and from the brain. So let’s not calcify our salt and become a pillar that doesn’t move. We need to learn to trust.

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; ⁶ In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

Proverbs 3:5-6

ALL being the key word in that verse. Turn to God with your worries. Trust Him with ALL your heart to help you through them.

Don’t turn away from Him and get stuck in a pillar of salt, turn towards Him and season others!