Friday, March 4, 2011

Learning to Pray and Trust

I am overwhelmed by so many things. So many things that seem so big to me, and I don't see the solution anywhere. It's easy to complain and be unsettled and worry, worry, worry. Often I forget that these things that cause me worry are good things and blessings in my life that the Lord has given to me, things that I was hoping and asking for - my job, my friends, my church family, my service at church, my health insurance, my health.

I was convicted on this while listening to one of Ginny Owens songs, Free. 
Towards the beginning of the song, she sings "bearing gifts as if they're burdens..." There are so many people in this world that don't have a fraction of the things I do. I should be ashamed when I complain about the problems I face that come with all of these gifts that have been bestowed on me.

I'm so thankful for my friend Jill's blog for her continual discipline to praise God for all of the good things (in the midst of difficult circumstances) He has put in her life.

Living a life of praise and thankfulness is a discipline, not a natural outpouring of an easy and charmed life.

It's funny - I was mentally reviewing my list of worry-causing things yesterday as I was driving home from work. I am seeking to pray more about them instead of spending my time worrying about them. It was so much easier to live worry free when I was 18, 20.... when my life was mostly void of difficult and/or complicated situations and problems.
As I try to think about all those things right now, they are refusing to coalesce into my mentally compiled list. And I'm okay with that. I don't want to review it. Again. I need to learn to entrust these things to God, to believe His word.

I Peter 5:6-7 (ESV) 
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

Psalm 40:17
As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God!

Psalm 40:5
You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.

Oh, to live my life believing what I say I believe... it is what He intended.

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