Saturday, March 28, 2009

Worried About Worry

CCEF (Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation) has begun posting a series by the always insightful David Powlison on the topic of worry. Sadly, this is a subject with which I struggle all too much.

Powlison brings up a point that convicts me every time I think about it: that by and large, the people to whom Jesus spoke about worry lived in a sustenance economy. This means, he points out, that
“…the people Jesus is talking to are poor people. They have primitive sanitation, no health care, and their lives immediately depend on whether it rains or not. When drought comes here in Glenside, it’s just an inconvenience. Your lawn gets brown. But when drought comes there, they die.”

My prayer is that the Lord would reveal to me the exact nature of my failure to trust in light of this era of incredible prosperity we now enjoy. I know right now I fall far short of the rest Jesus describes—the only question is how far.

You can read the whole article here.

3 comments:

The Prophet said...

THE DEATH OF GOD

"Then the Jews, as was the preparation of the Passover, so that the bodies were not on the cross on the sabbath (for that Sabbath day was very solemn) asked Pilate to break them legs, and were removed from there.
They came as soldiers, and broke the legs of the first, and also the other who was crucified with him.
But when they came to Jesus, as he was already dead, did not break his legs "(John 19,31-33)

As Albert Einstein once said: "The only true problem of all time is in the heart and the thoughts of men. This is not a physical problem but a moral issue. It is easier to change the plutonium compocision that the evil spirit of an individual. It is not the explosive power of an atomic bomb, but what frightens us the power of evil in the human heart, its explosive power for evil. "
No doubt that what the scientist says is one of the harsh realities that describe the human being, that there is an evil inclination in man.
Many of the unhealthy actions of man originated in the laboratory of the evil mind of man, a mind that each day feeds on a terrifying idea, the darkest, most hideous that the man was able to conceive this idea is the desire to "kill God."
Every human being has an area which makes it responsive to think of God, and this sensitive area is in Consciousness. But when the human heart is inclined to build their own roads, to set their own standards, creating an ethical and moral own or her own lifestyle, not subject to anything but the ego itself, the man faces an obstacle: the idea of God in his conscience.
So the man decided that this idea should be removed from his mind.
The apostle John writes about this desire of man, when focusing on the murder and martyrdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, this being done the most despicable act committed to the human race.
In reading John 19,31-34 are 2 groups conspired together and with the intent to remove and eliminate the idea of God reflected in the person of Jesus. These groups are the Jews and Romans.
But here also notice two things:
1. Religiosity, as represented by the Jews, and that today may well be exemplified by all the religious leaders of all denominations living under Christian rites and ceremonies, traditions or under human schemes, under systems that are not biblical, without guide the Spirit of God. This kills the religious idea of God in man.
2. Spiritual insensitivity, as represented by the Roman soldiers, and exemplified by all those who are disrespectful or irreverent to the sacred, the profane to the church of Christ without fear of seeing God in their hearts, breaking the rules of God, as if break the legs of Christ.
These two things darkened conscience of man.
However, as the apostle John writes the death of Jesus, also writes gloriously the event of his Resurrection.
"Ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God" (John 20.17),
with these words spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ after his resurrection, he left it that the idea of God is so great and sublime that can never disappear from the consciousness of man. So for those of evil heart this idea remains a torment to their lives, but for people whose hearts repented the idea of God is an idea of hope, joy, strength, which encourages them to await the Second Coming of Christ .

Note: Take it as a blessing rather than invasion to your blog.

tboyd said...

Good thought, Michael. I often think about how this time and place in history is such an anomaly in comparison to the whole of man's experiences.

It was funny - when my parents, who are 92 and 88, lost their electricity for a week in Ohio this past fall, they coped much better than the young adults around them. They had lived through much harsher times in the past.

Boyd

Jamie said...

Worry is always a temptation to me, and I've tried to take Piper's advice in Battling Unbelief to fight hard with the Word. He gives specific verses to memorize to wield the Sword against worry.