Daily Devotional For Friday, February 7, 2025

Yeah – it is Fabulous Friday. You are hours away from probably what is a long-awaited weekend to rest and relax. Worry is an emotion that steals our joy, creates anxiety, stress and even physical ailments. Worry has never added a day to anyone’s life, but it has taken days away. Worry is our way of saying we do not trust God. In order to have trust in anyone, we must have truth from them. These two pillars go together. For anyone to have a healthy relationship to anyone, that relationship must be based on truth and trust. Each one re-enforces the other. 

We do not trust anyone we do not know. I think one of the reasons so many “Christians” worry is that they do not know Jesus Christ intimately. They know about Him. They know of Him, but they do not know Him. There is a big difference in having a “head” knowledge versus a “heart” knowledge of Him. Trusting Jesus cannot come solely from having information about Him; it comes from knowing Him intimately. 

This is why Paul tells us this in Philippians 4:6-7:

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. (7) Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus” (NLT).

Do you see it? God provides a sentinel to guard our hearts and minds against worry as we pray and trust Him with His truth that He will take care of us. God has brought many people across my path in the course of my life and ministry. Some of them have had very little of the world’s treasure, and others have had a great deal of it. My experience has shown that the struggles of life come to everyone, and wealth will not bring you peace of mind. In fact, wealth may make peace harder to find and hold on to. 

That’s why this promise of God’s peace is essential for every one of us. Paul doesn’t give a long list of things to do in order to experience God’s peace. He simply says to pray, telling God what you need, and thanking Him for what He has done. Then we will experience a godly peace that is beyond anything we could manufacture on our own, a peace that will guard our hearts and minds as we live with our eyes focused on Jesus. That’s it? Just pray? Yes it is. 

Maybe if we spent more time praying to God about our concerns, trusting them to Him, then our worries would not prey on us. “Don’t worry about anything” is a directive, not a suggestion. We can worry or we can worship? Take the story that major Major and Dr. Harold Kushner told of his captivity in a Vietnam POW Camp:

“Harold Kushner had been a medic during the Vietnam War and had been taken captive by the Viet Con and put into one of their POW Camps. Instantly upon arrival he was told that if he needed anything he was to talk to a young twenty-four (24) year old Marine who as the "representative prisoner and leader" for the rest of the POWs. This young Marine had been given this position of honor in return for cooperation with the Viet Con. He was promised freedom as well if he fully cooperated. This had been done with their previous leader. As days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months, this 24 year old Marine began to realize that the Vietcong had lied to him. His hope turned to worry and his worry turned to hopelessness. When the full impact of this hit him, Dr. Kushner states that this Marine, trained in all the United States could give him in survival, this healthy, bright, and optimistic Marine became a Zombie. He refused to work, rejected all offers of food and encouragement, and simply crawled over into a corner and began to such his thumb and in lest than two weeks was dead” (Source: Told by Douglas Colligan, New York, That Helpless Feeling: The Dangers of Stress, pp. 30-31).

We can worry or we can worship. We can trust God or we can trivialize God’s promises. We do have a choice and one leads to life and the other leads to death. One frees and the other enslaves. One is a sentinel and the other is a slave maker. One builds our relationship to Jesus Christ and the other destroys it. So, you have a choice to make when it comes to your concerns and anxieties: worry or worship. 

There is a lot of truth in that old hymn, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and grace.” I encourage you to do that. Look at Jesus, not your concerns.

Questions To Consider

1. It has been said, “Whatever gets your attention, gets you.” Does Jesus Christ have your attention when it comes to your worries, anxieties and fears or do they have your attention? Explain.
2. The promise of turning our eyes upon Jesus gives us peace according to Paul in Philippians 4. How?
3. When it comes to your concerns, do you worry or do you worship? Why?
4. Dr. Harold Kushner shared a story about how worry and hopelessness convinced a highly skilled 24-year-old Marine, trained in how to survive a POW camp, gave up and just died. If you had been in this POW camp with him, how might you have modeled for him a different response?
5. When it comes to your concerns, do you worry or worship? Why?

Scripture To Meditate On: Psalm 55:22, “Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken” (NASB).

Prayer To Pray: “Heavenly Father, thank You for Your watchful care. Help me see Your abundant provision and teach me to trust and not fear—I repent of worry and anxiety. Instead, I give You thanksgiving and praise for being my Creator, Redeemer, Deliverer, and Sustainer. Thank You for the peace of Jesus, my Lord. In His name, Amen.”

I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly