Was someone right about worry? “It must pay to worry. Most of the things about which I worry never happen.”
I have resolved to try to read and meditate every day in 2010 on at least one reference in the Bible about worry or fear. There are more than one for each day of the year.
I believe I read a story like the following in one of the daily jokes e-mailed me from “You Make Me Laugh” from crosswalk.com.
A pastor knocked on a church member’s door Saturday morning. No one answered the door. He wrote the reference, “Matthew 7:7”, on the back of his business card and wedged it between the door and the door jamb. That verse contains the promise, …”knock and it shall be opened to you.”
The deacons found the member’s business card in the offering on Sunday morning and gave it to the pastor. The member had written another reference on the back of his card, “Genesis 3:10”. That verse includes Adam’s reply to God when God asked him where he was after he ate fruit from the forbidden tree, “He said, ‘I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid.’ “(Genesis 3:10, from “The Message”)..
That is the first reference to anyone being fearful or afraid in the Bible. Adam was afraid when he had sinned. I am also afraid when I realize I have sinned, but I also praise God. The death of Jesus Christ paid God’s just penalty for all of my sins in the past, the present, and the future. “Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing!” (Ephesians 2:8-9, from “The Message”).