JAMES KILGORE: Why pray when you can worry?

After a rather discouraging meeting, one of the members had to leave early. As she cheerily departed, she smiled and said to her friends, “Why pray — when you can worry?” Embarrassed at what she had said, her feeble attempt to correct her error, came out, “What I meant was, why worry when you can pray?”

Psychologists remind us that 95% of everything we worry about never happens. What about the other 5%? Four out of five things turn out better than we expected, including a lot of outright blessings! Only 1 % happens, usually, it’s rarely as bad as we feared. Jesus said, “Don’t be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of it. Live one day at a time.”

One wag said, “Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday.” We tend to put things off in our anticipated tomorrows only to discover that they do not exist. In that procrastination is the soil of worry. Grape juice is made to ferment but not great ideas. When we enrich the ideas that challenge our best, we can constructively plan. Spinning our ideas in the muddiness of worry accomplishes nothing. Worry accomplishes nothing! Jesus asked, “Can a man worry himself to a new height? Or can a leopard change its spots?”

Foundational thinking is rooted in spiritual assurance! Peter had learned a lesson from Jesus when he wrote: “Casting the whole of your care — all your anxieties, concerns and worries — on Him; for He affectionately and watchfully cares for you.”

If you don’t have GPS, you will need to guess the direction of your journey and become concerned about your destination and the time of your arrival. But when you know the route to follow, your confidence in the process grows confidently. Don’t obsess over the future or life’s direction.

The Psalmist understood how to live in peace: “Praise the Lord … this is the glorious privilege of his faithful ones.” Get it straight! Praying beats worry every day. Praises fill the heart with joy! Giving your care to God in faith allows you to stare worry in the eye without fear! Let’s pray for the things God has promised so that we won’t have to worry about the things that might be!