TNP - 3-7-2014 GO AHEAD, DROP THE BALL!

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7-MAR-2014

If we are honest, most of the things we fear or are anxious about, we cannot change. 

Most of the time our fears will never come to pass, we just are worried that they MIGHT come to pass. These fears then begin to filter how we view the words and the actions of others, and we begin to believe lies about them. No man can change the heart of another man, only God can do that. 

Casting all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:8  

 Last night we prayed for a brother and watched him struggle for 30 minutes or so to let go of some things, that frankly he cannot change, even if he hangs on to them and gives all that he has to see them change.  In short He needs God to intervene. 

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Sometimes I get the picture of us trying to change the world, is like a typical hockey game where a player is driving down the ice, making his way towards the goal, only to be blindsided with a full body check into the boards. Doesn't that sometimes happen you are heading for the goal, you feel like you are getting somewhere, and bam! you get side-swiped.

When we pick ourselves up and get back in the game we make a vow that we are going to return the favor...  "If it kills me, this is the last thing I will do" 

So this problem, this situation, this circumstance, this offense, this thing that happened, and side-swiped us. We are determined to take it on.  You see that issue bearing down on you and it is ready to roll right over you and rack up the score against you, it is headed directly for the net. 

You time your move,  pick up speed, and skate hard, fast, trying to meet the problem head-on, whatever it is. 

At the last second, you brace yourself for the impact, and you make contact, throwing your full weight into the problem, a full body check against the boards. There that ought to take care of that. But the problem only bounces off the boards and keeps plowing through effortlessly deflecting all your efforts to the side. 

If we approach most problems like that and after throwing our whole weight into solving it and we discover that it continues to move forward unabated, then you really have to wonder, how much impact can all my worrying do? If the full body check isn't having an effect on the problem, why even bother to lift your little finger? Why waste the energy? 

Our battles are not physical, perhaps it would be better to say our battles are not solved by natural strength. 

Ephesians says... 

12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.     Ephesians 6:12

Jesus said it like this... 

 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

Now where does it leave room for worry, do you believe that:

1. God loves you, GOD IS LOVE
2. God knows what you are facing, GOD IS ALL KNOWING
3. God is powerful to protect you, feed you, and clothe you, GOD IS ALL POWERFUL

Then what's the problem, you must be listening to a lie against the character and nature of GOD in order to worry. Jesus said it like this...

Do Not Worry

25 “Therefore I say to you,  

do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. 

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 

27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 

31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, 

‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  

32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  

34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matthew 6:25-34

GO AHEAD, DROP A BALL!

Go ahead, drop the ball! or drop a bunch of balls, the weights you have been carrying around with you.  Jesus can handle the worries and anxious though s you are clinging to. It is NOT your responsibility to keep all the balls in the air.

Cast your cares upon Him, for He cares for you .