Walk Away from Worry

Imagine your whole life untouched by worry. What if faith, not fear, were your default reactions to threats? Envision a day, just one, absent the dread of failure, rejection, and calamity. This is the possibility behind Jesus’ question, “Why are you afraid?” (Matthew 8:26 NCV).

Fearless

Fear Less Tomorrow

Fear may fill our world, but it doesn’t have to fill our hearts. It will always knock on the door. Just don’t invite it in for dinner, and for Heaven’s sake, don’t offer it a bed for the night. The promise of Christ is simple:

• we can fear less tomorrow than we do today.

When I was six years old, my dad let me stay up late with the rest of the family and watch the movie The Wolf Man. Boy, did he regret that decision. The film left me convinced that the Wolf Man spent each night prowling our den, awaiting his preferred meal of first-grade, red-headed, freckle-salted boy. My fear proved problematic.

To reach the kitchen from my bedroom, I had to pass perilously close to his claws and fangs, something I was loath to do. More than once I retreated to my father’s bedroom and awoke him. Like Jesus on the boat, Dad was sound asleep in the storm.

How can a person sleep at a time like this?

Opening a sleepy eye, he would ask, “Now, why are you afraid?” And I would remind him of the monster. “Oh yes, the Wolf Man,” he’d grumble. He would then climb out of bed, arm himself with super-human courage, escort me through the valley of the shadow of death, and pour me a glass of milk. I would look at him with awe and wonder, What kind of man is this?

Might it be that God views our storms the way my father viewed my Wolf Man angst?

Jesus got up and gave a command to the wind and the waves, and it became completely calm. — Matthew 8:26 NCV

He handles the great quaking with great calm. The sea becomes as still as a frozen lake, and the disciples are left wondering,

What kind of man is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him! — Matthew 8:27 NCV

What kind of man indeed.

God’s Word for Your Worries

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? — Psalm 27:1

So don’t be afraid. You are worth much more than many sparrows. — Matthew 10:31 NCV

I tell you not to worry about everyday life. — Matthew 6:25 NLT

Take courage. I am here! — Matthew 14:27 NLT

Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul. — Matthew 10:28 NASB

Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the Kingdom. — Luke 12:32 NASB

Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in Me... I will come and get you, so that you will always be with Me where I am. — John 14:1, 3 NLT

Excerpted with permission from Trade Your Cares for Calm by Max Lucado, copyright Max Lucado.

* * * 

Your Turn

Is your life untouched by worry? That’s doubtful! Worry seems to encroach on us at every turn! What if our worries truly are completely manageable by Jesus? What if we believed that? What if we could worry less tomorrow? Come share your thoughts with us. ~ Devotionals Daily