Power Verses…… “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." (Matthew 7:7,8 New King James version.)

In last week’s Power Surge we were considering the sense of fear and foreboding many were experiencing as a result of the tumultuous events taking place on Wall Street, and financial institutions around the world.  Little has changed in one week, and people’s lives are still in turmoil, and many still worry and are anxiously concerned about their future and the future of their families.

No one has to remind us about the high cost of anxiety. Anxiety splits our energy between today’s priorities and tomorrow’s problems. Part of our mind in on the now, the rest is on the not yet.  The result……. half-minded living.

That’s not the only result. Worry is not a disease, but it is a medical fact that it causes diseases. It has been connected to high blood pressure, heart trouble, blindness, migraine headache, thyroid malfunctions and a host of stomach disorders.

Anxiety and worry are expensive habits. Some might say it would be worth the cost if they worked, but they don’t. Living with anxiety and worry is futile. The Bible, in the words of Jesus, says;   

             “You cannot add any time to your life by worrying about it.” (Matthew 6:27)

Worry has never brightened a day, solved a problem, or cured a disease.

But, you can overcome it. How?   Allow this simple illustration to explain.

To the Christian, God’s help is timely. He helps us in the same way a father gives airline tickets to his children. When he travels with his children the father carries the tickets in his hand luggage. When the moment comes to board the plane, he stands between the attendant and the child. As each child passes, he places the ticket in the child’s hand. The child in turn gives the ticket to the attendant. Each child receives the ticket at the right moment.

 Isn’t that the message God gave to the Children of Israel? He promised to supply them with manna each day of the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. But he instructed them to collect only one day’s supply at a time. The only exception to this rule was the day prior to the Sabbath. On Friday they could gather two days supply. God took care of their need on a day-to-day basis.

To those of us whose lives are committed to Christ, God will lead us, He will do the right thing for us at the right time, and that experience will go a long way to dispelling worry and anxiety in our lives.

 More than eighty years ago a great Canadian man of medicine, Sir William Osler, delivered a speech to a group of students at Yale University entitled “A Way of Life.” In his message he related an event that occurred while he was aboard an ocean liner.

One day while he was visiting with the Ship’s captain, a loud, piercing alarm sounded, followed by a loud grinding and crushing sound below deck. “These are the watertight compartments closing,” the captain explained. “It is an important part of our safety drill. In the case of a real problem, water leaking into one compartment would not have an adverse affect on the rest of the ship. Even if we should collide with an iceberg, as did the Titanic, water rushing in will fill only that particular ruptured compartment. The ship however, will remain afloat.”

When he spoke to the students at Yale, Osler remembered the captain’s description of the boat, and addressing the students he gave them this advice:

Each one of you is certainly a much more marvelous organization than that great liner and bound on a far longer voyage. What I urge is that you learn to master your life by living each day in a day-tight compartment and this will certainly ensure your safety throughout your entire journey through life.  Touch a button and hear, at every level of your life, the iron doors shutting out the past – the dead yesterdays. Touch another and shut off, with a metal curtain, the Future – the unborn tomorrows. Then you are safe – safe for today.
Think not of the amount to be accomplished, the difficulties to be over come, but work earnestly at the little task near your elbow, letting that be sufficient for the day; for surely our plain duty is not to see what lies dimly at a distance but to do what lies clearly at hand.

 Jesus made the same point in fewer words, “So don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will have its own worries. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  ( Matthew 6:34)