when God makes "the big" smaller
Let me encourage you today. Really. My friends know I'm not always a "glass is half full" person, so I always know when I feel strangely hopeful amidst bleak circumstances it has to be the work of God. Not bad to have that awareness, right?
There's been something looming quite large in my worry column lately. And by "large" I mean, it was the "go to" place for my worry when I wasn't busy thinking about tasks or other things. It had power over me, this thing. Power to scare me. Power to depress me. Power to threaten me. Power to rob my joy in Christ. Like a heavy weight I thought I could never put down, this thing just sat on me 24/7. I knew this was wrong. I knew there was a different way of viewing it...of seeing the situation it represented. But I had to fight to see that other view. I prayed. I meditated on Scripture. I asked others for prayer without giving the nature of the worry. I talked about it with my husband. Then something totally unexpected happened.
Something ELSE came to worry me! Something that could worry me not just for myself, but for others. I guess you could say the second worry outweighed the first. And actually, the two worries were both in the same category. This was no coincidence, though it took me a moment (or a few days) to realize it. No, God was being instrumental in showing me that these worries in life cannot be allowed to be so big in my eyes and heart. It may be only minutes before another one comes along, and I simply will not have the strength to bear them both...or really, either of them. Now, when I prayed for God to help me "see clearly" with the first worry, I never realized He might actually bring another worry as His answer. I surely wouldn't pray for that. But He knew just the medicine. He knew just how to break down my mindset that I could somehow carry my own worry. So he "layered" the worry.
I know I haven't been very clear here about the nature of the worries, but does it really matter? We all have them. Whether they be financial, relational, medical, emotional, physical, or spiritual, we have things we could worry about if we let ourselves. Sometimes God answers our prayers by bringing more trouble. He doesn't do this to hurt us...not truly. It may hurt in the moment, but it is a learning kind of hurt. For when we hold it up against the character and promises of God, we realize the momentary pain is what presses us to Him...and we find Him to be the God of all Comfort that He promises He is. There is a sense in which it seems He is almost chuckling with me these days, showing me that the worry I had was never really life-threatening, as I was making it to be. He is with us. He is near. He has known sorrow and affliction as no other man or woman has. Only He knows how to make "the big" smaller in our lives, because He has the power to dwarf things and put them in their proper place. Be amazed.
There's been something looming quite large in my worry column lately. And by "large" I mean, it was the "go to" place for my worry when I wasn't busy thinking about tasks or other things. It had power over me, this thing. Power to scare me. Power to depress me. Power to threaten me. Power to rob my joy in Christ. Like a heavy weight I thought I could never put down, this thing just sat on me 24/7. I knew this was wrong. I knew there was a different way of viewing it...of seeing the situation it represented. But I had to fight to see that other view. I prayed. I meditated on Scripture. I asked others for prayer without giving the nature of the worry. I talked about it with my husband. Then something totally unexpected happened.
Something ELSE came to worry me! Something that could worry me not just for myself, but for others. I guess you could say the second worry outweighed the first. And actually, the two worries were both in the same category. This was no coincidence, though it took me a moment (or a few days) to realize it. No, God was being instrumental in showing me that these worries in life cannot be allowed to be so big in my eyes and heart. It may be only minutes before another one comes along, and I simply will not have the strength to bear them both...or really, either of them. Now, when I prayed for God to help me "see clearly" with the first worry, I never realized He might actually bring another worry as His answer. I surely wouldn't pray for that. But He knew just the medicine. He knew just how to break down my mindset that I could somehow carry my own worry. So he "layered" the worry.
I know I haven't been very clear here about the nature of the worries, but does it really matter? We all have them. Whether they be financial, relational, medical, emotional, physical, or spiritual, we have things we could worry about if we let ourselves. Sometimes God answers our prayers by bringing more trouble. He doesn't do this to hurt us...not truly. It may hurt in the moment, but it is a learning kind of hurt. For when we hold it up against the character and promises of God, we realize the momentary pain is what presses us to Him...and we find Him to be the God of all Comfort that He promises He is. There is a sense in which it seems He is almost chuckling with me these days, showing me that the worry I had was never really life-threatening, as I was making it to be. He is with us. He is near. He has known sorrow and affliction as no other man or woman has. Only He knows how to make "the big" smaller in our lives, because He has the power to dwarf things and put them in their proper place. Be amazed.
"Surely, He has borne all our griefs and carried our sorrow" Is. 53:4.
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