Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)
Our Lord Jesus warned us against worry when He spoke the following Words in His Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew 6:25-27 (NIV): “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” Who indeed?
Whatever mercy we need must come straight from the Lord’s Hands and persevering prayer is the path which God directs His people to take when they are in the draining strains of life’s most difficult circumstances. We are to keep turning to Him. He is well aware of our fears and trembling’s and is touched by our infirmities and griefs. And He is the friend that sticks closer than a brother. He not only knows the weight of our infirmities and sorrows, He knows them experimentally as He has walked the same path and even more so. Jesus feels the heaviness and the hurt of each one of our fears and pains. And He tells us in Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV): “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
God often exercises His children by these great difficulties to strengthen their faith. Everyone knows to build muscle takes much work. The same is true of building strong faith. When things are going swimmingly well, we often get fat and sassy, Amen? We rarely seek the Lord in these times rather we depend upon self. This usually gets us in trouble – fast. We are all like sheep. They are not very smart animals. There is a reason Scripture compares us to them over and over again.
Our trials should not take us by surprise and keep us fearful as trials and tribulations can abound in the lives of His heirs of mercy. God’s desire is not to make us miserable rather for us to be conformed into the image of His Son and all that He allows is working toward this great end. We are not to fear rather be strengthened by Him as He uses them to teach us to depend upon Him and not on ourselves. Indeed, what we all truly need is more of Him and less of us.
He must become greater; I must become less. John 3:30 (NIV)