Psalm 37:1-40 Don’t Fret
David calls to all of us. Do not fret/worry. It is counterproductive and leads to sin. God knows our needs and He cares for us.
We are back to moving through the psalms with David. I’m glad we took a moment to reflect on Jesus’ resurrection but I’m also glad to be back on track. Psalm is my favorite book after all.
Today David calls for the people not to “fret.” This reminds me of the song Don’t Worry, Be Happy. I had to pull it up on YouTube and see if it had any objectionable words in it because of its author, Bob Marley. It doesn’t. He had two reasons for telling people not to worry. 1) Your troubles double when you worry and 2) your frown brings others down. I have a feeling David would have approved of that silly song. I also had to check out Pharrell Williams’ song Happy. I think David would have approved of it too!
Both songs sing about not letting the cares of this world weigh heavily upon you. That is exactly what David is telling us today. Yes, there are going to be hard times. Yes, there are going to be people that try to take advantage of you. Yes, there IS evil in this world. BUT GOD IS BIGGER than ALL of it! Let God do the ‘fretting’ and ‘worrying’.
God is NOT blind to what is going on in our world and also in our individual lives. He cares about each of us and promises to be with us NO MATTER WHAT. That DOES NOT mean that we will have no troubles in life but that He will be with us in the middle of EACH AND EVERY ONE of them.
Have you ever noticed that when you worry about something it actually makes the fear grow? For me, and probably a LOT of you, that growing fear leads to actions that are not always thought out carefully. Dwelling on my worries brings me to a point of desperation. I’m desperate to alleviate my worries and will take just about any out I can find. This has a tendency to backfire on me.
When my worries involve people at the source I find that I get angrier with them as time goes by. I begin to stew on my troubles. It DOES NOT solve them! The person on the other side of the ‘conflict’ probably doesn’t even know (or care) how much I worry. It’s “no skin off their nose.” An evil person would probably be happy to know that they were burrowing further under my skin.
So what do I do with the things that make me want to worry? Give them to the Father. He KNOWS what we need. He KNOWS the storms of this life. He even uses them at times to bring me back into line. My worrying about them won’t change them. It will only change me. Worry consumes my time, energy, mind, heart, and resources.
I have to admit that this is NOT an easy thing for me to do. But He has given me PLENTY of learning experience to KNOW it is the BEST thing to do. My most memorable experience was a few years ago when I was worrying about a possible cut in our monthly income. I started searching online for ways to make money from home, investment opportunities, and anything else I could think of to help when the time hit. I found one investment opportunity that looked very promising. I used a credit card to buy into it. Within 24 hours I saw how disastrous my decision was. I tried pulling everything back out but wasn’t able to. Now, not only was I expecting a drop in income, I had an increase in liabilities. I decided at that point to STOP trying to solve a problem that I didn’t even know if it really existed. Two months later, when the annual review came in, our income actually increased by a little bit. If I had only been still and waited on God things would have been fine. I wouldn’t have ‘dug another hole’ for myself. And I would have saved myself a LOT of wasted energy.
Each year now, as this time approaches, I look back on that lesson and take comfort in the waiting. I don’t know what my tomorrow holds but I DO know Who holds my tomorrows! THAT is why I don’t have to worry. Whatever tomorrow holds for ALL of us, when we have God on our side, we are safe. Even if that ‘safety’ comes in the form of standing before Him in person. They may take my life someday but they CANNOT take my future with Him!
That is a future that David clearly tells us the wicked lack. And THAT is why David wasn’t worrying either. Wickedness, evil, troubles are for a moment. Trusting in God is for ETERNITY.
Father God, THANK YOU for caring about my needs. Even Jesus told His disciples not to worry because You DO care about our needs. You know me better than I know myself and You have plans for my life. I have to trust You with whatever tomorrow holds for me. I DO trust You Lord. YOU hold my future and it is a GOOD future.
