I couldn't sleep last night. I was lying awake worrying about some issues at the church and in my extended family. I got out of bed and went into our home office to do a little work. When I opened my laptop, this is what I saw:
Where did this come from? Wednesday morning I'd led a devotion about anxiety at our staff meeting. I'd looked up some scripture passages about fear, anxiety, and worry, typed them into a Word document, printed the document, and handed out the verses at random to our staff members. We took turns reading them to each other. I hadn't saved the document. I had no intention of saving it. But there was a save dialog box open, and as Word is wont to do, the program had generated a title for the file from the first few words in the document. In this case, they were words from Philippians 4:6.
It was like God had emailed me.
The irony is not lost on me. Here I was awake and worrying not 12 hours after leading a devotional on how not to worry. I'm as blockheaded as Jesus's disciples, whose blockheadedness I was reminded of when I read this morning's gospel lesson in our daily prayer app.
But I ain't worried anymore! I went back to bed, slept like a baby, and feel great today.
So, "Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel." (Philippians 4:6-7, CEB)
Commentaires