WHAT'S IN A GOOD TOOTH

Teeth play vital roles for a human being. The basics being for helping with speech, chewing, and even the esthetic function! Well, do we handle and care for them well?

That is food for thought!

THE DARK HOLE OF WORRY/ANXIETY Part 2

We must accept that there are some things outside our power and responsibility that are God’s. What are you fretting or worrying about at the moment? What is it that’s teasing or troubling or harassing you with such insistence or demand that you fear or hate facing another day? Or such that you cannot focus on anything or concentrate in school, deliver well in your work or relate with others, even God?  Do you need rescuing or are you on the brink of despair? Do your very tiny part (not worrying); do what you can do as expected and leave the rest to God. That is not escapism or wishing away problems. Those should drive you to him; to seek, ask, and receive from him, not only peace but actual relief and ample supply befitting your needs. Faith/trust in the Lord our God is the only ray of comfortable light which shines through the darkness of any situation. He assures his children that he will never to leave or forsake them Deuteronomy 31v6; 1Samuel 12v22; Nehemiah 9v17; Hebrews13v5.

Will you be obedient to God’s command not to worry? There’s no reason why should not. “The obedient”, someone has observed, are always “self-forgetful, and are touched with a certain sweet serenity” as they place their trust in God! He is the only one in whom even the very deadly elements in nature are harmless. Jesus safeguards us so that nothing can harm us. It is in him that God is specially, providentially, savingly good! Personally, it is no fancy or shame to wrap all my troubles in the rags of my life, and lay them at the feet of the Lord Jesus. He lovingly cares! 1Pet 5v7 Throw all your worry on him, because he cares for you. He is the master of the universe, the miraculous provider, and the lover of my soul. It is his desire that we would be lifted up above the present cares and difficulties of life through faith. Circumstances may be bleak, and things may be very bad; the economy of your life may be teetering on collapse, and situations may seem all but hopeless — but God is still in control – the wheels of providence are still turning. The dreams and hopes of our childhood or early adulthood or mid-life may vanish, and we may appear to be confounded and/or left under a cheerless sky. But Christ Jesus always is with us to inspire and strengthen and keep us. “Better than any song of angels is His fellowship. It is the true secret of a happy life” reiterates an encouraging saint.

Bellow, I have inserted one of Spurgeon’s devotionals. He quotes Psalm 55v22 Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

‘Care, even though exercised upon legitimate objects, if carried to excess, has in it the nature of sin. The precept to avoid anxious care is earnestly inculcated by our Saviour, again and again; it is reiterated by the apostles; and it is one which cannot be neglected without involving transgression: for the very essence of anxious care is the imagining that we are wiser than God, and the thrusting ourselves into his place to do for him that which he has undertaken to do for us. We attempt to think of that which we fancy he will forget; we labour to take upon ourselves our weary burden, as if he were unable or unwilling to take it for us. Now this disobedience to his plain precept, this unbelief in his Word, this presumption in intruding upon his province (domain/authority), is all sinful.

Yet more than this, anxious care often leads to acts of sin. He who cannot calmly leave his affairs in God’s hand, but will carry his own burden, is very likely to be tempted to use wrong means to help himself. This sin leads to a forsaking of God as our counsellor, and resorting instead to human wisdom. This is going to the “broken cistern” instead of to the “fountain;” a sin which was laid against Israel of old. Transgression destroys peace of mind, obscures fellowship with Jesus, hinders prayer, brings darkness over the soul.

Anxiety makes us doubt God’s loving-kindness, and thus our love to him grows cold; we feel mistrust, and thus grieve the Spirit of God, so that our prayers become hindered, our consistent example marred, and our life one of self-seeking. Thus lack of confidence in God leads us to wander far from him; but if through simple faith in his promise, we cast each burden as it comes upon him, and are “careful for nothing” because he undertakes to care for us, it will keep us close to him, and strengthen us against much temptation. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee.”’

Elsewhere Spurgeon writes that we should (instead of worrying) “cry to God never to leave us”; leave us not to ourselves. “Lord, keep us everywhere. Keep us when in the valley, that we murmur not against thy humbling hand; keep us when on the mountain, that we wax not giddy through being lifted up; keep us in youth, when our passions are strong; keep us in old age, when becoming conceited of our wisdom, we may therefore prove greater fools than the young and giddy; keep us when we come to die, lest, at the very last, we should deny thee! Keep us living, keep us dying, keep us labouring, keep us suffering, keep us fighting, keep us resting, keep us everywhere, for everywhere we need thee, O our God!”

So never give up hope and do not take refuge in worry and despair. Resolve with wise boldness. You may enter in but don’t settle down in that “luxury of woe.” It is no glorious adventure! Be of good cheer instead, worry not and enjoy the poem below.

WORRY NOT

  ©Mwango Lupupa 05/06/2016

Stumble not into another day of hopeless worrying

Humble yourself not with crying

Work not with anxiety

Reward is God’s providential surety

Though now in pain

It won’t be in vain

If in Jesus Christ you trust

Upon Him yourself thrust

Kept you will be by faithfulness eternal

Untouched by malicious infernal

Floods of today’s problems

Winds of current needs but emblems

God’s timely lure

Prove His wisdom sure

Seek His kingdom and righteousness first

For Him hunger and thirst

Daily necessities will be added to you

                                                     Let nothing worry you

THE DARK HOLE OF WORRY/ANXIETY Part 1

Matthew 6v25,34 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Therefore do not worry about tomorrow…”

We may all well know what it is like to feel uneasy and sometimes (almost) lose hope. Times when we perceive we are in dire need or our lives are threatened. Then there are times when we enjoy the ecstasy of our spirits soaring high like eagles. There is no pretence when we are faced with life realities that cause these emotional and practical situations. However, when we are experiencing need and life is threatened, there is no need of, and I think no excuse for, worrying in the present or the future. But how often and unawares do we slip or fall into that dark hole of worry! I say this with much reserve and respect.

MARY’S BEAUTIFUL DEED

Mark 14v6b; 8. She has done a beautiful thing to me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial.

Beautiful/wonderful/good deeds may not reflect physical (lovely) appearance but they reveal and reflect someone’s thoughts and character for sure. They should of necessity be done in or out of love. For Christians, seeking opportunities for doing good to all as unto the Lord ought to be an unmistakable characteristic, Galatians 6v10; 1 Corinthians 10v24. We were “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them”, the Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 2v10.

Now, Mary Magdalene sat at Jesus’ feet perhaps more than twice, learning, and being taught and trained as a disciple, Luke10v39-42. She loved her Lord for certain, such that she anointed him with the whole jar of her expensive oily perfume! Let us learn to love the Lord in deed and not just honour him with our lips. 

We also learn here that good deeds done by Christians are never in vain or a waste, 1Corinthians 15v58. However, let’s be careful not to do good so that we can be highly thought of or seek earthly reward or man’s approval instead of God’s. Now, could Mary have done that to anybody else? To her, it seems to have been the need of the moment not so obvious to others. Hence the reaction of scolding by those who thought it was a waste, Mark 14 v3-5. However, her mind and love were in action. Did she know that Jesus was headed for Calvary in a little while? I think so.