daily devotional

In a study called the Legacy Project, 1,200 senior citizens were interviewed and asked about the meaning of life. And get this, the overall theme from people who have lived longer than me are saying as they near the end of their lives they share the same regret. They wish they hadn’t spend much of their lifetime worrying. Wasted time on worry was their biggest regret.

Can’t you and I who have life and breath and purpose today learn from their regrets? Their advice was simple and direct: Worry is an enormous waste of your precious and limited lifetime.

That’s true for all of us, but especially for a girl who loves and trusts Jesus. For someone who is told time and time again in scripture of their value and worth. We look at the birds in the sky who aren’t freaking out because their heavenly father feeds them, and aren’t we much more valuable than the birds? Don’t you think God will take care of you too? Look at how God cares for the wildflowers in the fields dressing them in such beauty, don’t you know he will do the same and more for you?

Matthew 6: 34 MSG “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

A person who went through much more in life than I have said, “Think of the beauty still left around you and be happy.” Who said that? That was Anne Frank. A young girl who’s family lived during the holocaust under the most extreme conditions. if Anne Frank could think of the beauty still left around her and be happy, don’t you believe you can take a look at your world today and see what you have left and choose to be happy too?

But instead, what we often do is we look at what we have left and we worry. We worry when that too will fall apart. We worry if it will come to an end. We worry if something will go wrong. And ultimately we miss the beauty still left all around us and instead of being happy, we are worried.

Are you spending the precious days of your beautiful life worried?

You have a God who loves you wildly. His care for you is unlimited and his power is unfathomable. He has the ability to take care of any situation you are worried about today and he has the care for you personally to actually show up and do it. What are you worried about? Why are you wasting your precious lifetime worrying about these things? Are they guaranteed to happen anyway? Will it even matter in 5 years? Is your worrying making it any better at all?

Here’s what God is doing today. He’s showing up right in the middle of your mess, in the middle of your worry and he is saying, HEY GIVE YOUR ATTENTION TO ME TODAY. Look at me. Look at the beauty still left around you, I put it there. I’m doing something in the middle of this mess. I’m working. Won’t you watch me work instead of getting worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. I’ve already gone before you.

In Deuteronomy 31:8 we are given a promise, “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

You don’t know what may or may not happen tomorrow, but you don’t have to worry about it, God has already gone before you. And he will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes. But today God says, look at me, I want your attention. Stop worrying, it’s a waste of the very breath he gave you.

Not everyone received this gift of Thursday, September 24th, but you did, now don’t waste it. Trust God. Trust what he is doing. Trust he sees it all and he cares about you.

The God who has numbered the hairs on your head because of his wild love for you is making a way for you now. He’s paving the way. Every detail is coming into alignment. Every thing that has happened to you and everything that has not happened for you is now being used for your good. And your worry only creates delay.

Yes, your worry creates delay. It’s a bad habit that isn’t adding a single day to your life and only sucking the joy out of the days you do have. You are valuable to God, you are his masterpiece, his daughter, his treasure and he will provide for you.