My Friend Said, Don’t Worry!
Last night, after the house had quieted down and all had gone to bed, I took some time to have a talk with my friend. I had a few things that I needed to thank Him for. I also had a few things I needed to talk to Him about.
The events of the past weeks and months have been hard for me to understand. It seems if your name is Doran and you live in Conway you are having problems. It is not just my wife and I. It also includes other family members. Not real big things, just several things. It is just there have been more situations than usual.
We know that these are opportunities for miracles. We have confidence in God that He is true and faithful. Yet, sometimes I just have to make sure that He knows that I know He knows! So, we had a talk.
It started out just a conversation that was pretty much one sided. I wanted to make sure my friend knew how thankful I was for every little thing He had done. I have been so blessed. I have a beautiful wife that has been my best friend and companion for over thirty years. She is a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister and most of all a wonderful Christian.
I have three wonderful children. I have been blessed that two of my children are in the ministry. I have a great son-in-law who takes very good care of our daughter.
I have been blessed. I have two awesome grandsons that think Mema and Poppy are their best friends, and they are right. Our mothers live close by and are in good health.
I am blessed! Both my brothers are in the ministry and God is blessing them. One of them attends the same church we do, so we see them often. Their children call us Poppy and Mema. They love us like grandparents.
I had so much to thank Him for. There was much more, but I am sure that you are getting the picture. I am a blessed man and wanted to make sure to tell Him.
Then I began to talk to Him about my concerns. It was at this time, while I was pouring out my burden, that the tenor of the conversation changed. Up until now it had been pretty much one sided. I had been doing most of the talking. Now, however, He began to talk to me. He was listening to what I was saying. He didn’t just shrug His shoulder and say, “That’s life, deal with it,” as I often want to do. No, He listened and then He interacted like the true friend that He is.
I told Him about my cares. I shared with Him my worries. I shed a tear or two, nothing major at this point. However, it was then that I really began to hear Him. You know how it is, someone is talking. The verbiage is coming our way but we are not hearing it. Suddenly I heard it. This is what He was saying: “Be careful for nothing!”
Over and over I kept hearing that. Now I am not talking about an audible voice. I am talking about that deep impression in your soul when you know that you have heard from God. You know when you have a certainty that God has communicated with you.
Oh, now the tears really began to flow! I wasn’t sure what I wasn’t supposed to be careful about, but I was so thankful to hear from God. Just to know He cared and was there blessed me.
After we had visited for a while longer, I began to close up for the night when it dawned on me there was a passage in the Bible that talked about being careful. I turned the light back on and restarted the computer. I went to Biblesoft and pulled out the concordance. This is what I found.
Phil 4:6-7, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” KJV
Wow! I liked it even better when I read it in the New Living Translation;
Phil 4:6-7, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. “ NLT
So that voice that I heard in response to my prayer was telling me to stop worrying. Just turn it over to Him and everything is going to be alright. I must admit, when I shut everything down for the second time last night, there was a new peace. When I awoke this morning, that peace was still there. Circumstantially nothing had changed, it was all still the same. However, now I was reassured that His peace was guarding my heart and mind. I’m going to just keep living for Jesus.
God Bless
