Psalm 46:10

Be still and know that I am God.  NIV

In general, I’m a pretty busy person.  I run on a tight schedule all day long, even on the weekends.  Most things are planned out days or weeks in advance, and, when the time comes, all I have to do is execute … pop the food on the table, welcome the guests, facilitate the meeting agenda.  Many times, when I’m in the midst of an activity, my mind is not there … it already has moved on to planning the next activity or next several activities.

It is safe to say that I don’t live in the present very often.

If I don’t have something to plan, or to do, I frequently find myself worrying … all of these things combine to keep my mind occupied, almost wholly, with the future, over which, of course, I have absolutely no control.

But, through this project and through other things that are going on in my life, I am learning the importance of getting immersed in God’s word, for at least some time each day. And the true importance of living in the present with my Holy Father.

Yesterday, a new concordance arrived.  This one is indexed to the NIV, but still doesn’t have 365 references to the word “worry.”  What it does have, though, is a pretty amazing index, which will allow me to cross reference verses with original Greek and Hebrew words.  I am pretty confident that through this process, I will be able to find at least 365 reminders not to worry.

I found this verse, which I have known for years, to be so interesting when I looked at the original meanings behind its four main words:

• Be still: Limp.  Have you ever worried yourself into a frenzy and then cried your heart out?  Do you know that feeling after you’ve sobbed and sobbed?  I feel limp when that happens.
• and know:  Intimately know.  Know with every fibre of your being.
• that I am God:  Me.

Give up worrying … give up stressing out … worry it and stress over it until it has physically wrung you out … then, in that silence that comes after the crying fit — know that God is there.  God who knows you intimately, who knit you together in your mother’s womb, who has numbered every hair on your head and counted every hour of your life, is there, being God – all powerful, all knowing, and there for you.

Psalm 56:3-4

When I am afraid, I will trust in you.  In God whose words I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid.  What can mortal man do to me? NIV

I see God’s hand in this project.  I began it with an idle curiosity about how many times He had reminded mankind not to worry.  But, as I walk this path, I see how much wisdom He has provided on the subject.  I’m actually pretty pleased that this will be more challenging than just opening a concordance, finding 365 verses neatly listed and then writing them down.  As I explore the things that we struggle with as humans — worry, fear, anxiety — I see more and more that God anticipated those struggles and He pointed a clear path through them — straight to Him.

When I am afraid, when I am worried, when I am about to be overcome with the mental burdens of this world, I will trust God.

The Message translates this passage and the few verses before it, “Take my side God — I’m getting kicked around, stomped on every day.  Not a day goes by but somebody beats me up.  They make it their duty to beat me up.  When I get really afraid I come to you in trust.  I’m proud to praise God, fearless now, I trust in God.”  The Message

I want to be that fearless, trusting believer today.

Psalm 13

How long, O Lord?  Will you forget me forever?  How long will you hide your face from me?  How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?  How long will my enemy triumph over me?  Look on me and answer, O Lord my God.  Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.  But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.  I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me.  NIV

So, I ordered a concordance that claimed to be comprehensive to help me with this project.  When the book came, it weighed six pounds, and it is full of references.  As soon as I got it out of the box, I went straight to “w,” and found, to my dismay, that the word, “worry,” wasn’t listed.  My first thought was that I was missing something.  I read the instructions on how to use the book … “worry” should have been there … 365 times if what I’d heard was right.  But, it wasn’t.  Turns out, the word “worry,” doesn’t appear in the King James version of the Bible.  Not once.  I found that so interesting.

It got me thinking … did people not worry in earlier times?  I’ve determined that they just called the activity by other names … it has me wondering when “worry” actually became the name for it, but, that is not the journey that I’m on at the moment.  Right now, I’m looking for Biblical reminders not to engage in this activity that I call worry, and this is the one that I found today.

I found it by using a word search on “trust.”  Initially, I just looked at verse 5, “but I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.”  That will be my memory verse today.  But, I thought that the rest of the passage was so beautiful.  I just love David.  I love that he left us so much of his heart in the Psalms, and I love that he poured out his heart to God over and over.

It is clear to me that David struggled with worry … whatever he called it, he did it.  And yet, he knew the answer to solving all of his problems — trust in the unfailing love of our Savior.