Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
How many of you get really frustrated when you are very capable of doing something, you've done it so many different times before—but you have somebody constantly looking over your shoulder, acting like you are a novice. Acting like you've never done it before, and you just can't do it without them giving you instructions to get it done.
Anyone else feel that way? Now that I'm asking that, any backseat drivers out there? I know we have had our experiences with people like that. I've heard a lot of comedians talk about that, and we all have our stories where at some point we need to say, I know what I'm doing. Stop.
Our Verse of the Day
I'd love to have that lens as we discuss our Verse of the Day today.
It's Philippians chapter 4, verse 6. "Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done."
If we were to translate our verse—and that's why I use the illustration of somebody that knows what they're doing, they've done it a lot before, but someone still keeps doubting that they can do it—if we were to translate this verse into our current vernacular and how probably it translates into real life, this is probably what we would say: "Worry about a lot of things. Complain about everything and tell everyone what you need. Pray about the big stuff and thank the ones who made it turn out the way you wanted it to."
Anyone else have that step on your toes like it does me? It's so real, isn't it?
Talk to God About Everything
When the verse says, "Don't worry about anything. Instead pray about everything," I'd love for us to even swap out the word prayer because sometimes we just tend to "religion-ify" that where we check the box to pray today. We just swap the word out to just talk to God. So, don't worry about anything. Instead, talk to God about everything. Now it's not just we checked that box for today where we had our time with Him and prayed and walked away and now He's not part of the day. It's talk to Him about everything.
But it's interesting because when it comes to worry, I love what Mark Twain said. He said, "I've seen many troubles in my time, only half of which ever came true." Isn't that the truth? Where we have so many troubles, we pile all these troubles on our shoulders, on our life, and it hasn't even happened yet. We have this piled up burden of anticipation and worry of what actually hasn't even happened.
A Trust in God Issue
When we see the word worry or hear and talk about worry, a lot of times we focus on ourselves and on our own behavior that we're worrying. But really, that's why I use the illustration at the beginning. Really, we've focused on our own behavior when actually it's a trust in God issue where we're looking over God's shoulder in a sense and saying, wait, are You going to turn here in my life? Wait, are You going to do this? Wait, what if this happens? God, what if that happens? Well, this may be happening down the road. Are You aware of this? Does that sound familiar?
As we talk about this, I would love for you to just receive this, just as we would when we have done something so many times, and we have somebody else trying to tell us how to do things and what to think about and what lies ahead and what they need to know and how they need to do it, and how they need to go about it. I would love for you to receive this from the Lord today. Let God tell you, you know what? I've done this before. I've seen it all and I've done this before. I know what I'm doing. I've got this. And He's got you.
He's Got You
As much as we take on this burden of worry, I just would love for you to just be able to take some time and actually remember that He is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. He is the Ancient One, as He's described in Scriptures. The Great I AM. He's always existed. He's seen it all. Do you know what? If we truly believe and know how much He loves us, He's got it. Let Him drive. He's got it. He's going to take care of you. He knows what He's doing. He's done it before.
Let’s look at the last part of this verse, "Thank Him for all He has done." What that does is it looks back and we are reminded of all the times we thought it was going to turn out differently. But we see His hand and we're able to look back and thank Him for what He has done. It reminds us He had it then. He's got it now.
Don't worry about anything. Pray about everything. Talk to God about everything and thank Him for what He's done. Know that He's got you today. You don't have to worry about it. Let Him do His job. He's got it.
