Where You Are Right Now

What’s your favorite pastime?

For some, it’s knitting. Or scrapbooking. Or napping. Or just spending time outside. Personally, I like to sit around and worry.

Whoops. (You read that right.)

If you had to seriously sit down and take note of any time during the day that you worried about something (big or small), you might realize we aren’t that different. If something doesn’t go exactly as we planned, the rest of the world seems to crash and burn around us.

For me, I hardly ever worry about the future because I’m constantly worrying about present happenings. From the conversations I have at work, to wondering how in the world I’m going to caption my Instagram story (real life), I’ve slowly buried myself in a heap of nothingness.

But you might be different.

“Will I get that job? Can I afford that payment? Will my kids be okay?”

Whether it’s worrying about the rain or worrying about an illness, our days are so filled with little swarms of anxiety that it’s become the new normal. Even if you consider yourself a laid back person, you have to admit that life can throw a pretty wicked curveball.

So, how do we fix this?

Let me first start by saying how important it is to recognize this problem in your life. Until you admit just how much worry is affecting your daily routine, you’ll never be able to cope with it. Yes, your worries are so valid. And yes, it’s completely normal to want to hold this weight on your shoulders.

We have trained ourselves to want to fix everything on our own, but we were created for something more. Something better.

Matthew 6:25 says, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? (26) Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? (27) Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”

I’ve always loved this little passage in Matthew because it’s such a simple reminder of how the Lord provides. You know this truth, and so do I. Whether you believe it or not is the key. Do you actually live your life this?

I don’t.

Even writing this blog makes me want to write HYPOCRITE across my forehead, because y’all, faith can be hard. There have been so many days that I just wanted to quit. Wouldn’t it just be easier to worry and try to fix this on my own?

But I’m still trying. I’m working on my faithfulness every single day. I'll admit that in dry seasons of doubt, it can be hard to see the harvest on the horizon. This is why planting seeds of faith must become a priority in your life.

Matthew 17:20 says, “… because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

Do you know just how small a mustard seed is? Let’s just say, it’s basically the size of the speck from Horton Hears a Who. So, why is it SO hard to have faith of even that size?

There’s no easy answer to this, if I’m being honest. We’ve all been through things in life that made it hard to believe, or even trust that there is a plan for each of us.

I don’t know your full story, and you don’t know mine, but I can tell you this much. The truth you speak over yourself has the power to change your life.

When you drive to work, are you upset about the long day ahead, or are you grateful for the opportunity to work a paying job? When you go the gym, are you excited to be healthier, or are you bummed because you’d honestly rather be in bed?

I use these examples because this is my daily battle. I have the choice to say and think what I confess over myself.

(See where this is going?) When I confess that all I’ll ever be is a worrier, guess what I further embrace? Worrying. When I confess again and again that I have no control over life (although often true), I begin to feel powerless.

Thankfully, God didn’t bring me this far to only bring me this far. You and I were made to be faith-filled, kingdom-chasing, conquerors.

My challenge to you is this: speak to the mountain.

This is obviously much easier said than done. I had to make time in my day to say what I'm thankful for. However, since I’ve starting speaking more positivity into my life, I’ve started to slowly believe in the person God actually made me to be, rather than who I thought I’d become.

But there are plenty of days when I’d rather crawl into bed at 2 p.m., and say goodnight to the world and all my problems.

You’ll have these days too, but you cannot let them get to you. Celebrate every victorious moment for what it is, and create a habit of speaking thankfulness to your battles/your worries/your fears.

Your worry won’t just go away overnight. There will always be things in life that overwhelm us, and that’s honestly okay, because we were never made to handle these battles on our own. It’s with His strength that we have the ability to overcome this life of worry.

Keep planting your seeds of faithfulness, and watch how your burdens can become blessings.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34