THE CURE FOR CARE
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7
Why allow care to keep gnawing at your heart? It weakens our power to help ourselves, and especially our power to glorify God. A care-full heart hinders us from seeing anything clearly. It is like taking a telescope, breathing on it with the hot breath of our anxiety, putting it to our eye, and then saying that we cannot see anything but clouds. Of course we cannot, and we never shall as long as we breathe upon it. If we are calm, quiet, self-possessed, we should do the right thing. We should be “all there” in the time of difficulty. That man may expect to have presence of mind who has the presence of God. If we forget to pray, do we wonder that we are all in a worry and do the first thing that occurs to us—which is generally the worst thing—instead of waiting till we see what should be done and then trustfully and believingly doing it as in the sight of God? Care is harmful.
I suppose it is true for many of us that our cares are manifold. If you are like me, once you become careful, anxious, fretful, you are never able to count your cares, even though you might count the hairs of your head. Cares multiply to those who are care-full. When you are as full of cares as you think you can be, you will be sure to find another crop of cares growing up all around you. The indulgence of this habit of anxiety leads to its getting dominion over life until life is not worth living by reason of the care we have about it. Cares and worries are manifold; therefore let your prayers be manifold. Turn everything that is a care into a prayer. Let your cares be the raw material of your prayers. As the alchemist hoped to turn dross into gold, you have the power to actually turn what naturally would have been a care into spiritual treasure in the form of prayer. Baptize every anxiety into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and so make it a blessing.
Father God, I am full of cares and worries. I place them into Your omnipotent hands now. Amen.
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