Re: Stress,worry,fear etc & the Christian

OK, I give up! I don't think God wants us to "leave" this study yet. Now that I think of it, it really is the foundation of everything for when we are saved, God gives us this new nature, but we MUST work with it to renew our minds daily, constantly, or it does us no good and we don't grow. So let me post one of today's devotionals and then I'll come back and write some more later after I've prayed. Oh and please check out the thread in Christian Chat about what we should think about!

The never-failing God

For He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Hebrews 13:5.

What line does my thought take? Does it turn to what God says or to what I fear? Am I learning to say not what God says, but to say something after I have heard what He says? “He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”

“I will in no wise fail thee”—not for all my sin and selfishness and stubbornness and waywardness. Have I really let God say to me that He will never fail me? If I have listened to this say-so of God’s, then let me listen again.

“Neither will I in any wise forsake thee.” Sometimes it is not difficulty that makes me think God will forsake me, but drudgery. There is no Hill Difficulty to climb, no vision given, nothing wonderful or beautiful, just the commonplace day in and day out—can I hear God’s say-so in these things?

We have the idea that God is going to do some exceptional thing, that He is preparing and fitting us for some extraordinary thing by and by, but as we go on in grace we find that God is glorifying Himself here and now, in the present minute. If we have God’s say-so behind us, the most amazing strength comes, and we learn to sing in the ordinary days and ways.

Chambers, O. (1993, c1935). My utmost for his highest : Selections for the year (June 4). Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House Publishers.