Be anxious for nothing…the God of now is where you be…

While on a walk yesterday I wrote this. (Well,talk-texted it!)

Do not misconstrue wealth or success with godliness for there are many people who act with evil simply because they were created to develop wealth and chose another path.

One of the biggest issues we are facing is an issue of worry. I know that a lot of end-timers will suggest that “Well, you know the scripture says that ‘men’s hearts will stop’.” I do know that Scripture but I also know that is not created or mandated by God. In fact probably has less to do with it than you would care to imagine. The very by-product of worry is ill health, diss – ease or the inability to enter his rest and enjoy life.

When one fails to acknowledge their spiritual base is there little wonder as to why there is instability?

Worry at best does nothing and at worst works against us.

Years ago, one of my mentors said to me, “if you are going to worry, worry about something big. Like whether the planets will stay in alignment or something.”

This morning I found myself thinking about our spiritual base and what a lack of base will do going forward. I then found myself thinking about the dreaded NEXT.

Perhaps next can stand for New, Exciting, Xhilerating and Tantalizing. (As one of my friends, Adam would say…”did you see what I did there?”)

Whatever it stands for when we are willing to trade a Now for a Next we often find that we have missed something. I discovered that there are a lot of people who are putting all their eggs in a basket called Tomorrow or NEXT and unwilling to eat for today. It is one thing to plan for the future but it is another thing to be infatuated with the future. To forsake today in lieu of tomorrow will not produce the fruit that one needs to go forward.

What I saw was the enemy sowing a life of entertainment and Xhilaration and people losing peace in between. Without this constant flow of entertainment, attractions and things to do people will say that they’re bored. But their boredom is predicated on a lack of peace from within not what is not transacting on the outside. I saw the people as if they were on a treadmill going from a movie to music to the theater to find something to do and bypassing everything that was available to them that would produce peace and life abundant within.

This treadmill of NEXT is destroying the fabric of peace, undermining rest and creating illness after illness.

There is often thought to be a calm before the storm. Perhaps that is truth. Resistance before the victory. What? Really? Yes, your victory is from overcoming. Overcoming from something to overcome. RELAX!

Have you ever been traded in for a NEXT or a newer model? I have. All it does is instill a sense of fear that one does not measure up until one is captured by the heart of the Father. But until that point a feeling of unworthiness moves about in our life.

The idea that the grass is greener on the other side has almost always been proved to be a fallacy. But now it appears that people are not even willing to look at what they have and reach for something they don’t have, creating even a greater sense of dissatisfaction.

So what is the answer? Clearly the answer is Jesus.

Even as I was reading through the book of Exodus this morning and I saw that whether one obeyed the law or did not obey the law they was still provision made through the food called manna.

Fear, worry and anxiety all come out of a sense of loss or perceived loss. (If you read my book, The Interrupted Process, I share the study that reveals 92% of all things we worry about NEVER happen!) But God is your provider. Say that! GOD IS MY PROVIDER!

So before you begin to look for NEXT perhaps it is important to evaluate NOW. What is it that God is doing into your life in the now that you will need for the next. (By the way I am NOT talking about a next life in terms of reincarnation.) I am talking about the next step on the journey called life. It is high time we began to see that the God of now is here now and while he may and most definitely will be there tomorrow it is here that he is needed.

Do NOT worry about your NEXT now. If you want to worry about next, wait till you get there.

I thought about talking about the fateful THEN but I am too focused on NEXT in my NOW!

While this is crude, (I have toned it down to PG.) when you have one foot in NEXT and one foot in THEN you are peeing on NOW.

One of the greatest reasons that people are so anxious and so worrisome is because they’re thinking about what will happen next rather than focusing on the very power and presence of the Lord now. Be anxious for nothing the Bible tells us. The very reason for having anxiety is because we have forgotten that the now God is where we be.

Today can I encourage you to embrace your NOW?

Whether it is to look into the eyes of your child or to watch a falling leaf on a foliage walk. Whatever that is today is where you will find God.