Trusting God with What You Can't Control

Some of the things that worry us most are the ones we have the least power over. You can't control what your adult child decides to do. You can't guarantee your health will hold up tomorrow. The economy, or what other people think of you, some of it you can nudge and a lot of it you simply can't touch. Part of why we grip these things is that worrying feels like doing something. If I'm anxious about it, at least I'm taking it seriously. But worry only wears the costume of responsibility. It changes nothing on the outside and drains you on the inside.This episode opens with Lim Wan Phing, who graduated in 2008 as the global economy collapsed and spent 2 years finding her first job. Four years in, the company folded, and all 60 employees were out of work at once. What unsettled her most was that none of it had been in her hands. She hadn't made a bad call. The company simply came apart around her.Jesus put a plain question to people who worry. Matthew 6:27 says, "Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?" The answer is obvious. Worrying has never added a minute to anyone's life or fixed one thing they feared. Someone once called worry unpaid rent on tomorrow: you pay today, in sleep and peace, for a day that may never come the way you dread. Jesus wasn't scolding people for caring. He was pointing them toward a better place to put what they couldn't fix, telling them again and again to hand it to their Father, who already knows what they need.Here is a practice that helps. Sort your worry into two piles. One pile is what you can do something about, so go do it: take the step, make the call. The other pile is everything outside your reach, and that is the pile to hand to God. Peace usually comes on the far side of admitting a thing was never yours to fix.That is how Wan Phing found her way through. She admitted the whole thing was out of her control and looked somewhere steadier than a paycheck, coming back to Psalm 121, where the writer lifts his eyes to the hills because his help comes from the Lord. She was God's child before the company folded, and God's child after. That was the one thing the collapse couldn't touch, and it is the ground worry can't take from you either.BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER:Why worry feels like responsibility while it changes nothing and wears you downWhat Matthew 6:27 says about the futility of worrying over what you can't controlA simple way to sort your worries and hand the uncontrollable ones to GodWorry can't add a single moment to your life. Do the part that's yours, and hand the rest to a Father who can hold what you can't.Share This Episode:https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/298Need Prayer? Leave me a voicemail:https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemailWant to keep these devotions coming? Please consider supporting this podcast.https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/Rate and Reviewhttps://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new/Connect with BartFacebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylivesWebsite: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.comFeeling spiritually drained? Start here. Download your free copy of my eBook Making Time for Jesus here: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/subscribe.