As we approached our retirement as career global workers, I spent too much time walking down worry street. During our last couple of home assignments, we spent time investigating apartments we could afford on our retirement budget.
I searched, fretted, and dragged my husband into my concern. We studied neighborhoods and bookmarked a few places that offered a one-car garage as we anticipated moving back into the land of scraping windshields and shoveling driveways during the winter months.
While planning and investigating is not a sin, I knew that I often came very close or even crossed the yellow line where fear and anxiety could slam into me, like oncoming traffic.
Eight months before moving back across the ocean, God provided a home for us that was within our budget. A home that checked all of our boxes. I had wrestled with worry and walked in fear for several years, yet the house we now occupy was built just two years after we left Iowa for Portugal in 2001. (Psalm 127:1) He had it under control all along.
Having been a Christ follower for many years, and after all that God has done for me again and again, why do I doubt, complain, and fret? Matthew 6:25-26 continues to both challenge and encourage me. Perhaps it will do the same for you, fellow pilgrim.
"Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"
What scriptures encourage you when fear threatens to steal your peace and joy? Do you find yourself sharing those same passages with others who are facing fearful and stressful circumstances?
Matthew 6:25-26 and Philippians 4:6-7 are verses I try to remember to preach to myself and share with others. The body of Christ is a beautiful thing. God designed for us to encourage each other to walk in trust and rely on His Word.