Let Nothing Be Worrying You
by
Donald G. Hayter
ANXIETY IN
THE HEART of man prostrates him, sapping his resolve, laying siege to his faith, and
turning his heart's eyes inward and away from God and His word. If is the
consequence of failing to take account of every feature of a circumstance or
experience. We look at a part only of what is occurring and are anxious. If we saw
the whole, we could not worry !
The sons of
Israel, when they came up to the Red Sea from Egypt, were worried. And well they
might if we consider only their superficial circumstances. Before them lay the wide
expanse of the sea, deep and forbidding, and they were without transport. Behind
them lay the menacing army of Pharaoh, and they had no army or weapons.
These were
the most obvious details of their plight. But they forgot the invisible forces
working for them. They forgot that God was for them. But Moses, their leader, gave
them the words that banished worry, "Stand still, and see the salvation of the
Lord!" Had they heeded their own anxiety, they might have decided to work or
flee or even submit to the Egyptians. But all they needed to do was to stop from
their own efforts, and watch the Lord working on their behalf. He would save them!
And so it is with us; when our affairs are black, and the future is forbidding, then
let us do nothing but look to the Lord. He will help and save !
Jonah, in
the belly of the great fish, was in as desperate a situation as it is possible for
a human to find himself. Imprisoned within a monster of the deep sea! Superficially
a hopeless situation! Had he worried, he would have perished. But no, he exulted in
the Lord and cried to his God, exclaiming, "Salvation is of the Lord !"
His prayer is one of the great examples of faith, in extreme adversity, that we have
in the Scriptures.
These
accounts are given for our learning and benefit. We should look the cause of anxiety
squarely in the face, assessing its features. Distressing they are, and possibly
painful. There may even be in them the ingredients of disaster. But having taken
account of the character of the experience, turn the eyes upward to the Lord. He can
quiet the storm, and will do so at the proper moment. He may appear to be drowsing
as He was in the boat on the lake. But not now, for He is always living, available
to help and save. O, we of little faith!