Worry always starts with just a small thought – most of the time just two little words – “What if?” Before you know it, your mind has allowed
scenarios that will never come to pass to rob you of hours of peace… and sleep. But, “what if?” Once you start down that spiral staircase of
worry, there is no stopping your mind.
Except when you, “cast down
imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of
God, and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ…” (II
Corinthians 10:5).
One
morning I saw a small spot in the corner of my bathroom. My very first thought – a spider! I didn't
have on my glasses for seeing up close so I couldn't make out the details. Now you have to know this… I am deathly
afraid of spiders, large or small. (yes,
I’m the one that validates that statement, “it might not hurt me but it would
make me hurt myself.”) The longer I stared at the spot, the fiercer it
became. It started growing legs and was
staring back at me. I declare it moved a
little towards me. I was ready to run to
the kitchen and grab my bug spray when I looked at the spot from another
angle. I didn’t see any legs, but just
to be sure it wasn’t that vicious spider, I grabbed a fingernail file and poked
at it. (Now remember it was a small spot
– I’m talking the size of a pencil eraser!) Guess what? That spot turned out to be just a spot on the
wall in the corner of the bathroom. No
killer spider. No danger or harm. Now just look what my mind had conjured up in
just a few seconds. If my husband had
come into the bathroom at 6:30 that morning and saw me poking at a spot on the
wall with a fingernail file, he might have considered signing me up for a
mental rehab!
That is
just how worry and fear works. We have
an image that looms in the corner of our minds.
The more thought we give to the image, the more threatening it becomes.
The “what if’s” make turns around our minds like the thundering of a train with
car after car after car. That thing that
isn’t going to even come to fruition is taking up so much of our valuable time
– time that we could be doing something productive, like sleeping! But if we will purposefully look at our
situation from another angle (through the lenses of God’s Word), we will see
there is no danger, no threat, or anything to be feared.
Having
had cancer, there are times that the fear of its return will try to take
occupancy in my mind. But I refuse to
give the fear any attention. I
intentionally start casting out the negative images using the Word of God, and will
not allow my mind to play videos of scenarios that will never happen. (Psalm 27 has become my mantra). Even though I
tell myself it’s not worry or fear, just concern, I cannot allow it to become
more than it is.
What a
sweet relief that I can turn everything over to my Father, even all my little
worries and fears. He told me that I
could cast my cares on Him because He cares for me. And that brings so much peace and rest.
Sharing love and peace from the Father,
Becki
