Just a short message about hope and worry this morning:

It cracked me up because I went to find a good picture of reshaping.  There were only pictures about facial plastic surgery.  And then I thought about it:  We do have to have our frown lines and our worry lines reshaped, don’t we?

Anyway, we went to church last night.  And it was perfect timing for me.  Our pastor, Carter Moss, was preaching a series on the song “Oh Holy Night“, one of my favorite Christmas songs.  He was down to the line, “A Thrill of Hope”.  That was really exciting to me.  And his take was fabulous because you’ve all heard sermons on worry before, and you’ve all heard sermons on hope.  But not together, not like this!

He started in Matthew 6:25-33.  That’s where we are told not to worry about clothes or food or shelter.  And he picked out this one verse that we don’t usually pay much attention to:  “²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” – NIV

We are valuable.  In God’s eyes.  And God says He will take care of us.  (Obviously you have to get a job and be a productive member of society…)  But He will give us what we need.  Naturally there are other places that address worry.  Here’s another gem he pulled out of the middle;

“^6-7 Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” Philippians 4:6-7 The Message

Guess what he picked out of there!  “Let petitions and praises (re)shape your worries into prayers…”  What if we allowed Him to do just that?  Reshape our worry into a prayer of the saints.  Like it says, after the reshaping, “a sense of God’s wholeness, EVERYTHING coming together for good, will come and settle you down.”

And did you get that last part??? “It’s WONDERFUL what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”  At the enter?  Wow, I wasn’t aware that it was the center of my life.  And yet, it says so.  So we, yes me too, have allowed worry to become our center instead of Jesus.  Time to change that… right now!

Have a marvelous day, Girls!  XOXO