Nuggets 13:   Giving Your Fear Up to God

I am an accomplished worrier.  I got it honestly.  My mother and grandmother were also.  When Ruth and I started missionary work in Africa, the stress of all that change tied me in knots.  Driving was particularly difficult.  Roads were narrow and crawling with pedestrians and cyclists.  I constantly worried about hitting one of them.  It made me hate my preaching trips.  My work should have been a joy but it was not.

It has been our experience that wherever we have gone, God has given us some special friends to minister to us.  Down the road from us was a lady named Pamela who had learned a lot about trusting God.  Her husband had left her with two small children.  Ruth and Pam became special friends.  Ruth mentioned my uptightness to Pam.  Pam remarked, "Isn't it about time he gave that up to God?"

Ruth repeated the remark to me.  "How do you do that?", I wondered.  After thinking about it, I made an agreement with God:  "Lord, I know you want me here to do this work.  I have to drive to do it.  So I promise you that every time I start to worry, I will give it up to you immediately and trust you to take care of it."  I did this, but the worry would come back.  I kept handing it back to God and as time went by, I got better at it.  In the end it transformed my life and set me free.  This works not only with fear but with any kind of negative, destructive thoughts.  Scripture says, "Cast all your anxiety on Him because he cares for you."

1 Peter 5:7;  Philippians 4:6,7;  John 14:1;  Psalm 131:2

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