Thursday, April 28, 2016
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“So don’t worry
about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the
thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above
all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow
will bring its own worries. Today’s
trouble is enough for today.
Matthew 6:31-34(NLT)
Dr. Charles Graham
was my Old Testament professor in seminary.
Dr. Graham was always very gracious and interested in helping
students. But in the personality
department Dr. Graham was quite serious, hardly ever breaking a smile to ease
the tension (particularly when he would give a pop-quiz on Mephibosheth or Lot’s
daughters). When I took my first class
with this professor I saw his serious demeanor as austere, no-nonsense,
academic dryness; I remember thinking, it’s going to be a long semester.
Somewhere about the
third or fourth time the class met everything changed. Dr. Graham was teaching in Second Kings on
the worry of Gehazi, Elisha’s servant.
After recounting how Gehazi was worried about this and that, and how his
worry began to get in the way of his service, Dr. Graham abruptly brought in
the words of Jesus in this Matthew text about giving worry its walking papers, because
it was good for nothing.
In that 50-minute
class, Dr. Charles Graham recounted so many personal experiences of times when
he had worried throughout his life and ministry as a pastor, the class was over
before I knew it.
As the class period
ended, Dr. Graham let out one golden nugget that I have treasured ever since;
he said: Remember, people, if something
bad is going to happen, that is a bad event; to worry yourself to death about
it is another bad event. And then,
a broad smile emerged from the man I had imagined hadn’t smiled in his entire
life, and he continued: and
one bad event is quite enough!
Spoken by a man who
obviously had been there, and done that!
For You Today
Got some heavy stuff coming up? I hear worry won’t hang around somebody who
prays
[1] Title Image: Pedro
Ribeiro Simões, and Ignas
Kukenys from Vilnius, Lithuania, via Wikimedia Commons
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