The Worries of This Life
Jesus said, “The worries of this life…choke the word and make it unfruitful.”
Jesus certainly knew, and my experience shows me how it works.
I have some tendency to worry about the future. In 202o with start of Covid, my hugely successful business started to get pressure. In 2021, it was in crisis. My oldest daughter went to college in US and needed money.
Anxieties about each week, college fees, work, and retirement stated to plague me since Covid started and devastated my business. It has used up my energy to pray more for others and consider how to glorify God.
We must reach higher than the problems that surround us and seek light. When I started to doubt that God wanted to save us from the problems of this life, I prayed and prayed and then got tired of praying like Abraham and Sarah must have over 20 years ago. Our family always had food to eat and clothes to wear. The Bible says clearly not to worry about tomorrow.
Lets Not Sit With Our Worries of This Life
One recurring prayer is that we could start spreading the good news here more actively by having people in our home again. My wife is an evangelist and even a prophet at heart, but got worn out and hurt and backed off and focused on our family, so I was less successful in outreach here on my own here in China.
Devastation of our business drove us in desperation to find work teaching English in our town in China. I had taught English 1991-93 and decided not to do that as my career. So, I have gone back to teaching English 30 years later kicking and screaming. I can now keep feeding my family. However, because I am teaching English, I am getting to know 200 college students with no faith.Thus, I am spreading light more than I have in years. I am making friends with them.
Suddenly, our dead business is gaining life and income. It is like back from the dead. God does not want me to want to know tomorrow so much and especially to worry about it. It chokes the word and makes it unfruitful.
I have three amazing and passionately Christian kids, a wife who loves me and a Chinese green card, so I can stay in China in this time. What am I worried about?
Lord, you have said that worries choke us. I admit to letting worries choke me. God, help me and all of us to live without being choked. May we find joy and more — from our heart.
