Tortured by the "What ifs"

I often torture my thoughts with countless “what ifs” that go through my head.  I am one that will overthink anything and everything.  I will rehearse conversations in my head which may or may not happen. It’s a curse.  

The what ifs can ruin your peace. I pray but then my mind still asks the what if question.  

What if God doesn’t answer my prayer?

What if it gets worse instead of getting better?

I spend way too much time trying to figure everything out. It stresses me out. I guess you could say that I stress myself out. 

I have a lot of what ifs going through my head right now in my life. The worst case scenarios are the what ifs that cloud my mind.  My world is chaotic because I ultimately know that I have absolutely no control over what happens.  

I’m sure that I irritate God with my overthinking and attempts to figure things out with my what ifs.  I admit that I have a problem. I need help.  I need to get better at just letting go and accept whatever happens.  It’s hard for me to do that. 

There is a Bible verse that tells us to “cast your cares” but I don’t really know how to do that.  I haven’t put that into much practice.  How can I just simply let my what ifs go and accept what happens?  God is in control regardless of my attempts to overthink it.  

My soul needs rest.  I can’t carry all of this on my shoulders right now. I have to let it go.  There is no way I can be prepared for every scenario in my life.  I need only to live right now and deal with the now and not think about what may happen later.  

The act of casting our cares means that we have to intentionally transfer the responsibility of our what ifs on Christ through prayer and meditation.  We have to allow ourselves to release these things and stop dwelling on them. Doing this is an active decision on our part.  If you are like me you may try and fail but the important thing is to keep trying and practice letting go.  

I don’t like feeling out of control and worried about what might happen.  If I don’t learn to handle this better I am going to burn out and be a total wreck.  I don’t need to wait until that happens to decide that I need to do something about it. 

So if you are an overthinker like me, join me in the practice of casting our cares instead of trying to keep them on ourselves.  

Life Is A Roller Coaster

 

My PaPa once said that life is like going up a steep hill. You have clean out the briars along the way but if you keep on, you will get to the top. 

I have another take on what he meant by comparing life to riding a roller coaster.  There will be ups and downs, twists and turns along the way. Through it all we have to let God strap us in and then hang on.  

When I was younger I loved riding roller coasters.  The very first one I conquered was The Great American Scream Machine at Six Flags over Georgia.  It took a lot of time for me to work up the nerve to attempt it.  It seemed so high and so fast.  When I finally rode it I was terrified and the ride was so rough that I desperately held on to the safety bar in front of me. 

Life sometimes presents us with times where we are overcome with fear We have to tighten our grip and hold on.  Hanging on during tough times requires mental, emotional and spiritual strength. We have to keep our focus and remember that the tough times are temporary and only do what we can do. 

Psalm 63:8 (the Amplified Bible) states it very appropriately when it tells us “My soul (my life, my very self) clings to you; Your right hand upholds me.”   This was written by David while he was in the Judean desert while running away from his enemies.  It shows the importance in being anchored in God during the tough times. 

Someone once said of roller coasters that you have a choice to scream or enjoy the ride. We too have the choice of how to ride the roller coaster of life. We can complain about it or we can just ride it out. The ride is out of our control. We have to believe that it will work out the way it was meant to work out in the end.

 

Scary Faith

There are hard times that we all must face in life.

Difficult decisions. Heartbreaking moments. Losses that are painful.

I am sure we all could tell the stories. 

I was raised in a church home.  I believed in God at a very young age.  Although I have wavered and failed at times I have always returned to the God of my salvation. My experience has also evolved over the years.  

We all go through the storms of life.  The hard times come.  I don’t like the hard times.  I do all I can to avoid the times I am scared. 

I am in one of those scary times.  

Will God come through for me this time?

Even with past answered prayers, there is always another hard time where our faith is once again tested. 

I never expected this one.

It makes you wonder if anything is too hard for God.  That seems like a silly thing to think but when you are going through the hard times you think a lot of thoughts. 

I replay all the stories of God’s miracles and answered prayers during my lifetime.  I know that God CAN answer my prayer but the scary part is how will He answer it. He doesn’t always answer it the way we want.  That’s the scary part.

Sometimes God chooses not to heal or provide the miracle we are asking for. 

I immediately think of a scene in "The Chosen" when Little James approached Jesus about why he had not been healed.  James had seen the healings that Jesus had performed and now Jesus was asking Him to go out and minister to others.  How could he do it when he hadn’t been healed?

Although this is not an actual Biblical account, it explains a lot about why Jesus doesn’t always heal in the way we expect. 

James asks why he hasn’t been healed despite being give. The power to heal others. Jesus explains that his endurance despite his physical ailment serves a higher purpose, demonstrating that faith exists even through suffering. 

Watch the scene here:  https://youtu.be/KZDvcEkjthA?si=6nahtFW0pY9tOGCQ

This means that our faith has to be strong even if our prayers are not answered the way we want them be answered.  Do we only believe if God does what we want?  

That’s a difficult belief but we can’t always expect to have our way.  It takes more faith to believe if prayers are not answered than when they are.  Our faith is only strong if it is based on God and not what He does for us. 

I don't like that answer. None of us do. So what can we do?

We pray and believe until something happens. God is on our side even if it doesn't seem like it because the prayers aren't answered the way we have prayed them. We don't always see God's higher purpose for us.