Passion Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend:

Don’t worry…
Eight Reasons Why My Anxiety is Pointless and Foolish – Justin Taylor
Exactly what the title says!

…be happy
The Road to Happiness Part One and Part Two – Paul Tautges
Jesus defines the path to happiness very differently than the world does.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day rejoicing in the Lord with his people!

Anxious Idolatry

 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other,
or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat
or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.
Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  
– Matthew 6:24-25

In answer to Jesus’ question: Of course life is more than food and clothing.  But if you make your life about food or clothing or money or any number of other things, you have made that thing into an idol.  It has become your god.  It has become your master whom you serve.  And your idol will make you anxious.  Why?  Because your idol can be threatened.  If you treasure anything on this earth, it can be lost (see v19).  And when your idol (what is central to you) is threatened or lost, you will become anxious.  You will worry.

How different if we make our life all about God.  He cannot be threatened or lost.  If our lives are about him, we need not worry.

Next time you catch yourself worrying, ask yourself: what idol in my life is being threatened?  Then repent of your anxious idolatry and turn back to the one true God.

Idolatry and Anxiety

When we find ourselves feeling anxious, that feeling tells us that something we treasure is being threatened….  [It is] a signpost telling us that something is amiss with our hearts.  We are not loving the Lord as we should – which is to say, we have lost sight of his supreme loveliness and forgotten that in his presence only is fullness of joy (Ps. 16:11).  We have other gods….  Our Savior, the one who loves and welcomes us, tells us where our treasure should be: with his kingdom and his righteousness (Matt. 6:33).  If our treasure is in living our lives for him and in leaving our success and security to his providential care, and if our treasure is his righteousness, not ours, then we will be able to appreciate all the good things he bestows without succumbing to worry.  On the other hand, when we find ourselves plagued by anxieties, we have to conclude that his kingdom and his righteousness are not the chief delight of our heart.

– Elyse M. Fitzpatrick and Dennis E. Johnson
Counsel from the Cross, p136-137

Learning To Trust Again

When you stop trying to control your life and instead allow your anxieties and problems to bring you to God in prayer, you shift from worrying to watching.  You watch God weave his patterns in the story of your life.  Instead of trying to be out front, designing your life, you realize you are inside God’s drama.  As you wait, you begin to see him work, and your life begins to sparkle with wonder.  You are learning to trust again.

– Paul E. Miller in A Praying Life