PROVERBS 26:13 – The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road! There is a lion in the streets!”

THEME OF THE DAY:  DON’T LIVE IN THE ‘WHAT IF’S’ OF LIFE.  Doesn’t today’s scripture make one want to “scratch our heads” puzzled by the irrational cry of the sluggard?  A lion?  In the street? Really?  Maybe if the circus is traveling through the town!

What is pictured by Solomon in this proverb is an irrational, even an imagined, fear.  The sluggard is so afraid that he has allowed a negative “what if” situation to paralyze him emotionally, spiritually, and perhaps even physically.  And though we won’t be so far on the extremes of looking out our living room windows and imagine a lion in the street, we, too, easily may be gripped by negative “what if” outcomes.

Think about how we are tempted to react when confronted with a pending medical diagnosis, a potential job or income loss, a possible life-altering event in our families, or some other thing looming on the horizon of our lives.  As we look ahead at them, are we not tempted to worry, fret, be stressed, and assume the worst in these negative “what if” scenarios?   So, how we do keep from “seeing lions in the street” or being consumed by “what if” thinking?  Here are two applications.

First, believe, really believe, we are not in control of any circumstance in our lives – Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13). Oh, that also includes the belief we cannot change anything or anyone to remove the “what if” situation.  This isn’t easy but what is easy is to say, “I know I don’t control and can’t change anything or anyone” when life is relatively free from challenging “what if” potentials.  It is a different song when they are knocking at the door of our lives!  The evidence we struggle with belief in our helplessness will be our worry and stress which come when faced with the reality we cannot control or change “what if” potentials. We apply this by prayer; asking the Lord to build no confidence in our “false  sovereignty” and complete confidence in His never-failing sovereignty.

Another way to overcome “what if” thinking is obey the words of our Lord in His Sermon on the Mount and the ending of the section on anxiety – Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble (Matthew 6:34).  Jesus basically commands us, “Stop what if thinking because it drags us to live in a not promised tomorrow.”   All thinking about the future, except when we see Jesus, is not profitable and either distracts us from our mission by focusing on the things of this world or discourage us by the happenings in this world. It is wise to simply leave “what ifs” with Him who controls them!  And it also keeps the lions in the jungle, zoos, and circuses, not in our hearts and minds creating irrational, “what if” fears.

RRAYER: “Father, forgive me for the too many times I fret and worry instead of submit and trust.”

QUOTE: “To focus on what could happen is to look beyond the grace of God given just for today.”

In the affection of Christ Jesus,

Pastor Jim