Our friend and devotional writer, Sally McClung, had a major cancer surgery last Friday. We want to remember her in prayer daily, so we will be posting one of her writings each day this week to remind us and to celebrate all she has taught us and the life she has shared with us. She wrote these earlier this year, long before she knew what she would be facing in November. Please lift her before the Lord for healing and peace for both her and her husband, Floyd.

“When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.” Psalm 94:19

Worrier or Warrior?

I was watching a Hallmark movie recently (I’m a fan of them). It was about a woman trying to conquer her fears. She said, “When do we stop being a worrier and start being a warrior?” I thought about that for a while, and realized that’s pretty much what I face each day. I have to step over the worries of all that’s happening in our lives, and choose to put my hand in the Lord’s…and go to battle to overcome the challenges and fears that I’m facing. I want to be a warrior!

My mother was a very godly woman. She was a woman of prayer and intercession. She had great faith, and was very generous with the limited resources we had. She modeled so many wonderful examples of living a life of trust in the Lord.

But she was also a worrier. It was her weak spot. I can understand it in terms of things she had to face. She lived through the Great Depression and the war years. She lost her first husband, and had to raise four children as a single mom in those hard years. She had lots to worry about! I’m not sure I could have survived all that.

But her way of worrying made an impact on me. I’ve had to work to overcome that in my life. And on the unexpected journey we’ve been on, it’s been a big test for me. I’m sure it’s why God has highlighted trusting Him to me over and over. Trust in God protects me from worry! As I make the choice to trust God, I can’t make a choice to worry at the same time! They contradict each other. Thoughts of worry may be because I’m not fully trusting God. Worry can be unbelief in disguise.

In fact, I’ve found it important to resist the temptation to worry. When worry tries to creep in, I have to make conscious choices to turn my thoughts and attention to God and His faithfulness. Often when I find worrying thoughts filling my mind, I realize I haven’t given these things to the Lord. Many times they are “little” things, small issues. God is concerned about every detail of our lives. There’s nothing too small to talk to Him about.

I was looking over some old sermon notes of Floyd’s. In one of them he said that there are two words that make up the word worry: to divide/the mind. That’s what worry does. It divides our mind from focusing on trusting God! And we don’t want to be double-minded. The Bible warns against that.

For every worry we might have, the simple antidote is to focus our heart, mind, and emotions into trusting our wonderful God. And instead, we can be mighty warriors of trust in God!

Many of us are in the thick of the battle in terms of things we are facing. We do feel like “warriors” trying to overcome the things we’re going through. I read an anonymous quote (often attributed to Winston Churchill): “If you’re going through hell, keep going!” We can purpose our hearts to trust God in the midst of the big battles we’re facing! We can push worries away and choose to be warriors of the faith!

Lord, as Sally fights one of the biggest battles of her life, help her not to worry. Help her to trust You fully and give over all the difficult things into Your care. Amen.