“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” Philippians 1:6 (NLT)

Holding on to worry is like carrying around a 5-pound hand weight all day. At first, that little weight is no big deal, but the longer you hold on to your grip may tighten or even start to slip. When we hold onto our worries instead of bringing them to God, the weight can drag us down emotionally and physically. It can even keep us from picking up the very thing that God wants us to carry so that we live the joyful, peaceful life He has planned for us.

My ‘hand weight’ I have been carrying around recently was my finances. With one hand gripping tightly to do all I could in my job, and the other grasping for ways to advance or earn more, whether within the company or elsewhere, my hands eventually began to cramp, and that grip started to slip! Finally, the slip became a drop with a layoff at my job. I went from being employed in the morning to wondering how I’d pay rent and meals in the afternoon, no warning, no sign it was coming. To say it was unexpected was an understatement. While I definitely had my moments of freak out, panic, questioning ‘why me, and many other not-so-good feelings, it was God who kept me positive and ultimately pulled me out of it all. I have been a believer my whole life, but up until the last 5 or so years, I had started going more “all in” for God, so when this major road bump came up, it was not as big a deal as it could have been. I knew God was with and for me, that He had a plan. Fast forward, and I am now employed at my church in a position I did not even know was a possibility for me. Talk about God setting up those chess moves, wow! Spoiler alert: God has those same kinds of moves for you.

I love hearing about people’s God moments, and there is no better place to look than the bible itself. In Philippians, Paul is writing a letter to the people of the first church he helped establish in Europe. Paul was in prison at the time, praying for them with great joy and excitement to see God’s plan for them. Paul knew it was God working through the people to show him such kindness. Like a few sparks getting ready to ignite, Paul recognized God was only getting started, too. He knew God was faithful and had a plan, His Plan, for them. The fact that Paul could say all this while in prison is incredible!

Paul’s ability to find joy in his own suffering is something a lot of us, including myself, find difficult to mimic. I find it helpful to turn to scripture to see how God was faithful to Paul (and others in the bible), such as in Acts 16:25-26. In these verses, Paul was again sitting in prison, but instead of wallowing in his suffering or blaming others, Paul (and Silas) started to sing hymns to God! Their singing at the midnight hour, their darkest hour, where it was hard to find hope, literally shook the walls of the prison in an earthquake, and the walls fell, freeing them. I don’t know about you, but reading this chapter in Acts gets me so pumped and encourages me to sing praises to God when I’m in my ‘midnight hour’ too. 

I know some of you reading this may be at that ‘midnight hour’ right now. You may be facing an illness, struggling in an unhealthy relationship, questioning God, going through a layoff yourself, or carrying the weight of the constant pain in the world around us. I challenge you to journal with God on this. Make a T-Chart on a page; on one side, title it “3 Stresses.” Limit the stresses to 3, not to minimize, but to focus on a few at a time with God. On the other side of the chart title, it “Gratitude” and list as many as you feel at the moment. Talk to God as you jot your ideas. Start to pray over this list for a few weeks and give the stresses to God. Have faith that God will help you through them because He is a faithful God.

Take one last peek at your stress side and know that God is already moving to turn them into a moment of gratitude in your future. The very action of you writing them with God allows Him to start doing His thing!

God, help me to recognize and know that You are continuing Your work in me. I love you and can’t wait to see what you have in store for me. Amen.