Faith Overcomes Worry – Part Three

Matthew 6: 25 – 34

        In athletics it is said that the best way to get injured is to try to take it easy, to reserve yourself, and not go all out. The same is true of the Christian. The Christians who live an O & O life, that is out-and-out life for Jesus’ will be admired even by his or her critics. The one the world laughs at is the one who tries to compromise with it.

        If we are going to have tribulation, pressure, there must be something good about it. What?

        An experiment conducted by the National Institutes of Mental Health may help our understanding. They constructed a large comfortable cage that could contain 4,000 mice easily with an abundance of food and water. They adjusted the temperature to “mouse comfort.” They put in four adult couples and sat back to take notes over a period of time. 

        Predictably there was a mouse house explosion. In two years there were 2,000 mice. Unpredictably, after that it was all downhill. In four and a half years, this mouse colony living in an ideal environment had died out. Why?

        The last 1,000 mice born were large and beautiful, but passive, withdrawn, and lacked initiative. They never even left their nests and refused to relate to each other, even sexually. In mouse utopia they dealt with their boredom by turning off. Without a challenge they lost their drive and ambition.

        The world’s pressure can be a stimulus to our spiritual growth if we allow it. It can be a matchless motivation. The challenges enable us to struggle and grow.

        To cope creatively the Christian must realize he or she is “in Christ” and “in this world,” and use the world’s pressure in a positive way. That is, as a stimulus to spiritual growth.

        Don’t be surprised by pressure, you are going to have it. The world is going to get you going and coming. It seems we are like the parachute jumper whose chute wouldn’t open. On his way down he passed a fellow going up and shouted, “Do you know anything about parachutes?” He shouted back, “No, do you know anything about gas stoves?”

        If you are going to have pressure you might as well use it to your advantage. Let it bring you resourcefully to Jesus.

        Don’t just acknowledge your inability to handle some issues, also acknowledge the capacity of Jesus to help you handle every issue.