“….remember the Lord.” Nehemiah 4:14

He is the great author of your being, and the only proper object of your faith, fear, and worship. Remember the promises He has made, the deliverances He has wrought, the blessings He has conferred, the invitations He has given, and the relations He now fills. Remember Him in calamity, to trust Him; in prosperity, to praise Him; in danger, to call upon Him; in difficulty, to expect His interference. Remember to obey His commands; to attend to His exhortations; to keep His company; to seek His blessings; and to aim at His glory in all you do. Remember Him, for it is your duty; it is your privilege. Remember Him, in order to strengthen your faith; as an antidote to your fears; as a source of encouragement to your souls; and as a preventative to sin. Remember He is holy, just, and good; and He will be glorified in all them that draw nigh unto Him. Whatever or whoever you forget, always “REMEMBER THE LORD.” He is your life, your strength, your food, your portion, your God, your all. Remember Him, for He never forgets you; cleave to Him, for He will never forsake you.–James Smith

“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”–Phil 4:6

How to learn not to worry is one of the lessons everyone should master.

Worry is a terribly wasteful experience. It uses up the strength we need for our duty. It unfits us for doing our work well. It is dishonoring to God, for He has promised to care for us, if only we do His will faithfully. Then it is utterly fruitless, for it does not take away the things it frets over.

The Bible gives many lessons on the subject, but none that makes plainer just how we are to eliminate worrying from our life than what Paul here tells us to do.

First of all, we are simply not to worry. “In nothing be anxious.” There is no room for exceptions, special circumstances, and all that. We are not to be anxious about anything.

What then shall we do with the matters that we are disposed to worry over? Put them into the hands of God in prayer, and leave them there. If we do this the peace of God will guard our hearts, our thoughts, from all anxiety. It will be a great deal to us in every way to learn this lesson.–J. R. Miller

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”–Phil. 3:13-14

Kenneth Langley said, “Film maker Walt Disney was ruthless in cutting anything that got in the way of a story’s pacing. Ward Kimball, one of the animators for Snow White, recalls working 240 days on a 4 1/2 minute sequence in which the dwarfs made soup for Snow White and almost destroyed the kitchen in the process. Disney thought it was funny, but he decided the scene stopped the flow of the picture, so out it went. When the film of our lives is shown, will it be as great as it might be? A lot will depend on the multitude of “good” things we need to eliminate to make way for the great things God wants to do through us.”

That reminds me of something my mother repeated over and over as I was growing up– “Good, better, best. Never let them rest, till you good is your better and your better is your best”. That’s good advice. The greatest enemy of the best isn’t the worst, but the good. Many people who have enough sense to know better than to choose the bad, but not enough wisdom to know that when the good crowds out the best it is bad. Even sinless things can become sinful. Remember the old saying, “A jack of all trades and a master of none”? I fear that’s the mistake a lot of folks make. Successful people avoid that mistake.

Luciano Pavarotti said, “When I was a boy, my father, a baker, introduced me to the wonders of song,He urged me to work very hard to develop my voice. Arrigo Pola, a professional tenor in my hometown of Modena, Italy, took me as a pupil. I also enrolled in a teachers college. On graduating, I asked my father, ‘Shall I be a teacher or a singer?’  “‘Luciano,’ my father replied, ‘if you try to sit on two chairs, you will fall between them. For life, you must choose one chair.’ I chose one. It took seven years of study and frustration before I made my first professional appearance. It took another seven to reach the Metropolitan Opera. And now I think whether it’s laying bricks, writing a book–whatever we choose–we should give ourselves to it. Commitment, that’s the key. Choose one chair.”

Paul likewise chose “one chair”– “For to me to live is Christ..”(Phil. 1:21). As we think about this we need to remember that God’s will for us is the greatest thing that can happen through us!. It might not be deemed great in the sight of others, it might not win us any awards, or even a pat on the back, but it is great if it is of God’s choosing. Like the old song says, “Little is much if God is in it”. He who does the will of God, whatever it is, will hit the “mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus“. Don’t waste your time doing anything else! Keep your eyes on the prize!

It is common to see Christians get out of balance. Some seem to have forgotten that we are to be both students and servants. We are to learn and then live it out– put it in “shoe-leather” as we often say. All the learning in the world is of no benefit if we don’t put it to use. Learning is for the living. It should enable us to become what we ought to be so we can do what we ought to do. And what we do should always be according to the will of God.

I recently read, “Angry cynical people die young. Men who score high for hostility on standard tests are four times more likely to die prematurely than men whose scores are low.” If that’s true, and I suspect it is, we would be wise listen to what Coach Joe Gibbs wrote about anger management. He said….

“Whether at work or at home or in some other setting, you know what it’s like when someone gets mad, gets their feelings hurt, and accuses you of something you didn’t do. Instead of coming to find out what really happened or to talk it out calmly, they start right in with the accusations.

First reaction is what? “If they’ve got the nerve to come in here blaming me for things they don’t even know about, they’d better have the guts to hear what I think of it . . . and of them.”

Same thing happened to an Old Testament hero named Gideon, who famously took 300 men on a nighttime raid of a huge enemy encampment, armed with nothing more than trumpets, torches, and a bunch of empty jars. When God gave this tiny band an unlikely victory, some of the other fighting men of Israel swooped over to get into the action. But they were steamed that Gideon hadn’t seen them fit to be part of the initial attack. “They criticized him sharply,” the Bible says at the beginning of Judges 8. Still, instead of getting into a shouting match, he calmly told them he wasn’t half the fighting man they were. Cooler heads carried the day. “At this, their resentment against him subsided.”

Remember this:  “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.” (Proverbs 15:1). Next time someone wants to start something, let your low-key response put an end to it.” Think about it—you might live longer!