Most people spend a lot of time and energy obsessing over all the “what ifs” in our lives. What if it rains? What if I lose my job? What if I’m late? What if I flunk the test? What if… What if… What if… According to one source the average American is in a bad mood 110 days each year. That means about 30 percent of the time, people are in bad moods because of things like worry and stress and anger and depression.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus had some very direct things to say about worry. He simply said: “Do not worry.” While this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have legitimate concerns in our lives, it does mean that we mustn’t give too much concern for things over which we have no control, or circumstances that might never occur. Instead Jesus taught us to “seek first” the Kingdom of God and then “all these things” will be given us as well.
I like the approach Max Lucado took regarding worry. He presents eight worry stoppers. I like his list a whole lot.

P = Pray First. 1 Peter 5:7 says “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” Instead of pacing the floors of the waiting room; pray for a successful surgery; rather than bemoaning the collapse of the stock market; ask God to help provide for your needs.
E = Easy Now. Many of our biggest fears and worries are the result of running ahead of God. We can refuse to let God be God and work on His own schedule. But Psalm 46:10 begins, “Be still, and know that I am God…”
A = Act on it. James 4:7 says, “Anyone…who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” Sometimes with all our fretting and worry, we don’t do the good that we KNOW God wants us to do.

C = Compile a Worry List. Take some time to physically write down your anxious thoughts. Then after your worries are recorded take time to review them. How many turned into reality? How many never happened at all?
E = Evaluate your worries. Don’t throw that list away just yet. Look back over it again. It will probably reveal some themes of worry. You will most likely detect areas where you fret more than others. Use your worry list to compile your prayer list. You can pray specifically about the things that trouble you most.

F = Focus on today. The Lord usually doesn’t meet our needs in bulk form. He tends to meets our daily needs on a daily basis. Not weekly or annually. God will give you what you need when it is needed. And often JUST when it is needed.

U = Unleash a worry army. Admit your tendencies to fret with a few fellow believers. Share your new worry generated prayer concern list with them and ask them to pray with you and for you.

L = Let God Be Enough. Listen to how Jesus concluded this section about worry in His great sermon: “…your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” Are you willing to do that? That’s what it all boils down to: being willing to let God supply what you need.

One of the best things about the Bible is that it is very realistic about both the positives and negatives in the lives of the characters it describes. Moses was used by God to lead His people out of slavery in Egypt, but Moses had his moments of failure. Fortunately God was able to overcome Moses’ fear of failure to use him to lead His people out of Egypt.

Exodus 2:11 reveals a huge moment of failure in Moses’ life: he saw an Egyptian beating one of his Hebrew countrymen and killed the Egyptian, hiding his body in the sand. We don’t know if Moses thought he was going to singlehandedly deliver Israel through his own power or what was in his mind. We do know that God’s plan did not involve murder or deceit. We also know that the next day it became clear that his deed was known and he took off across the desert to make a new life for himself in the land of Midian.

We can learn a lesson from this part of Moses’ story, that everybody fails sometime in their life. James 3:2 is very specific about that. James wrote: “We all stumble in many ways….” Everybody fails in their lives, but failing at something does not make you a failure.

Forty years later Moses had made that new life for himself. He had married and had two sons. He was a shepherd helping to care for his father-in-law’s flocks. One day like any other day as Moses was talking the flocks to pasture he saw a bush that was burning but was never consumed. The Angel of the Lord appeared and told Moses that God wanted him to go and lead Israel out of Egypt. Moses was not excited about the assignment! In fact, he replied with a series of excuses. God replied to each of Moses’ excuses to let him know that He was with Moses and would equip him with what he needed to do the job he was called to do.
The lesson for us is that even if we have failed, we can’t let fear of failure paralyze us and keep us from following where God leads us. Just as God equipped Moses to do what he was calling him to do, so God will equip us and empower us to do what He is leading us to do. Success is not up to us, it is up to God. What is up to us is being willing to get up after failure and going where God leads.

Failure is not final. It was not final for Moses and it does not have to be final for us. The great American inventor Thomas Edison once said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Scripture says it like this in Galatians 6:9: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at a proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Isn’t it true that many of us give up too quickly? I wonder how many people let the fear of failure keep them from getting back up and causing them to give up too quickly.

Don’t let the fear of failure keep you from doing what God is calling you to do.

David was out sick this Sunday with a stomach bug, so John Vance (an old classmate of David’s) was good enough to fill in and preach for us on short notice.  You can hear his message on our sermon podcasts page.