By: Chinkee Tan
Are you a worrier?
Do you worry about money?
About your family and future?
If you do, you’re not alone. I also used to worry a lot.
I can still remember when I didn’t have enough money to pay my staff. I was so stressed. I couldn’t sleep at night thinking when to get salaries and overhead payment for my business.
I would look at my bank book every night before I sleep, when I wake up in the morning, and up to lunchtime. It was so stressful! I really lost my peace of mind.
I couldn’t take it anymore and asked for help from one of my mentors, Ariel Marquez.
Me: Ariel, I’m so stressed. I don’t know where to get the money for my staff. What am I going to do?
Ariel: What are you doing about this problem?
Me: Hmmm. Every night, before going to bed, I look at my bank book. I do that in the morning, too.
Ariel: Ahhh. The solution is simple. Go to the bank first thing in the morning and withdraw all your money. Give it all away.
Me: What?! Did I hear you correctly? That’s all the money I have left and you want me to give it away? I really won’t have anything left for payment.
Ariel: What are you doing to do when you get home? You’re going to do the same thing. You’ll look at your bank book.
What will you see? Still nothing! Good news! You won’t think about it anymore because you won’t see anything there.
At first, I got frustrated. I thought he was making fun of my situation, but it dawned on me and made me realize; that he was trying to teach me something.
The reason I worry is because I still have something to hold on to. When I don’t have anything to hold on to, who else will I run to? I will run to the Lord.
Like the saying goes, “When worry ends, faith begins.”
You can either worry or you can trust GOD. You can’t do both. Choose faith over worry.
It’s very important for us to fully depend on God. We need to rely on Him (not just when it comes to the big things, but even on the smallest ones), because apart from Him, we can do nothing. We are nothing. Sometimes, GOD takes away our source of security (money, possessions, career, etc.) so we may know that only through Him we can find true security and peace. Never hold on to anything tighter, except God. Our FAITH in God can do wonders.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air:
they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” Matthew 6:25-27
THINK. REFLECT. APPLY.
What has been giving you sleepless nights?
What is hovering in your mind lately?
Did it reach to the point where you raised your hands up to surrender to God?