There's an APP for that!

Is there a place where God will not venture? Not according to Psalm 139.  Well I don’t know about the Psalmist, but it seems that there is one place God refuses to go with me.  It’s the land of “What Ifs”. 

What if I got sick and couldn’t work anymore… Or what if the furnace gives out, since we have no savings….. Or what if I there’s not enough to pay the mortgage this month….  I go to these imagined places in my head, and find myself getting stressed out and fearful about things that are not actual events, just possible events over which I have no control.  If they are not real, then they are not true.  Therefore they are lies, and God doesn’t do lies.  Isa. 28:15 “…for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.”  I leave God at the door when I go into that place of falsehood, and like quicksand, it’s hard to escape once I am entrenched in the mess. 

So what do I do when I find myself alone in the land of what ifs?  The good news is that God has an app for that.  No, it’s not on your smart phone, but there is a way out of that paralyzing place.  God’s app for escaping the land of what ifs is a series of four steps that I learned some years back in ladies’ bible study at Keswick:

1.      Stop and ask yourself, “What am I feeling?”  For me it might be “fearful, hopeless and alone about finances”.

2.      Next ask, “What am I thinking?” What is the thought behind those feelings?  For me it might be “God doesn’t care about me and how I am struggling financially”.

3.      Is there anything in my thinking that does not line up with what God says in his word?  Well, sure there is.  If I am thinking God doesn’t care about me, there are numerous scriptures that tell me differently.  How about “I have loved you with an everlasting love”. (Jer. 31:3), or “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God” (I John 3:1)

4.      Choose to correct your thinking with the truth God has revealed.

By making that choice to turn from the error in my thinking to the truth God speaks in his word, I take that first step out of the “what if” quicksand.  There is a delightful relief in admitting I am wrong in my thinking, (God really does care about me!), and consciously choosing to step away from the lie, out of the land of what ifs, and into God’s truth.  Yeah, there’s an app for that! And it works!