Ed Dufresne - You Can Stop Worry in Your Life

Contents

Introduction

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than rainment ? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? (Matthew 6:25 & 26)

Youre better than a bird, arent you? Well, praise God, your Father in heaven loves you, and He wants to meet your needs and take care of you. But I want you to notice that He said, Take no thought. If youre taking thought for your life and worrying about what you are going to wear and worrying what youre going to do tomorrow, He cant feed you. YOU SHOULDNT HAVE A WORRY!!!

Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature? And why take ye thought for rainment ? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (Matthew 6:27 & 28)

Worrying doesnt get you anywhere; it doesnt help a bit; it only makes things worse.

The reason many people think Gods not going to take care of them is because theyve got a bad image of their Father. Theyve got a bad image of God.

The more I travel, the more I find that people have a bad image of the Father. He is a GOOD Father and He LOVES you and He CARES about YOU!!! He cares about even that little pimple on your ear. He knows about it. He cares about it. He wants to get it off of you, if youll believe the Word of God. He cares for you and He loves you.

Can you understand that? I want you to get a good image of the Father. I want to get across to you that the Father in Heaven loves you.

Gospel means good news. The good news is that God loves us; He isnt up in Heaven looking down on us with a baseball bat, ready to hit us over the head every time we turn around. HES A GOOD FATHER!!!

Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithall shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek: ) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. (Matthew 6:30-32)

I want you to notice something, how Jesus starts talking about the Heavenly Father. In the Old Testament, He was God...in the New Testament, Hes our Father, Hes Allsufficient , Hes the One that takes care of us. Hes Daddy. Hes my Daddy, and He loves me.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matt. 6:33)

What will be added unto you? Food, clothes, money, things that you need. But what? He says, But seek ye first the kingdom of God . Seek what? The Word of God.

Too many people go around worrying about things when they ought to be putting the Word first place; Hell take care of those things FOR you. Glory to God, thats good news!!!

"Take, therefore, no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself... (Matt 6:34)

Take therefore no thought, He said. Do you know where the devil whips us? In our minds, through THOUGHTS. Youre never going to get it. Youre NEVER going to get it. YOURE NEVER GOING TO GET IT, he used to tell me. But he doesnt defeat me anymore, because I use the Word of God on him.

Hed say, Youre never going to get a building for the church you Pastor. No, youll NEVER get a building. Youll never have anything. Your church wont grow. Your ministry wont grow. Youll never amount to anything.

Id reply, Youre a liar, devil, and the truths not in you. Just get the Word, and whip him over the head with it, and run him off; he has no power. He has NO power; the only power he can get is what he leeches off of YOU!!!

The devil is a leech. He hasnt any power of his own, only the power that WE give him, with our mouths. If he puts a thought in your mind and he can get you to say it with your mouth, then hes right there to bring it to pass. YOU CAN HAVE WHAT YOU SAY!!! (Mark 11:23-24)

Here, now, are the Four Steps to Success, from the Word of God. As you grasp hold of these truths, they will change your life, and set you free!!!

Step One

Trust in the Lord

Fret not thyself (dont you worry) because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. TRUST in the Lord and do good ; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. (Psalms 37:1-3)

I like that, thou shalt be fed , so I want to find out what it means to TRUST.

Trust, in the Hebrew, means to be bold; it means refuge, confident, secure, sure, safe, without care.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time: Casting all your CARE upon Him: for He careth for you. (1 Peter 5:6-7)

It says to humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and GOD will exalt you in due time.

Do you want to be exalted? He didnt say He didnt want you to be exalted, He said He didnt want you to exalt YOURSELF. Hell exalt you as you stand on the Word.

And just what is a humble man? A humble man will take counsel from another person. An egotist will not take anyone elses word but his own; hed rather believe the

Trust in the Lord circumstances around him than what the Word says. A humble man will go by the Word of God; he doesnt care what the circumstances may say. HE TRUSTS IN THE LORD.

If his family is dying around him, or his bankbook is empty, the humble man will get into the Word and take the counsel of Gods Word instead of those circumstances.

An egotist will say, Well, I guess Ive got cancer, and Im going to die from it, while the humble man will say, No, bless God, the Bible says, by His stripes we were healed, so Im healed!

A humble person will stand on the Word and will not compromise his TRUST in the Lord. Psalm 1 talks about not walking in the counsel of the ungodly, so, in other words, we should walk in the counsel of God.

Step Two

Delight in the Lord

DELIGHT thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. (Psalms 37:4)

I like that. How many of you would like to have the desires of your heart from the Father? Well, what does it mean to DELIGHT?

The word delight in the Hebrew means to ENJOY. Not very many of us are really ENJOYING the Lord.

How many of us spend time with the Father, just having fellowship with Him? DELIGHT yourself in the Lord; come into the Throne Room, saying, Daddy, I enjoy You , and I love You!

Many people are just plain miserable; theyve got just enough, they say, of religion to make them miserable. Thats the problem: theyve got religion instead of Jesus.

Sometimes we can get so involved with our work for the Lord that it gets to be a drag and a burden. We ought to be having fun in the Father, and start laughing. Were not called to be burden-carriers. Were not called because Jesus already carried our burdens; were to give them to Him.

ENJOY the Father, have fun with the Father. When you begin to enjoy the Father and DELIGHT yourself in Him, Hell give you the desires of your heart. Thats how you get to Daddys heart: love Him.

When my daughter wants something, shell start loving on me. And Ill end up giving it to her. Its the same way with the Father. He IS love. Love Him, enjoy Him, have fellowship with Him, DELIGHT in Him.

Step Three

Commit Thy Way

COMMIT thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. And He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. (Psalms 37:56)