Worry torments you. It steals your energy and leaves you weak. When worry enters by the front door, joy and peace leave by the backdoor. We weren’t made to drag worries with us. But what can you do if things don’t go well and you don’t really have any control over it?

I remember when I was appointed as farm manger on a second wine farm. I wanted to prove myself and lined up many people to help with the pressing. And at a better tariff than the previous contractor. But the Sunday evening they told me that they’re going to another farm.

I was mad with worry.

I also remember a few years later when I was running a big factory and carried all the financial stress on my own two shoulders. The workers who expected their wages every fortnight; the creditors who knocked down the front door, and the debtors who decided unilaterally not to pay me, but rather the guy who shouted louder.

The worry ate me up.

When you are so worried about your problems and a solution doesn’t seem possible, a Bible verse is no real help. I know the Bible says we should cast our worries on Jesus, at that stage I needed funds or people or a practical solution to get rid of the worry cloud in the air.

Eventually, I learnt that worries are part of life and that the challenge lies in shifting them from your shoulders to Jesus’ shoulders. I still struggle with that.

Fortunately, there is good news about our many worries. One of them you can tear out and throw away. It’s no longer part of your bag of worries because Jesus took it on Him.

You don’t have to worry about the wrong things that you did. You don’t have to worry that something will fall on your head because you’ve done something. You don’t have to worry that your old life is going to get you back sometime.

Jesus has paid for all those wrong deeds, for that whole heap of sin. You no longer have to take it on yourself. This is exactly what is promised here: ¹⁵Through the Spirit, Christ offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice, freeing us from all those dead-end efforts to make ourselves respectable, so that we can live all out for God.

What wonderful news! And when you put the load of worries about the punishment for your sins down, you start living differently. Then you can serve God with more passion.

And I suspect in this new lifestyle you have to learn to also surrender the loads of other worries we have …

Scripture
Hebrews 9:11-15

Reflection
How much do you worry?
Can you do something about it?
What did Jesus do for you?

Prayer
Our Father and Brother Jesus. Thank you for the amazing thing done on the cross. Thank you that I no longer have to worry about the punishment for my sin. Please help me to do the same with all my worries and to surrender them to You. Amen.