“Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.” (Psalm37:8)
A while ago I noticed that my boys were having a few speed issues whilst playing Minecraft on their PC. I couldn’t understand why they had glitches and lag when playing, so I decided to Google it! After not very long I realised that they were using the 32 bit version on a 64 bit machine. That must be it! So as all good dads do, I sprang into action, got the computer out and downloaded the necessary 64bit Java software to make it all work.
I tested it all out and found that the frames per second were much higher, with no lag and all was well. Woo hoo!! I do admit to feeling like a bit of a hero! That was until I shut down the computer… As I clicked on the start menu an error message came up. The start menu was refusing to work. In fact I could do very little apart from turn the computer off. After switching on and off multiple times I realised that maybe I had not come to the rescue after all!
Following several long hours on Google, trying out various solutions, I came to the conclusion there was only one thing to do… the dreaded “reset to factory default.” Effectively, this returns the computer to the state that we bought it in. Unfortunately we’d lose all the apps and files. Hmm… Well? Did I do it? Of course! Don’t worry, it only took me 2 days to get everything back to normal!
I’m sure you’ve experienced the situation of having a device that goes slow after an update, or a computer that just gets filled up with stuff, making every task take forever. Maybe you’ve checked your storage and seen that there’s plenty of storage space and you can’t figure it out. As you’ve just heard, I’m not an expert, but there’s probably an app conflict or something working overtime which reduces the processing speed, producing that annoying lag.
You know, much like computers, when we are processing a lot of worrisome thoughts around in our heads it produces a kind of lag. We’ll be distracted, not our happy selves and feeling sluggish. The bit we have read here today tells us that fretting only leads in one direction. It’s not a good direction. Fretting produces a build-up of stuff that makes us stressed. This can lead to all kind of things like anger, self-harm, broken relationships and bad habits (to name but a few).
This is the third “Do not fret,” that we’ve come across in this Psalm. Maybe you feel that the words “Don’t worry,” just aren’t enough to deal with your problem, yet what worry does is to put our focus on the wrong things. Not only does it wallow in the problem, but more importantly it believes the “worst-case-scenarios,” that our mind has come up with. By worrying, we are placing our faith in the enemy’s plans for our lives. Instead, God wants us to change our perspective and see the plans that He has for our lives.
We use the factory default button to return back to when things were working well. So it’s worth asking, “What is the cause of my discontentment?” Often it will be something that hasn’t actually happened yet. It could be that we are feeling afraid of something that threatens us in some way. The enemy loves to make us fearful about things that never actually happen.
It’s time to change your default actions. If something doesn’t go to plan, rather than trusting in the enemy’s plans for your life, trust in the greater capacity of your loving Heavenly Father to see you through your difficulties. Maybe you react in a certain negative way at the first sight of trouble. Seize that moment and say to yourself “The Lord says ‘Do not fret!!’” Allow God to take charge rather than the enemy.
Father God, I thank You that You have this thing covered. Please lead me to see that my worries are misplaced and will draw me toward evil, but my faith in You is always well placed and will lead me toward good!” In Jesus Name!
Picture: Unsplash - Kirill Sharkovski
Paul Martin is a Youth Pastor and author who has written three 40 day youth devotional books from the Psalms. If you would like to read more, just click on this picture below to see a few sample devotions from these books.
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