From
experience I've learned that worry can completely debilitate you from
the inside out. It's like a cancer, the way it eats at you. "Worry
gives a small thing a big shadow," according to an old Swedish
proverb.
My
mother always used to say, "Don't worry about crossing the river
until you get to the bridge," but I became one of the world's
great worriers in spite of her good advice. For most of my life, I
worried not only about things that might happen, but things
that might not happen. Then, a few years ago, I learned the
secret of how to stop Worry at the gate before it could go to work
on me.
No,
I didn't suddenly get rich overnight and I still have the same problems
I've always had, but I'm sleeping better, am more relaxed, happy and
satisfied with life than I've ever been before. Want to know my secret?
You'll find it in a great book called the Bible.
The
Greatest Self-Help Book of All
After
God blessed me in a special way, I vowed to finally read the Bible
from cover to cover. Although I had read it sporadically as a child
and young adult, I had let more than thirty years of my life slip by
without tapping the power in this book, and I paid the price in years
of needless worry and sleepless nights. I can only wonder how many
others have let their Bibles grow dusty on the shelf. What I've
learned from "The Good Book" to date is too good to keep
under wraps! (For those of you who may be sensitive about the topic of
God, let me emphasize that I'm not talking religion here—I'm talking common sense.)
"We
have deprived ourselves of the best there is in the world if we
deprive ourselves of a knowledge of the Bible," said Woodrow
Wilson.
In
his syndicated column, "The Writer's Art," James J. Kilpatrick
urged his readers to read the Bible, saying it was a tremendous work
of literature. "Without some minimal knowledge of biblical
allusion, a serious writer languishes in a cultural void,"
he said.
Personally,
I identify with Mark Twain, who said, "Most people are bothered
by the passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages
that bother me are those I do understand." I was surprised
to learn that the Bible is a collection of 66 books written by 40 or
more different men over a period of 2,000 years. "Yet it is clearly
one book with perfect unity and consistency throughout," say the
authors of The
Bible Has The Answer (Master Books):
"Anyone
who diligently studies the Bible will continually find remarkable
structural and mathematical patterns woven throughout its fabric,
with an intricacy and symmetry incapable of explanation by chance
or collusion."
I've
always believed that we could achieve greater success in life through
reading and self-study, but it I was nearly 58 years old before I learned
that the Bible is the greatest and most influential self-help book ever
published. I'll never again let my Bible grow dusty from lack of use
because it is teaching me how to live life to its fullest—joyfully,
peacefully, thankfully, and without anxiety or worry. How sweet
it is!
The
Bible's power is not limited to our personal lives. See Joshua 1.8 and
Psalms 1 for insight on the connection between success, prosperity in
business, and a study of the Bible. "The Bible says that men and
women who follow the principles of the word of God have every reason
to expect God to bless them and to be successful in the endeavors of
their life," says Pastor David Jeremiah, who cites a survey that
confirms the Bible's power in the world of business. "In a group
of 1,361 vice presidents of major corporations surveyed by a New York
executive search firm and the UCLA School of Management, 89% were found
to be active in their faith." Adds motivational speaker and author
Zig Zigler:
"The church is interwoven in every facet of our life. In the
corporate world those who have faith do better than those who do not.
A survey by Fortune magazine revealed that 91% of the CEOs
of the Fortune 500 companies claim a church affiliation indicating
that, to a degree, their accomplishments were the result of the values
they learned either in church or from the Bible."
It's
hard to argue with this kind of evidence, and I hope you won't even
try. Just open your Bible and ask God to show you how to apply its teachings
to your personal and home-business life. And to knock Worry for a loop
this year and kick Stress out with it, follow my lead by imprinting
these Bible verses on your forehead:
You
cannot add any time to your life by worrying about it. (Matthew 6:27)
So don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will have its own worries.
Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:34)
May
God bless your life and work this year and always!
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For more Christian
Encouragement . . .
Several of my Christian articles now appear on the
Knight for Christ Ministry
website, which I designed and now manage for my dear Christian
friend, Shawn Smith, author of Find Happiness.
His site now contains a
large archive of faith-building articles and resources for
Christians.
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