Why Worry? God has a Plan

I have been given the privilege of presenting the sermon this morning. I find it hard to put words together to express my thoughts, but I pray that the Lord will take over & that the words I speak will be His words & not mine. So let us pray.

The title of my sermon is “Why Worry? God has a Plan.” I chose this topic because, since I have become a Christian these 25 years ago that God does have a plan for my life. I want to share a portion of that story with you today.

When I got out of the Navy I was ready to go back to college. I was really going to burn up the books. But that was not to be, I didn’t like college. But I knew, I needed an education.

So Barbara & I decided that I should go to a vocational school in the next town & take an accounting course. I was about thru with my accounting course when the teacher from the Computer Department approached me & talked me into taking computer courses which taught me, mainly how to operate a computer & very little programming.

Just before graduation from vocational school, I was baptized & I praise His name for that event in my life. But this made it harder for me to find a job as a computer operator. Let me explain about an operator’s job; most beginning operators have to work Friday nights & Saturdays. But Barbara & I already said that with the Lord’s help we would not break the Sabbath for any reason.

Well my teacher lined-up some job interviews for me. Companies like Coca Cola, IBM, Dillards, the banks in Little Rock area & many other companies, excellent companies to work for especially someone starting out in the computer field. Two of those companies decided they wanted me to work for them. All I had to do was say “Yes.” But I turned them down because I would have to work on the Sabbath. After about 2 months or more of answering ads & going on interviews, I was beginning to feel discouraged. I began to think that there wasn’t a job for me. We prayed earnestly each day, all day long as I continued to go from interview to interview. We started asking ourselves questions. Had our prayers not been answered? Was there not a place for me in the computer field with my new found faith?

Let’s turn to Romans 8:28, this a promise that I have claimed for my life. (Read.) Our plans are not always God’s plans. Sometimes He lets us take charge of our lives & then works out an entirely different plan for us. This was the case with me. I was heading for a disappointment. But the disappointments which may come, we may not at the time understand. It is sometime hard to see why we can not have our own way. I learned a very important lesson that it is best not to get upset when some of my plans don’t work out.

Just when I was beginning to feel discouraged, something very unexpected happened. I got a call from one of the executives from IBM telling me of a job opening for another company. The next day the manager of that company called me at my home to see if I was interested in the job. I had to ask him the all important questions, “What are the hours & what days do you work?”. He told me that the hours was 8-5, Monday-Friday & no working on the Sabbath.

When I went for the interview it was for a lower position than I expected. But the irony of it all is that the executive at IBM had told this company that I would not work on the Sabbath because of my belief. God works in mysterious ways (to tell you the truth I think God was testing our faith) because a week later, I was promoted to the operator’s job I was hoping for. From that operator’s job I have been richly blessed, I was promoted to Operations Manager & latter I had a chance to learn programming of which I do now. Standing firm to what Barbara & I promised the Lord about the Sabbath (pause) I have by His grace never worked on the Sabbath these 25 years I have been in computer field.

Only through our prayers do we know that our Heavenly Father loves us & knows what is best for you and me. In our verse in Romans, He assures us that all things work together for our good if we love Him. You and I do not know the future and we may not know just what is best for us; but God knows & cares.

Each of us knows that God has a plan for our lives but some of us still continue to worry. There are some people in the world that are always upset, concerned or worried about something. Some people are not really happy unless they have something to worry about. I once knew someone who worried about, not having something to worry about.

Most of us have lain awake at nights worrying. We have carried unnecessary loads in our life. God has stated positively that He loves us and will care for us. But sometimes we aren’t sure that He will keep His promises and so we keep on worrying. If God is our Father and we are His children, why should we worry so much?

The story is told of a Christian farmer in Japan who depended upon his orchard for his lively hood. One morning he found thousands of tiny worms on his trees. They were a new pest he had not seen before. All of the family went to work to pick off the worms and to destroy them. Although they worked through the entire day until dark and went to bed exhausted, there seemed to be just as many worms as when the started. Before retiring, the farmer & his family knelt down and asked God to help them in some way to destroy the worms. The next morning their orchard was full of strange birds and the birds were devouring the worms. The birds stayed three days and by that time every worm was gone. This family had faith in God. In 1 Peter 5:7, if we trust God as our Heavenly Father, we will surely worry less. He will do what is best for His children.

A minister and his young son were unpacking a box of merchandise while a visitor looked on. The father was taking packages out of the large box and laying them on the arms of his son. The visitor feared that the small boy was being over loaded. So he said to the young boy, “Don’t you think you have about all you can carry?”. The small boy answered, “Don’t worry, my father know how much I can carry.” You see there was no danger. His father would not overload his son. Just as our Father in heaven would not over load us.

In conclusion God does have a plan for our lives, it may not be exactly what we thing it should be. But we are told if we will have faith & believe, that God will work out His plan in our lives for our good, so as the title of the sermon says, “Why Worry? God has a Plan”.