Don't Worry

Matthew 6:25, 27: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? [...] Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?"

My Dad and step-mum recently visited me at university in Edinburgh. They took me out to dinner, and over the course of the meal the conversation grew progressively more opinionated about the future of the younger generation, and the worries we face. They had a point. Unless you've been living in a hole (not that I'm criticising your lifestyle choices :P), you'll have noticed that students in the UK have been a bit angry of late over rises in tuition fees (and thus about three times the student debt after graduating). Along with the rises in youth unemployment, reductions in graduate schemes  viciously competitive internship schemes and the hostility of the housing market towards first-time buyers, the future of young adults is looking a little grim.

So, Dad and Cathy asked me how I felt. And you know what? I realised I had no worries at all.

It might be that I'm just young and so have no comprehension of how awful life will be for me. Or,  it's because I am entirely and completely secure in God's plans.

When I first became a Christian, I definitely didn’t trust in God yet. I knew he was there, and I knew he loved me, but I still couldn’t quite trust him. Everyone else seemed to trust him so wholeheartedly and I knew I should, but there was a part of me that just couldn’t let go of the doubt, that maybe God only dabbled in my life occasionally, and that he left the rest of it to me.

Well, has God sorted that out! The past year has been pretty much a string of events where I think I know exactly what I’m doing, then it goes catastrophically wrong, and God comes in to help me back up again, and set me back on the right path. Again and again, I went for unsuitable men, I drank far too much, I let myself get lazy and vain. Each of these times, where my heart got broken, or I embarrassed myself, or any other of the numerous times I felt sad, I’d go straight to God, as I should’ve done all along. Without fail, every time God helped me to see that he still loved me more than I could ever imagine, no matter what I’d done. He would fill me with strength and conviction to go forwards, and remind me that when I became his, sin no longer had the hold over me that I imagined it did. To God, I was still perfect.

So, worries? Definitely not. God has my entire life cupped in the palm of his hands. Whatever problems I face, whether it’s my student debt, unemployment or just a general feeling of hopelessness, I know that he will be right there with me, as he always has been, giving me hope and showing me the next step.

I love God :)