DEVOTIONAL

ANXIETY

Howdy Friends! Wind blew hard most of the day. Dust and debris flew as if propelled by jet engines. The barn door banged like a marching band’s drummers. Inside the barn, fingers of rage could not reach. Grandpop loved the barn most on days such as these. Sheltered, safe, horses chewing hay, a much better sound than howling wind.

.

“Nasty out there today, ain’t ol’ girl?” He spoke gently to the sleepy mare as he combed her tail.

He’d come into the barn an hour ago, after a long phone call from a friend he hadn’t talked to in a long while.

“Yeah, Ol’ Ned’s goin’ through a rough patch alright,” he told the mare. “Sad too. Ned’s a good man. Been a widower almost a year now I reckon.”

Grandpop let the mare stand in the barn isle and sat on a hay bale. “Sure wish there was a way we could help him.”

Ned had called Grandpop because, “things are just pilin’ up on me,” he’d said. Mortgage late, car on its last leg. And he’d been sick off and on the past half year. And today he’d gotten word that his daughter was probably getting a divorce. “It’s enough to put a man into full anxiety,” Ned said.

“This ol’ world is a tough place to navigate for sure,” Grandpop told him. “You’d think when fellas get to be as old as the hills things’d lighten up a bit. I reckon that’s wishful thinkin’ though.”

Leaning on that old axiom, “you think you got it bad,” for an excuse, Grandpop had let Ned have an earful of the tough wading he was going through right then. Just to even the score a bit. “My best tractor caught fire Monday. Burnt down clean to the rims. Furnace quit in the house two days ago, and pipes froze in the barn and flooded the tack room.”

Then to put a little cherry on top he filled Ned in on the, troubles the young ‘ins were going through. “Remember our little Sally? Well, she ain’t too little anymore, and just this month she had to have her tonsils out, she lost her spot on the school cheerleading squad, and she wrecked her Daddy’s car!” At least that got a chuckle from Ned.

“You remember Charlie too don’t ya?” Grandpop asked Ned. “He’s in the hospital with somethin’ they ain’t figured out yet. And the family hasn’t got any health insurance. Sure seems there’s enough of this anxiety thing to go around for everybody.”

The two old friends talked together for an hour or so. “That’s what God tells folks to do, build each other up in tough times.” Grandpop said. “Remember my friend, I’m only a phone call away. And God is right there with you.” He thought about tossing a few scripture verses out, but decided to put them in a letter. A letter he’d mail tonight.

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Bible Verse – Proverbs 17:7 – A friend loves at all times, And a brother is born for adversity.

Bible Verse – Philippians 4:6 – Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

Bible Verse – Psalm 56:3 -When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You.

Bible Verse – Romans 8:38-39 – For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Bible Verse – Psalm 94:19 -When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul.

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