Devotionals

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Do Not Worry
By Mike Marinaro

August 31st, 2008 was not a good day for me! As my work day was coming to an end, I was called into the General Manager’s office and told that I was being laid off effective immediately. This came as quite a shock to me since I had been working there for the past eight years and had been told that I was doing a great job! They said that was true, it wasn’t because of my work but rather it was due to the economy and our company was having a nationwide layoff; hundreds of people were being told the same thing at this very moment all across the country!

Driving home my mind was running amuck trying to figure out how we were going to pay the mortgage and keep up with all our other bills without my income. When I arrived at home I checked the mailbox and found a letter from the Department of Motor Vehicles informing me that my driver’s license was being revoked due to my vision problems. Now I was not only unemployed, but my means of transportation had also been taken away from me. How would I go on interviews or get back and forth to work if I found a new job?

Matthew 6: 25-34 tells us not to worry. “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 important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”

I thought about this bible verse and prayed that I would find a way to overcome this sudden disaster! As if this wasn’t enough to handle, just one week later my wife, Christine was also laid off from her job! Do not worry…yeh right! No matter how much I read this scripture I still worried and struggled with many sleepless nights stressing over our situation!

Then one day as I was reading this scripture again, these lines jumped out at me! “…But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Suddenly it hit me! I was worrying so much trying to figure out what I was going to do that I had failed to do what the bible was telling me; seek first HIS kingdom and HIS righteousness! So I turned it all over to God knowing that when one door is shut another is always opened.

Shortly afterwards, Christine received an email one morning from a friend. It was one of those chain letters that we so often get and usually delete without even reading them. You know the kind; they promise that if you send this on some great thing will happen to you. This one was a prayer and it caught her attention so she read it and then followed the instructions and forwarded it on to some other folks. Incredibly, just ten minutes later, the phone rang and a neighbor told Christine about a job opportunity. That very afternoon she went on the interview and was hired! Could this have been Divine intervention via email? Praise be to God…that’s one less thing to worry about.

Since I no longer could drive, I decided to figure out how I could earn a living working from home. Thanks to a fellow church member, I am able to do some telemarketing work from home which really helps. I also have picked up some new clients with my web design work and I am going to start offering guitar lessons from my home as well.

You see, I already had the talents to survive working from home; I just needed to stop worrying and turn it all over to God and then He showed me the way!

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father please help us to realize that when one door is closed, another will always be opened. Give us the courage to have faith that You will show us the way when it looks like there is no hope. Open our minds so that we can stop worrying and trust in the fact that You are always there for us.

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