Power of Fretting

Key Scripture: "Cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret, fretting only causes harm."  Psalms 37:8.

Power Point: 
Psalms 37 is one of my favorite scriptures and it popped up on my radar screen recently. I'm not sure why but I think I may have needed a reminder about "fretting". That's really sort of an old fashioned word that we don't use often these days. It means "to feel or express worry, annoyance, discontent, to torment or wear away, irritate, be hot, or burn up with anger." You can see why God says, "Don't do that!"  I remember reading something a few years ago about a young woman who kept having unexplained fevers. She was always just burning up. She went to doctor after doctor but to no avail. They simply could not find a cause for it. Then one day someone realized that she had a habit of saying, "That burns me up!"  It seemed that was her reaction to anything that made her angry.  Evidently a lot of things made her angry because she was burning up all the time.
That poor girl was "fretting".  We're told in Ephesians to never let a day end without resolving your anger. I think that's really good counsel don't you? Otherwise you will find yourself unable to sleep because you're rehashing everything and everyone involved with your anger. If you don't deal with it before you go to sleep you are likely to wake up carrying it into your new day. That's never a good thing. Instead of starting your day with fresh wind and fresh fire, you're starting out with all the "junk" that got dropped on you yesterday. So...

Let's make a pact. We will definitely stop fretting. It only leads to harm after all, and who wants to live burning up with annoyance, or worry, or anger.  I was driving the other day and a man was in the lane to my right. We had approached a stoplight and he was determined to make his turn. He blew his horn at me. Twice. There was no place for me to go so I'm not sure what he expected but he was so mad at me I could see the steam coming out of his ears. The unfortunate thing is that I "fretted" about it. I found myself thinking about it on and off for the next few days. I wasn't angry but I was "fretting" and I could feel my temperature rising. Isn't that the silliest thing? Now you know why He sent me to Psalm 37. I have repented.
There are a lot of things in our lives that can cause us to do a slow burn aren't there? And do you know the worst part? That slow burn gnaws at our souls and causes us to keep stewing and adding fuel to the fire. My mom used to have a pressure cooker. Usually on Sunday mornings she would put a chicken in the pot when we went to church and when we came home there would be a lovely chicken ready for our Sunday lunch-except for the day the pressure cooker exploded. When we got home there was chicken everywhere. What a mess.  That's sort of what a slow burn does to us too doesn't it? We think we can handle it but we keep "stewing" on something someone has done or said and one day there's a huge explosion and the mess goes everywhere. 

SMILE!

So let's agree that we are going to stop worrying about things we can't do anything about. Let's let our spirits control our souls and turn the hose on those flames that keep us stewing. It's time, don't you think? When the pressure gets to be too much ask Him to help you renew your mind and calm yourself down and instead of doing a "slow burn" you'll find yourself in perfect peace again. I promise.
Power Thought: When the pressure is on, turn off the fire and let God's peace guard your heart and mind. That way there will just be explosions of peace.