What if?

"But Moses protested again, 'What if they won't believe me or listen to me?' 'What if they say, "The LORD never appeared to you?"                                                              Exodus 4:1.  NKJV

'What if?' This phrase appears to be widely used by many people throughout the world. This phrase is used by people who worry about certain things. They become anxious because they are being asked to do, something that seems to be a mammoth task - alien to their thinking. 

Mose here, was no different. God had commissioned him to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let His people go. This had caused all sorts of excuses to come to the surface from Moses. 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?' (Ex 3:12) 'O my Lord, I am not eloquent,' (Ex 4:10) Excuse after excuse. What if this and what if that. Moses had a great fear - a Specific Phobia which can be an irrational and unreasonable fear about doing a particular thing, a thing that one will attempt to avoid at all costs.

Many of us can relate to this at some time in our lives but if it is a common part of a person's life, help may be required to overcome this. Counselling and prayer are a great remedy but worries and fears such as these, can take some time to work through. The 'What if?' is very similar to the, 'But.' They both flag up reasons why something shouldn't or cannot be done. It may just be an excuse because someone doesn't want to do a particular thing. But there may be a deeper root to it and discussing this with someone may help find what the problem is.

Anxiety is associated with a lot of worries and 'What ifs'. What if I lose my job, how will I pay the bills? What if I can't find another job? What if I go to uni and fail; I'll look stupid? What if I go on holiday and get burgled? Or what if the car breaks down? Worry, worry, flap, panic. 
I feel that we all may go down this road from time to time but for some people, the anxiety is massive and can cause a lot of problems.

It's difficult to stop worrying if you are a worrier. It's not easy to control the fear when we have to go somewhere or do something that is scary. But try and remember that Jesus tells us not to worry (Matthew 6:31). His Word also tells us to cast our care upon Him (1 Peter 5:7). Therefore, write down the things that are a worry and look at each one of them seeing if there is an easy solution. Often, the things we worry about never happen anyway. The things that seem stubborn - the ones causing anxiety, hand over to Jesus and try and leave them there. It really is the only way but it is a winning formula.

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com