Bitter Bread

You're dealt pocket Queens, but face A-K and lose.  Or you're dealt pocket Aces and push, only to watch someone else make a flush that beats you.

What's a poker player to do?  It's easy to let it affect your play in upcoming games.  If you do that, you might be falling prey to one of the biggest potential perils -- worrying too much.

We heard a sermon on Christian radio this week which claimed (based on scientific research, we suppose) only eight percent of the things people worry about ever come to pass.  Yet if the minister was trying to dissuade people from worrying, he hurt his point when he told the story of a 1940s artist who built a mountain home to protect his children from city traffic - only to run over a toddler in his driveway.

Terrible tragedies in this world can make anyone concerned about the future.  So can a series of bad beats in a poker room.  Yet the Bible advises....

Vain is it to rise early for your work, and keep at work so late, gaining your bread with anxious toil! God's gifts come to his loved ones, as they sleep. - Psalm 127:2 (Moffatt)

People in Western cultures tend to be taught bitter-tasting things are bad, and sweet things are good.  Yet both can have benefits for you -- with bitter moments teaching us to savor sweet moments when they come.

We've attended church groups where a preacher might spend 15 minutes during a service listing examples of how the world grows more sinful and terrible by the day.  Despite it all, Jesus Christ told believers they should not worry about such things:

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own. - Matthew 6:34

Why not worry?  Because the Bible promises Jesus will come again and remove this world's bitterness and anxieties.

He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away - Revelation 21:4

Accomplishing that will take time.  But we're entering a season of the year picturing how that will happen.  People who keep the Biblical "fall holy days" learn about Jesus bringing the Kingdom of God from heaven to this earth.

Those days start tonight, with what Jews call Rosh Hashanah and some Christians call the Feast of Trumpets.  We suggest you consider those days carefully, using the Bible as your guide and praying for understanding of what they mean.  We believe the "King of Kings" can provide the ultimate victory over all our worries and anxieties.