There is a lot being said lately about mental health which is a good thing. One of those is “how we think impacts how we feel” which is the basis of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). For instance, if all you consume is news which is mainly negative, then most of your thoughts will also be negative which is going to have a direct impact on how you feel about your life and the rest of the world. News outlets know that people pay most attention to what threatens them. That’s why you see more bad news than good news. However, if we focus our mind on more positive things years of research and experience tells us many of us will feel better.

The apostle Paul challenged us to something similar. He had this to say in Philippians 4:6-9:

6“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. 9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

Wow, he really takes the concept of CBT up a notch. First, we don’t sweep our problems and everything that is negative under the rug. Instead, we bring that to God continually and be thankful for Him and what He has done. Second, we experience God’s peace as we do so. Thirdly, our minds are to dwell on what’s positive. Fourth, we learn from those that model this and model it to others.

Relationship with God and Worries

Some of us continually struggle with anxiety and depression. You can’t just snap your fingers to make it go away. What Paul is telling us is to again and again put our problems and our worries in the right perspective and give it over to God. It’s never a one-and-done thing, but a habit change everyday. Instead of letting them consume our thinking we challenge our minds to remember that there is no problem too big for God. He can handle them, so give them over to Him.

We can have God’s peace as we rest in His promises and the truth of His Word. Our minds want to default to a pit of despair and continue to worry, but we must come back to verse 6 again, then rest again in God’s peace. Eventually, this can become a normal place for all of us.

Note, this is not about the absence of worry, but God’s peace and other positive qualities occupying are mind, look at verse 8. Think about watching movies and TV shows, which most of us are doing lately. Instead of us being passive about watching those we can engage our minds with the things that we see are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, good, and excellent. We can come in agreement with God as we watch and celebrate those good things. We can celebrate that when we see others say and do those things. We can also think about how we can do those things.

Relationship with Others

We can look at Paul’s life in the New Testament to learn how he did it, but also think of others in your life who are good at exemplifying verses 6-8. We can learn from their examples and model that behavior ourselves.

In Closing
There is so much fear and anxiety in our world. If we lift those to God, dwell in truth and think of what is good in the world then we can be lights in this dark world. Our hope is in Jesus. So stop reading and watching too much media and focus on what’s positive!

 

CORONA CARNAGE:

The phone rings. You pick up to hear your boss on the other end. Perhaps you never have gotten a call from them or it’s the particular tone of voice that makes your heart sink. Then comes the news: You’ve been laid off because the business took a huge nose dive with the wave of Covid-19. Maybe you were already living paycheck to paycheck or you’ve got a little bit of a nest egg of savings. Either way, you’re in a real bad spot.

Millions of Americans have found themselves in this position. That may be you now or could be you soon, or maybe it won’t be you at this time but perhaps you are hurting in other ways. Either way, God is calling us to trust in Him more than what we see. 

COMFORT AMIDST COVID-19:

In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus gives a promise and challenges us not to worry about our needs. When Jesus said these words, you can imagine that the crowd was fairly diverse with the homeless, the poor, middle class and those with abundant wealth, like many Pharisees and Sadducees. Jesus wasn’t saying this to people who could easily trust in His provision. He was challenging those who were poor and didn’t have much and those who had nothing to trust in Him. Jesus said to them:

Mat 6:25-34 NASB – 25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, [as to] what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, [as to] what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and [yet] your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27 “And who of you by being worried can add a [single] hour to his life? 

28 “And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 30 “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is [alive] today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, [will He] not much more [clothe] you? You of little faith! 

31 “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ 32 “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”Since God has purchased us with His blood by dying for us, we belong to Him and everything we have belongs to Him. So whether we still have it all, are at risk of losing it all or we have nothing, we need to trust Him that He will provide for us to go on to do His will and until He takes us home. 

It’s so comforting to know that God is not blind to what we need. Jesus says, “…for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.” We can cast all our worries on Him because He cares for us as it says in 1 Peter 5:7. So tell God what you need and know that He will provide. 

Now this promise isn’t about God making you super rich by providing that car you always wanted or that house and land you really want, but it is about God giving you what you need in order to accomplish His will. God knows the exact portion of things that you need. We just need to keep loving Jesus and others and know that we will have what we need to continue doing God’s will. 

STEPS TO WALK IN GOD’S PROMISE

Here’s some steps of how we can overcome worry and trust in God’s promise of provision:

Relationship with God:  There is so much fear around the world with people either getting sick or losing their jobs and ability to provide. Or maybe they haven’t yet but fear that they will eventually. Jesus challenges us directly not to worry about these things, but instead to trust Him and continue to live for Him to the best of our abilities.

Relationship with other Believers:  We can challenge and encourage other believers with this promise from Jesus. If a brother or sister is worried about what’s going on, share this verse from Jesus and comfort them. Coronavirus isn’t Lord, the Government isn’t Lord. Jesus is Lord! Perhaps as a fellow believer you can be the one to fulfill God’s promise of provision to someone in need!

Relationship with the World:  This promise from Jesus is not addressed to the unbelieving world. Note verse 33: “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” However, Jesus DOES invite the world into His family. When we are a part of his family, we have His provisions and His inheritance. God is the Father who desperately wants to care for His adopted children. In this time of fear and worry, we can invite others into God’s family!

IN CLOSING

Read Matthew 6:25-34 again, but imagine Jesus is right in the room reading it to you. He wants us to trust Him and He desires that we invite others to trust Him. If you can, let God use you to bless someone with the needs they may have!

Prayer

Jesus, we trust in you. We trust when we seek your Kingdom come, Your will be done in our lives, then we don’t have to worry about our needs. We are Your servants, Your sons and daughters, and we trust that you will take care of our need of food, clothing, health, shelter and whatever else we need until it is our time to come home to you. Help us not to be fearful or filled with anxiety, but to be filled with the peace and hope of God. Help us to live contagiously with the Good News of Jesus! Amen.

March 21, 2020 The state of Illinois has declared a shelter-in-place order similar to California and New York taking effect today. Businesses that are considered non-essential are ordered to either close or work from home. People can still go outside for walks and fresh air, but are supposed to only travel for essentials like groceries, restaurant pick up, doctor appointments, etc. This order is in effect until April 7th. For the time being, I am suspending all street ministry. That decision grieves me because there are many people who are suffering especially because of the financial impacts. But the Bible says to submit to authority, especially when it is for the good of the people. We will do what we can to continue reaching people with the Gospel online and encouraging people in this time. I have also made myself available to the Lake County Sheriff’s office as a Street Chaplain on an as-needed-basis.

I know there are a lot of opinions out there about the level of reaction to Covid-19. Some think it is blown out of proportion. Others are terrified of getting the virus. No matter what you believe though I think we can all agree that we want this to end. Scientists and health professionals around the world are doing their very best to stop it, but right now that’s not enough. NOW is the time to trust in Jesus and ask for His divine intervention.  Most people have tried to live without Him by depending on themselves, their money and material wealth. This crisis has torn that down from many people. We need to trust Jesus. Trust that He will provide for our needs and cry out to Him for His help to end this. Many of you are hurting and I encourage you to do your best to take advantage of the increasing number of resources that are out there to aid you. But more than anything let’s trust more in God to provide and intervene. If you need some prayer, encouragement or just someone to talk to please message me. I know God has called on me to minister in this time. May the Kingdom of God continue to advance in these dark times! On mission for Jesus with you, Matt Kearney

November 25, 2019

God has been so good to us over these last several months! If you didn’t hear, Ezra began walking around 10 months old and is almost 13 months! While in Peru, over 3,000 people made decisions to follow Jesus and local churches continued to do outreach after we left. This past year we’ve seen over 70 people come to Jesus in front of the Lake County courthouse! Unfortunately, there are tens of thousands more people to reach and disciple.

Right now, God has given us new direction for TransformNation. The state of Illinois is in deep trouble. This summer our state legislators made Illinois the abortion capital of America, legalizing abortion up until just moments before a baby is born and ensuring the “right to abort” is safe if Roe v. Wade is overturned. They also raised taxes, legalized marijuana and approved more casinos to be built all over the state—including in Waukegan, near where we live. Illinois also has the worst credit in the nation and is on track to be the first state to file for bankruptcy in history.

All of these issues have a direct impact on the people I minister with on a weekly basis. On top of that, many churches are in decline and other ministries have left the state. If Christians don’t stay then who will share Jesus? In response, we are launching a new initiative called Street Chaplains.

Street Chaplains are a team of pastors and Christian leaders with counseling experiencing taking the love of Jesus to the streets by helping families and first responders. We are seeking partnerships with police departments to respond to major crisis situations where we can pray, counsel, refer helpful resources and invite people to Jesus. We also hope to do outreaches in troubled neighborhoods to help prevent and reduce crime by helping others and leading them to a relationship with Christ.

We still plan on doing international missions in the future, but Street Chaplains will be our main local ministry going forward. But to see this vision come to full fruition, we need your help.

Currently our monthly giving has been around $2,505 per month, but in order to do local ministry here in Illinois we need $6,075 per month. Would you consider partnering with us in prayer and monthly financial giving? A gift of any size truly can make a difference! Let’s team up and see God transform lives and communities together.

On mission for Jesus with you,

Matt & Shavonne Kearney