Minute Meditations

Dr. Joseph Montague, author of the book, Nervous Stomach, has said, ”You don’t get stomach ulcers from what you eat. You get ulcers from what is eating you.”

What is eating us? What problems do we have that would cause our stomachs to develop an ulcer? The ulcer is real, the body reacts to worries, consternations and fears that beset us and as a result, our ulcer is formed. Instead of an ulcer, our bodies can produce heart palpitations, dizziness, nausea, insomnia; even backaches and headaches can come from mental anguish that robs us of the peace of God that passes all understanding.

Unforgiven sin can be the thing that is eating us and causing us all our problems. If this is true, we can solve the problem by getting our sins forgiven. John assures us that, ”if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

This should be a wonderful comfort unless we would rather harbor the sin and the consequent sickness. Since God is willing to forgive us, we need to also be willing to forgive ourselves and get up and get going again. Wallowing in self pity and feeling sorry for ourselves is the epitome of self-centeredness. Solomon tells us that ”a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again.”

But sometimes our problem is not one big sin that we have committed but simply our lack of faith in completely relying upon God to direct our paths. We may not be guilty of gross misconduct but we could simply be worrying about our health, our family, our financial situation, our job security or a myriad of things that prey upon our minds and cause us mental anguish and physical discomfort.

What is eating us? Worry is so common that many believe that it could not be a sin because so many of us do it. That is no proof that it is not a sin. Complete trust in God should help us cast worry aside because if God is able to do ”exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,” then there should be no concern that He is not able to provide for our daily needs.

Jesus warned us not to take anxious thought concerning the things that the Gentiles worried about, and they surely do worry about what they are going to wear and eat – but the Lord tells us that our heavenly Father knows that we have need of all these things. His assurance to us is to ”seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to us.”

So our way of life should be different from all those around us. This means that we should not have all the nervous stomachs and physical disorders that the world suffers from, fretting about the things that we no longer need to be concerned about.

If the very hairs of our head are all numbered as Jesus tells us they are, then our God knows more about us than we know about ourselves. If we believe this and live like we believe it, we can have that peace of mind that Paul described for us and that God wants us to enjoy right now in this life.

The words of Paul to the Philippians should be burned into our minds and etched in our hearts. ”Don’t worry over anything whatever, tell God every detail of your needs in earnest and thankful prayer and the peace of God, which transcends human understanding, will keep constant guard over your hearts and minds as they rest in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:6,7, Phillips).