Any cook knows that the longer you let a sauce boil, the less liquid it will contain; that's due to evaporation of course, and it is a simple process. This simple principle was used (and it is still used) in making jam in the good old days when our grandmothers prepared that delicious homemade jelly or jam. It doesn't require much knowledge; all you need to do is to put the fruit in a big enough pot and then let them boil stirring constantly. Then you add the sugar or other flavors like cinnamon, lemon etc. You need to boil the fruits until they reach this pasty consistency, and that will happen in a good couple of hours. So, you have to boil them until the juice is evaporated, and there you have it: delicious strawberry, peach, plumb jam or what other fruits you choose to make your jam of.
I only mentioned this recipe to emphasize something else; many times, even without realizing, we want to make jam out of our worries; and we "boil" them and "cook" them any way we can, yet the truth is that making "worries jam" does not work. Worries are not berries! "Cooking" worries will not reduce their volume as it happens with berries! On the contrary, boiling worries will produce a huge amount of "juice", which instead of being evaporated, will continue to rise to newer and higher levels, to the point that if possible, this juice would spill over your pot in an attempt to drawn you!
Oh yes, worries are not like berries. Therefore "boiling" those (over and over in your head) will not lead to something good, on the contrary, worries can paralyze your thinking, making you focus on things that are not necessarily important, yet you see them as such. What's more, people around you will be affected as well.
Have you ever boiled worries? I'm afraid I did, and I am still tempted to do that...oh Lord...I do hope I will learn the lesson this time!
Right, but how can I not boil them when I they stress me?
Here are some efficient ways, approved by God Himself:
1. Don't let worries plants or roots grow in your garden! By that I mean not to keep them close, constantly twisting them over and over in your head. Oh, they are sneaky and their roots might even try to go unnoticed! So don't be surprised that they creep back after you tried to cast them out!
2.Cast them away! But not just anywhere... they might come back if you don't cast them in the right place! For that reason "cast all your anxiety on HIM because HE cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7 This is what the Bible says we should do.
I will let Jesus explain better how this actually works:
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first HIS kingdom and HIS righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
"If then you aren't able to do even the least things, why are you anxious about the rest?" Luke 12:26
Are you persecuted for being a Christian? Here is what Jesus says to you "But when they deliver you up, don't be anxious how or what you will say, for it will be given you in that hour what you will say." Matthew 10:19
In conclusion: don't make "worries" jam! It doesn't work, it will choke you! Cast them upon Jesus and rest assured, you are precious!
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