At the end of July, I will pack my stuff and move out of the apartment I’ve been in for the last 4 years.Where am I going?

No. Clue.

“Well, Alisha, why don’t you know? I mean — you just can’t say you’re moving somewhere and don’t have anywhere to go! And ain’t chu lookin’ for a job too? How you gon’ move somewhere and you don’t have a job yet? You’re trippin’. You need to saddown somewhere. You ain’t worried?”

Nah. I’m good. I’m just doing what He told me to do. *Kanye shrug, Alexander O’Neal smile* 

This morning, as the thoughts of what reality really was creeped into my mind, God started to speak to me about worrying and faith. I’m just going to give it to you how He gave it to me.

The devil has tricked you (mankind) into thinking it is normal to worry. If you’re not having some kind of emotional, physical, or verbal response to what’s going on around you, you’re not “responding right.” When you’re totally reliant on something or someone, there is no need to mull over, think about or provide verbal commentary on whether or not something/one will come through for you. When preparing to sit in your favorite chair, you don’t spend five minutes discussing the possibilities of the chair not holding your weight and collapsing — you just sit. Am I not much more reliable than a chair? I hold the universe in my hands! I am the Grand Orchestrator! I am He who calls into existence any and everything! I am not some futile man! I am not a man with flaws and imperfections! Understand my greatness! Encompass yourself in how might I am! You don’t have to let the seat of your emotions rule — you can rest. This response is the “normal” response — do Kingdom work, pray, rejoice while waiting. Be so engulfed in Kingdom work that you have no time to think on these earthly things that concern you. When you least expect it, there I am, your ram in the bush.

Ya’ll see how God just be talkin’ to me all willy nilly?

I really needed to be reminded of this because as the days go by, I realize that I’m not freaking out, worried, or stressed over this situation, and for a second, I thought I must not be in faith. I mean, usually, I would rehash the circumstances, possibilities, and outcomes with friends and family over the phone. Spend countless hours putting in work trying to plan and create opportunities so that I had what we needed.

This, my friends, was my usual response.

Now that I’ve grown in the things of God, my calm, not worried, ain’t thought twice about it response is exactly what it should be. When you finally understand faith and what it means to rest in God, you don’t respond with all that mess of yesteryear. You do exactly what Matthew 6:25-26, 31-32 says.

Therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink; or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life greater [in quality] than food, and the body [far above and more excellent] than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth much more than they?

Therefore do not worry and be anxious, saying What are we going to have to eat? or, What are we going to have to drink? or, What are we going to have to wear? For the Gentiles (unbelievers) wish for and crave and diligently seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need them all.

But seek (aim at and strive after ) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.

Don’t be tricked into thinking that worrying is normal. It’s not. We weren’t designed to worry. We’ve been bamboozled, hoodwinked! That’s not what life as a King’s kid is about.

We are to rest in Him. We should give whatever we’re facing no second thought. It doesn’t mean you’re not concerned, it just means you’re totally reliant on Him to do what He said He’ll do.

All hearts and minds clear? Good!

On the Chase,

Alisha L.