Fretting

Fret-"to wear away by gnawing; to disturb; to become rough or disturbed; to be irritated, vexed, worried."-Webster

I've been thinking on a verse or two of Psalms 37 every day.
I've been stuck on verse ten.
"For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more;
...you will look for his place, but it shall be no more."
And verse 8b-"..do not fret-it only causes harm."

Sometimes we fret because wicked people are in power
or wickedness seems to abound.
But God says that we shouldn't worry about it-
the wicked will soon disappear.

In the first 8 verses, we are exhorted not to fret three times.
Fretting causes harm.
When we fret, worry gnaws away at our peace
and disturbs it, making us irritable.
Fretting at people wears out our relationship with them.
It makes things rough.

Instead of fretting we are to
trust in the Lord, and do good;
we're to dwell in the land,
and feed on His faithfulness.

We are to delight ourselves in Him,
commit our way to Him,
rest in Him,
wait patiently for Him,
cease from anger,
forsake wrath,
depart from evil.
do good,
and keep His way.

And as we do these things,
He will give us the desires of our heart.
He shall bring our ways to pass.

He shall bring forth our righteousness as the light,
and our justice as the noonday.

We shall inherit the earth
and delight ourselves in the abundance of peace.

He will uphold us and know our days
and be our inheritance forever.

We shall not be ashamed in the day of evil
and we shall be satisfied during the days of famine.

Our steps will be ordered by Him and He will delight
in each step we take.
If we fall, we won't be cast down
for He'll hold us up with His hand.

He will never forsake us.
He will preserve us forever.
He will exalt us to inherit the land
and we will dwell in it.

He will not leave us in the hand of the wicked.
Our future is one of peace.

He will be our salvation
and our strength in time of trouble.

He will help us and deliver us and save us
because we trust in Him;
because we do not fret.

I don't know about you,
but it sounds like a worthwhile exchange.

Every day we are giving marvelous
opportunities to worry.

What would happen if,
each time we are given an opportunity to fret,
we put our energy into doing something on
our Psalm 37 'To Do' List.

We do our part by trusting, doing good, and delighting.
And we wait without fretting
for God to do His part,
in His time and in His way.