Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:4-7

“What if?”, the question that keeps us up at night.

The two words that hold us back from doing something new.

The two syllables that can take control of our lives and make every day a miserable, paralyzing, overthinking, anxiety ridden, round the clock episode of doubt and fear.

The tiny phrase that spirals out of control and leads us to problem-solving for problems and agonizing over outcomes that haven’t even happened yet and might never actually happen at all.

• BUT what if there was a way to not take that spiraling anxiety ride each day?
• What if we could hop off the “what if” train before it pulled out of the station?
• What if we could stop just short of the ticket counter and never buy that ticket for the “What If Express” at all?

I’ll be the first to say that it’s not easy to kick “what if” thinking to the curb. For many of us, it’s a pattern of thinking developed over many years. We may even be proud of and praised for the problem-solving skills we’ve developed along the way.

Dear heart, let’s be honest with ourselves, being constantly “on top of everything” is draining, absolutely exhausting, and utterly depleting at times.

In fact, it’s not long before being constantly on top of things lands us underneath things: stress, illness, guilt, and of course, more doubt and fear.

BUT GOD, God didn’t build the “What If Express” and God doesn’t want us anywhere near its ticket counter.

God built, owns, and operates the “Faithfulness Unlimited” with stops at the Valley of Hope, the Hill of Calvary, and the Sweet By and By among hundreds of other peaceful, rest filled, rejuvenating, victory assuring locations.

Unlike the high cost of the “What If Express” where you trade in your sleep, time, relationships, and sanity for potential solutions you might not even need, the “Faithfulness Unlimited” is a train you ride for free.

In fact, as you board the “Faithfulness Unlimited” God actually helps you unload your ratty old baggage of doubt, fear, and worry and replaces it with hope and peace and joy.

Beloved, every day we make a choice and some days we have to make the choice again and again throughout the day:

Will we buy a costly ticket for the semblance of control we think we’ll find on the “What If Express”, or will we ride for free on the “Faithfulness Unlimited” knowing that goodness and mercy will abound because God is in control?