"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." - Philippians 4:6
James Cash Penney born on September 16, 1875, on a small farm outside Hamilton,
Missouri. He was raised in an abiding faith in God and the Christian ethic of
the Golden Rule. In 1902, he opened his first dry goods store in Kemmerer,
Wyoming called The Golden Rule Store. His store became a hit and by the end of
1912, there were 34 Golden Rule Stores with sales exceeding $2 million. In 1929,
J.C. Penney's business was highly unstable. He began to worry and became
sleepless. He worried to such an extreme that he contracted painful shingles.
Penny was hospitalized and given tranquilizers, but it was no help. He still
worried about his business. One night, he felt that he was about to die. He
started writing farewells to his wife, son, and friends. But by the next
morning, as he was lying on bed, he heard singing from the hospital chapel next
door: "No matter what may be the test, God will take care of you. . ." Suddenly
he leaned up, thinking: "It is real! God loves and cares for, me." In no time,
he had jumped out of his bed and entered the chapel. Penny gave his worries to
Christ and the Lord continued to bless him.
Jesus Christ is bigger than any worry that you may have. Today in prayer, give
the Lord your worries and rejoice in His goodness.
"Let us give up our work, our plans, ourselves, our lives, our loved ones, our
influence, our all, right into [God's] hand; and then, when we have given all
over to Him, there will be nothing left for us to be troubled about." - Hudson
Taylor
God's Word: "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?" - Matthew 6:25-26
By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2002, Devotional E-Mail DEVOTIONS IN Philippians
pkennedy@devotional.com
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