Pray Rather than Worry

 

 

Pray rather than worry

Worry results from fear,

Fear is a plain case of unbelief

So is worrying prayer.

 

Pray rather than worry

Worry is unbelief,

Unbelief says that God is unable

To bring needed relief.

 

Pray rather than worry

Worry brings on stress,

Stress when not properly managed

Is feeling less blessed.

 

 

 

Pray rather than worry

Worry is double-minded,

The apostle James forbids this;

Please be reminded.

 

Pray rather than worry

Worry makes it worse

Whatever our problem is at the time

As though it’s a curse.

 

Pray rather than worry

Worry is not faith,

Search worry all the way through;

There is not a trace.

 

 

 

Pray rather than worry

Worry is frustrating,

You will pray for hours on end

Without ever receiving.

 

Pray rather than worry

Worry is a force,

If this is the reason why you pray

Then Satan is the source.

 

Pray rather than worry

Worry is not trusting,

Pray in simple faith believing

That God is hearing.

 

 

 

Prayer is often worry

That brings us false relief,

This is believing with much prayer

We will get release.

 

Put it all in God’s hands

Whatever is the matter

And dare my sister to leave it there

With a little less chatter.

 

Let not prayer be chatter

Going on and on and on

As though hoping for God to return

From wherever He has gone.

 

Gone on a long journey

With no return in sight

Just like how the prophets of Baal

Engaged in futile fight.

 

Slashing, shouting, striving

But to no avail,

The god, to whom they often prayed

Had repeatedly failed.

 

 

 

Pray rather than worry

But with childlike trust

To God the Father that indwells us

In the name of Jesus.

 

Stewart Russell © November 21, 2025

 

No VAT Free Day

 

 

It had appeared to most

Shoppers were holding back

In the hope like last year,

There would be no VAT.

 

But alas, as it stands,

There will be no such luck,

The Government has declared

The VAT will stay up.

 

Not even for a day

To bring some needed relief,

You are on your own shoppers,

And the time is brief.

 

A blessing in disguise

This could very well be,

If not for the thriftless shoppers,

Certainly, for the country.

 

We are largely consumers

And so, we buy and we buy,

That there is little we produce

We should not deny.

 

 

Hence, tax is the mode

By which we raise revenue

And so, no VAT free day this year

For neither me nor you.

 

January’s pay day

Will be a long way off

And the blessing in disguise is:

Not all will be lost.

 

With the 17.5% on,

There will be more control

And re that free spending attitude

We won’t be so bold.

 

Thus, into the New Year

This is a savings of sorts,

The Government did consider it

But thank God they abort.

 

No VAT free day this year

And that is great,

Christmas is more than spending,

Get this straight.

 

 

It’s a time of goodwill;

Looking beyond one’s self,

And not a time as many see it

For overloading one's shelf.

 

If there is much we have

We can give some away

And help some unfortunate one

Have a good Christmas day.

 

Stewart Russell © December 20, 2023

 

Well It Happened to Me

 

 

 

 

Has it ever happened to you?

Well it happened to me,

What am I talking about?

Well you will soon see.

 

I’m not dealing with the young,

They can step out,

It is really the old like me-

That’s who I am talking ‘bout.

 

It is worse these days

Thus, happening more frequently

But I am not unduly alarm

Or ever hope to be.

 

Today I came in from outside

And called a friend of mine

After that to realize

The phone I couldn’t find.

 

It was not on its stand,

That is the first place I looked

And so, I proceeded to search

Like I was studying the Book.

 

Of course, the Book is the Bible,

Like searching for a verse

So, similarly searching for the phone

I was diligently immersed.

 

I walked up and down the house,

I even asked the wife

And I couldn’t help but wonder

How I came by this strife.

 

 

Then suddenly it dawned on me

The phone was on my ear

And with split-second awareness

Everything became clear.

 

It was not on its stand

Because I had taken it up

And my ear where the phone was,

Was not where I would look.

 

Here is another incident

More exacting than the first,

No wonder some believe

That old age is a curse.

 

I was sitting in my car

And talking to my wife

And the feeling that came over me

I tell you, it was not nice.

 

She had made a call to me

Not knowing I was at home,

I had just driven into the garage

So, I quickly took up the phone.

 

 

 

Attempting to multitask

I was talking while getting out,

I had my ATM cards and keys

But my phone was nowhere about.

 

“I must have left it somewhere,”

That is exactly what I had thought

And with that came a feeling

That left me quite distraught.

 

I mentally decided

That I would retrace my steps

But before I did exactly that

Into my heart a fear leapt.

 

However, before driving back out

I started to tell my wife

And suddenly my whole disposition

Went from bad to nice.

 

 

That my cellphone was not lost

Became abundantly clear

And oh, the relief that flooded me!

The phone was on my ear.

 

I felt like such a fool

I could have kicked myself

But this was nothing compared

To my improved mental health.

 

To have lost that cellphone

Would have set me back a bit,

You see, my resources are so limited

Such would give me a fit.

 

Has it ever happened to you?

Well it happened to me,

Now you know what I am talking about

At least, I hope you see.

 

Stewart Russell © January 10, 2023

 

Stress

 

 

 

She stressed

 That the stress

 That was stressing her out

 Was stress

 From another stressful situation.

How distressing

That stress was!

 

Stress comes in different ways

Its stressfulness to perform,

It’s emotional and social

Physical and mental,

It’s better to be forewarned.

 

Hence, the reason for this poem

The title of which is stress,

I hope it brings you some relief

And not be an added test.

 

These are modern times, we’re told

And modern is about stress,

Things are happening so very fast

We must always be at our best.

 

 

All jobs are stress we all declare

But yet everybody wants one

If we were bright, we would put it right

And all stressful jobs would be gone.

 

The income is small, we can’t get it work

That in itself is stress,

So to make it more we work overtime

And then we can’t get any rest.

 

One woman is trouble but a man must have two

Then we say that women are stress

Only because as is expected

Our take home pay is less.

 

We buy expensive cars and then cry out

These car payments are stress,

Difficult to maintain, insurance high

And then we feel depressed.

 

“Food prices are up!” is another cause

For yet another kind of stress

But we are eating more food as a result

And becoming more obese at best.

 

 

Christians too are having a time

Though they are too blessed to be stressed,

But to close friends, they complain too

How even the church in a mess.

 

Stress is no respecter of persons:

Of neither the sinner nor saint,

Stress is so indiscriminate these days

That even the stress-free faint.

 

Well, this is the final verse

Another would cause me stress,

And I must admit, I’m not in the mood

So please my friend, let it rest!

 

Stewart Russell © October 2019