The founder of JC Penney department stores, James Cash Penney earned large income and was heavily involved in many philanthropic causes during the 1920s. By 1924, Penney was earning an income of more than $1.5 million dollars annually. The Great Depression in 1929 left Penney in financial ruin. He became so worried that he couldn’t sleep. Then he developed “shingles”, a disorder that can cause great annoyance and severe pain. He was hospitalized and given sedatives, but got no relief and tossed all night. Physically and mentally, he was overwhelmed with fear of death. He was even contemplating suicide and did not expect to live until morning.
The next morning he heard singing in the hospital chapel. The group was singing “God Will Take Care of You”. In Penney’s own words, “suddenly something happened. I can’t explain it. I can only call it a miracle. I felt as if I had been instantly lifted out of darkness of a dungeon into warm, brilliant sunlight. I felt as if I had been transported from hell to paradise. I felt the power of God as I had never felt it before. I realized then that I alone was responsible for all my troubles. I know that God with His love was there to help me. From that day to this, my life has been free from worry. I am seventy-one years old, and the most dramatic and glorious minutes of my life were those I spent in that chapel that morning: God will take care of you”
Dale Carnegie, How to stop worrying and start living, Simon & Schuster, Inc. NY, page 253.
Penney accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior that day. Thus a man has been able to dwarf every fear because he saw a loving heavenly Father, anxious and ready to take care of him in life’s dilemmas.
Prayer is a powerful and effectual worry remover
Men and women who have learned to pray with childlike sincerity, literally talking to, and communing with the Heavenly Father, are in possession of the great secret. They can cast their care upon God, knowing that He cares for us. Bible is full of rich promises that God has for His children. Once we have a relationship with
God through Jesus, God’s promises become alive and real in our lives every day. The moment you ask God to forgive your sins, your guilt and fear is removed. After a few moments of confession and forsaking of sin and guilt, JC Penney’s fears vanished and a miraculous, heaven-sent joy filled his mind.
Deep inside every man there is a private sanctum where dwells the mysterious essence of his being. This far-in reality is that in the man which is what it is of itself without reference to any other part of the man’s complex nature. It is the man’s “I Am,” a gift from the I AM who created him. The deep-in human entity of which we speak is called in the Scriptures the spirit of man. “For what man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God” (I Cor. 2:11). As God’s self-knowledge lies in the eternal Spirit, so man’s self-knowledge is by his own spirit, and his knowledge of God is by the direct impression of the Spirit of God upon the spirit of man.
The importance of all this cannot be overestimated as we think and study and pray. It reveals the essential spirituality of mankind. It denies that man is a creature having a spirit and declares that he is a spirit having a body. That which makes him a human being is not his body but his spirit, in which the image of God originally lay.
Taken from MAN: THE DWELLING PLACE OF GOD By: A. W. Tozer
Like JC Penney millions across the world come to the conclusion to make the trip to God’s altar. It is only there you can get rid of your guilt and transgressions. When a person experiences
God’s love, fear has no place in the heart. When we allow God’s love into our hearts by accepting Jesus, Christ can crucify the carnality in our lives that we surrender to Him.
“If we are confessing our sins, He is faithful [trustworthy] and righteous that He shall forgive us our sins and cleanse from all unrighteousness”
I John 1:9.
“Peace I leave to you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives I give to you. Stop letting your heart be troubled, and stop letting it be afraid.”
John 14:27
“Behold God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid: for the Lord is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation”
Isaiah 12:2.
“Now my God will fully supply all your need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus!”
Phil 4:19
“I am capable of [doing] all [things] through Christ, the [One] strengthening me”
Phil 4:13
Why wait to pray to receive the gift of new life that God wants to freely give you today?
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