Don’t Pay The Toll Twice

My dear friend, Cara, has a favorite saying she has been telling me for the last thirty years. And now it’s one of the first things I hear in my mind when fear or anxiety rears its ugly head.
Don’t pay the toll twice.

Cara would listen to me describe in detail all of the scenarios I came up with for what I thought was going to happen for particular events I was dreading.
She would look at me and simply say, in such a peaceful manner, Jill, don’t pay the toll twice. 

In other words, wait until you cross the bridge to pay the toll it requires from you at that time. Why are you trying to pay a toll for a bridge you haven’t even crossed yet? You might as well just throw your coins out the window and waste your money if you are going to attempt to pay tolls that are not required of you. There is no point in paying the toll of anxiety about what you think is going to happen on a Friday when Friday is five days away! Not to mention that most of our greatest fears don’t even materialize.

Don’t borrow fear from tomorrow.
For that matter, don’t borrow fear at all.
Before you even get to the toll bridge,
prepare yourself with the words and promises from God.

Not your neighbor’s words.
Not the words of the naysayer or the newscaster.
Prepare yourself with His words.
Otherwise you spend so much energy on things that never materialize and you are allowing anxiety of an unknown future to take up all of the space where peace, trust, and joy should be residing.

Once you stop paying the toll for things that may never occur, you can rest assured that if or when it becomes necessary to actually pay the toll, God will give you more than enough to cover the cost of getting to the other side.