Tag: Anxiety

Trust When All Else Fails

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We live in a world awash in anxiety. We hear all the time about just how anxious everyone around us is. Kids are anxious. Teens are especially anxious. Women are anxious. Men are anxious. Young adults are anxious. Older adults are anxious. Everyone is anxious. And we’re miserable because of it. It seems like this is not how things should be. Well, that’s because they shouldn’t be like this. In the Scriptures we can find all sorts of wisdom and counsel for dealing with anxiety in our lives and in the world around us. For this and the next three weeks, we are going to be talking about just like. We’ll start today with the very first thing we should do when fear and anxiety make a play for our hearts.

Trust When All Else Fails

Let’s start with an informal survey this morning. By a show of hands, who in here likes to be scared? Okay, for all the rest of the normal people in the room, who doesn’t like to be scared? There are some folks—as indicated by our little survey—who enjoy being scared. These are the kinds of people who love scary movies or going to Scarowinds in the fall. Personally, I do not count myself among their number. I don’t typically watch scary movies, and I generally avoid the horror genre. I love you guys who do. I admire you. But I am perfectly content watching you intentionally put yourself in situations that will leave you losing your mind and looking really silly while you do it from the sidelines. I will give you two guarantees: I will support you, and I will also laugh at you. 

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Woman sitting cross-legged on a blanket meditating on a mountain overlooking a valley at sunrise

Morning Musing: Philippians 4:6-7

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“Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Our world is awash in anxiety. It’s popular in many places to have a therapist or counselor these days which is a good thing, but the very fact that so many feel like they need that help is an indication of the problem. The truth is that many more people could use it than actually get it. Yet while there is undoubtedly anxiety that is genuinely clinical, a great deal more of it is more situational in nature. It is the result of not having the worldview resources to deal with the challenges life throws our way from time to time. Christianity has such worldview resources, and one of the best of them is right here. Let’s take a look.

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A Cure for Anxiety

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Worry is something all of us encounter from time to time. Our circumstances stances get hard, they start to slip out of our control, and our anxiety level starts rising. The harder we cling to a need for control, the faster our anxiety rises. But what if there was a way to keep this from happening in the first place? As we continue our series, Talking to God, today we are talking about one of the most powerful potential impacts of prayer in our life. This isn’t a clinical solution for anxiety that has grown beyond our ability to manage it, but for much of the everyday, garden variety anxiety we all face, there’s a lot of potential for impact here. Let’s talk about prayer, anxiety, and how one helps with the other.

A Cure for Anxiety

Have you ever had a God-experience that just stuck with you? Not all of them do. But every now and then, you have one that you just can’t shake. Depending on the circumstances, that may be a hard thing, but often these kinds of experiences serve as important markers in our hearts and minds of God’s character. I had one of these when I was in college. I can still vividly remember a great deal of the situation. One spring, I got my schedule for the fall semester. I was going to have a pretty large class load, so I had worked really hard to make sure everything coordinated just right. Then, I got a note from my advisor that one of the classes I signed up for wasn’t going to be available, throwing my entire schedule into chaos. This disruption of my nice, neat, perfectly organized plan wasn’t just a threat to the following semester, but had the potential of moving back my entire graduation date. I quickly went into a tailspin of doubt and anxiety. But it was going to be a couple of days before I could get in with my advisor to work out a solution. Until then, there wasn’t anything I could do. So, I did the only thing I could do: I prayed. 

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Getting Priorities in Order

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This week we are taking another step forward in our journey through understanding more fully the kind of people we want to be if Jesus really is coming back one day. We’ve talked about being better for the world. This week we are turning things around a bit to talk about being better for God’s kingdom. If we really are citizens first of the kingdom of God as follower of Jesus, then the priorities of that kingdom need to define how we pursue life in our present kingdoms. Not only is this right on its face, it brings some added benefits that are pretty handy. Let’s talk about how all of this works and why in part four of Who Do You Want to Be.

Getting Priorities in Order

One of my favorite observations about how much time we have in our lives is also one of the most challenging and uncomfortable I’ve ever heard. Are you ready for this? Are you sure? You might want to tuck your toes in just in case. Here goes: You have time to do everything you most want to do. Whenever you hear someone complain about how little time they have to do this or that, if you really want to get under their skin, gently offer this observation back to them. Then take a step back because they might take a swing at you. Better yet, the next time you start to complain about how little time you have to do this or that, bring this observation to mind. Trust me: You won’t like it. But that doesn’t make it any less true. 

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Morning Musing: Exodus 15:22-24

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“Then Moses led Israel on from the Red Sea, and they went out to the Wilderness of Shur. They journeyed for three days in the wilderness without finding water. They came to Marah, but they could not drink the water at Marah because it was bitter – that is why it was named Marah. The people grumbled to Moses, ‘What are we going to drink?'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

There are some stories that just stick with you. One my dad told a lot when I was growing up, and which I have now told my own boys often enough that when I start it they say, ‘We know. You and Grandpa have both told us before,’ is about one of his teachers in school. Every day the teacher would flip a coin. If it was heads, they had a pop quiz. If it was tails, they didn’t. Sometimes life throws tests our way that we don’t want or expect. How we handle those, though, matters a lot. They both test and reveal our character. Israel didn’t get very far into their journey before they experienced one of these tests. It became a story that would eventually be told a lot. Let’s talk about it.

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