Tag: Following Jesus

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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Morning Musing: Romans 12:3

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“For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Christianity has changed the world many times over. One of the ways it has done this is through its revolution and expansion of virtue. The number of characteristics considered to be virtues and encouraged for its followers to adopt into their own lives was greatly expanded by the teachings of Jesus and His first followers. One of the most radical of these changes was the transformation of one attitude into a virtue that had always been considered a vice. Let’s talk about what it was.

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Morning Musing: Romans 12:2

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“Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Our culture professes to value individualism. We see this in all sorts of advertisements. We are constantly told that our buying this or that product will help us stand out from the pack as different. We are told to embrace our individualism and not be like everyone else. The truth, though, is that our culture only tolerates free expression within a pretty tight worldview range. You can do whatever you want as long as it comes out of and expresses a single set of worldview beliefs. Deviate from that, and there’s going to be trouble. The Gospel, though, is different. And if we are going to embrace it, we’re going to have to be different. Really different. Let’s talk about it.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 12:1

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“Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I loved calculus. I was kind of…okay…a lot of a nerd in school…and still today…so that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. I think it’s because I had a terrific teacher for Calc 1 and 2 in college (and 3 too, but by then I already loved it, so that didn’t matter quite as much) which helped enormously. I think I enjoyed math so much generally because it fits with how I’m wired. There’s generally one way to do a problem and it’s either right or it’s not. In any event, acknowledgment of my weirdness aside, not a few students sitting in an upper level math class like that wonder the same thing: how is any of this ever going to have any practical meaning in my life? In other words, what am I honestly supposed to do with this? Or, more simply, so what? Paul has spent the previous 11 chapters of Romans offering up a lot of theology without much in the way of application. Starting here in Romans 12, he sets about fixing that. Let’s begin the next phase of our journey today: what to do with the Gospel.

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Digging in Deeper: Character Counts

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“And he said, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

A week ago, I was invited to share a devotional thought with our local high school football team. For something a little different today, here’s some of what I had to say.

Character Counts 

Hey guys! Thanks for letting me have a few minutes with you this afternoon. I know there’s food to be enjoyed and football to be played, so I want to quickly do three things. I want to ask you a question, I want to tell you a couple of stories, and I want to talk with you for just a second about what they might mean for us. 

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