Anxious

This topic has been written about more than nearly any other...this topic of anxiety.  Anxiety is our best indicator that we are not in control of our lives.  Our hearts and minds race with anxiety telling us things are out of control, that the world is inching towards chaos.  Fear and anxiety rage in our culture.  Volumes rise, tempers flare, anger and fear produce conflict.  All of it comes from a deep sense of a world out of my control....a world that isn't safe....and anxiety rises as the fear of our own pain and discomfort increase.

Anxiety causes sleepless night, broken families, angry outbursts, irrational reactions to little things that normally would mean nothing.  

Anxiety says to us, YOU ARE NOT IN CONTROL!  

And our fears rise.

If you aren't a Christian you have good reason to be anxious.  There is no one to go to for help.  You are on your own!  That reality causes anxiety beyond words for anyone thinking about all that is spinning out of control around us.

If you are a Christian and still anxious you have forgotten one important truth-  you belong to the God who IS in control of everything and he loves you.  In the night, last night, I had to have this talk with myself as I lay in bed anxious over everything.  (It's amazing how many things you can worry about all at once.)  

This morning, as I'm working through my own anxieties, I got a text from a friend, 

"Be anxious for nothing!"  

That was it.  God working through another believer to deal with my fears and remind me of one of the most important passages dealing with anxiety in the bible.  Here it is,

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."  Phil 4:6-7

How did my friend know I needed this?  

He didn't, but God did and his text is a reminder that God is in charge of my life, my needs, my provisions, my days ahead.  

Anxiety is me telling God, "I DON'T TRUST YOU!"  

I know I can't indulge that response.  God has always taken care of us.  He has always provided.  So, like David in Psalms, I have to remember and remind myself of how God has so wonderfully met all our needs all these years.

As David asks several times in Psalms 42 and 43 I must ask,

"Why, my soul, are you downcast?

    Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

    for I will yet praise him,

    my Savior and my God."

My savior and my God.  The God who made the stars and the galaxies, the God who holds them all together, THAT God will take care of me.

Now, my anxious heart, put your trust in God for I will yet praise him!