Freedom from Anxiety
Are you a worrier?
Verse of the Day
“Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?”
Today’s Devotional
Can you go an entire day without worrying about anything? I had a day recently that felt so very peaceful. But if that was the norm, I would not have noticed it. No matter your personality type or your station in life, worrying seems to be a common problem for us. Sometimes our worries are expressed as anger. Sometimes they are expressed as sadness or despair. For me, my worries are usually expressed as stress. When I am stressed, I might as well be honest and say that I am worrying and that I don’t trust God to help me with whatever I’m stressed about.
Jesus tells us not to worry. He also tells us that he has given us His peace. Philippians 4:6 tells us, “Do not be anxious about anything”. Peter tells us to cast all our anxieties on God because He cares about us. This same message is repeated numerous times throughout the entire Bible, yet still we struggle with worry.
Richard Foster covers this in his discussion of simplicity (which we studied last year):
- Freedom from anxiety is characterized by three inner attitudes. If what we have we receive as a gift, and if what we have is to be cared for by God, and if what we have is available to others, then we will possess freedom from anxiety. This is the inward reality of simplicity.
- The opposite is also true: if what we have we believe we have gotten, and if what we have we believe we must hold onto, and if what we have is not available to others, then we will live in anxiety.
- In order to see everything we have as a gift, we must work but we know that it is not our work that gives us what we have.
- If what we have is to be cared for by God, then we know that God is able to protect what we possess. We can trust him.
- If our goods are not available to the community when it is clearly right and good, then they are stolen goods. The reason we find such an idea so difficult is our fear of the future. We cling to our possessions rather than sharing them because we are anxious about tomorrow. But if we truly believe that God is who Jesus says he is, then we do not need to be afraid.
What if we took this same view over anything? I have had two conversations this week with women who were genuinely struggling with worrying about their kids. Could these same three inner attitudes be applied? Could we realize that our children are gifts directly from God? Could we decide that we trust God to protect our children? Could we choose to happily share the lives of our children with others? Whew. Those are hard questions when it comes to our kids. But the same theory of trust applies.
I have been worrying lately about a specific relationship in my life. I am mentoring this person in spiritual matters and it is difficult for me. What if I looked at my spirituality as a gift directly from the hand of God. (Which it is.) What what if I trusted God to care for me spiritually – with my responsibility being only to make myself available to Him? What if freely share the lessons I have learned from God and leave it at that? Do I trust God enough to obey the concept Jesus is teaching here?
When it comes to learning to trust God more, I lean on the verse spoken by a father of a demon possessed son in Mark 9. “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” Father, we do trust you, but we need your help to trust you more. We believe that we have no reason to worry, so please help us learn to turn our worries into praise. We trust you to provide for our needs, and we ask for help to trust you with everything.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
What are the things you worry about?
How can you look at everything in your life as a gift from God? Is that different from how you currently view things?
How can you trust God to protect what you have? What would that look like? How would that be different?
How can you have a more sharing, generous attitude about everything in your life? Your money, your possessions, your time, your attention – do you freely share these things with others?
Write out a personal prayer to God, telling Him that you believe, but you need help to overcome your unbelief.