Anxiety And Worry - The One Year Book of Hope

Anxiety And Worry

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. –Philippians 4:6-7

Do you know what it is like to wake up with a sick feeling of anxiety in the pit of your stomach? to have a sense of dread when the phone rings? to feel at the mercy of anxious thoughts about your life and the lives of those you love? I do. Sometimes I find myself churning with anxiety even as I know that this is not what God wants for me as his child. For many of us, worry and anxiety are enemies we consistently struggle against.

But some of us have given up the struggle on this one, believing that we are natural-born worriers who can never change. We’ve forgotten that Jesus is all about change, about breaking us free from the natural tendencies that enslave us and rob us of the joy he has for us. We do not have to stay stuck in the pit of worry, bound to the painful uneasiness of a mind that continually feeds on impending fears. When Paul wrote, “Don’t worry about anything,” the word he used for worry indicates choking or strangling. And that’s what anxiety does, doesn’t it? It doesn’t solve any of our problems. It just strangles the life out of us, leaving us gasping in fear, devoid of joy. In its mildest form, we simply churn. In its most severe form, we panic. This is no way to live.

We really don’t have to keep living in a world dominated by anxiety and worry. As we leave our old lives behind and enter into new life in Christ, he offers those who suffer from worry and anxiety a new atmosphere of serenity in which to live and breathe. Rather than fret and fear, those who live in the serenity of Christ choose to apply their energy toward prayer, believing there is no concern too small and no situation too big that God cannot dissolve their worry over it into peace. They feel safe, no longer wasting energy on trying to anticipate and compensate for every imaginable outcome. Their hearts are guarded by the peace of God; their emotions are guided by belief in God. Though we’re invited into this beautiful place of serenity, we have to choose to enter in. Refusing to enter in is choosing to be emotionally bankrupt and spiritually immobilized. Won’t you enter into the peace of God by surrendering your worries and entrusting your cares to him?

My Burden Bearer, I’ve lived in anxiety so long, I can hardly believe I don’t have to anymore. But you’ve given me a vision of the serenity you want me to live in, and it is an irresistible offer. I give you my worries, and I accept your peace.

DIGGING DEEPER