Tag Archives: anxiety

Not Anxious

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Philippians 4:6, NIV*

Sunday morning I watched the blowing snow and thought about the 6-hour bus ride Wise Guy Son had booked for that afternoon to go back to university. The route includes a section of highway noted for its whiteout conditions.

I knew I could spend the whole day fretting about his safety, and the only thing I’d gain would be muscle tension. Been there, done that.

It took several times of consciously stopping to commit the situation back into God’s hands (and to remember that the bus driver is a trained professional who presumably dislikes death and lawsuits) but I was able to join in morning worship instead of worrying, and to relax in the afternoon instead of checking road conditions online.

The bus reached its destination safely and almost on schedule, and I’m praising God for the answer to prayer but also for the progress He’s making in my heart.

Usually my prayer is something like, “See the problem, God? Please help.”

I thank Him for His power and love, and for being with us. I thank Him for the plans He’s already made, that whatever the situation is has not caught Him by surprise. But I keep aware of the problem.

Now I see a bit more to the “with thanksgiving” part of today’s verse. I need to thank Him with expectation that He will act. Not to decide how He’ll act, because that’s His call. But after committing the need to Him, I need to stop looking at it and trust Him.

He reinforced the lesson by not bringing this devotional together until Tuesday mid-afternoon. I schedule them to post early Wednesday mornings, and this particular week has no time Tuesday evening to write.

He’s been giving me a Wednesday devotional thought every week since He nudged me to start blogging in March of 2008. It’s not usually this close to the line, though.

My prayer wasn’t “Lord, do You have something to say?” so much as “Lord, help me not to miss what You say.” Still, there was a definite choice to make. Would I go through the day reminding Him of my need, or would I look expectantly for His reply?

To me, there’s a difference. The first way still has the tension, the uncertainty. The second has a confidence that God will do what He planned, even if I don’t see it yet.

Father God, Your plans for us are good, and You love us. We don’t always like what happens to us, nor do You. But You are our Creator and Sustainer, and Your patient grace teaches us to trust You. Give us the confidence to pray with thanksgiving and with expectation that You have heard… and that You will act. Thank You for your grace.

∞

Here’s another song from the newsboys that expresses our confidence: “Strong Tower” from their Devotion CD.

Weak is Okay… When Your God is Strong

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But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
2 Corinthians 12:9, NIV*

Monday came with a low-level anxiety. Too many deadlines looming too near. I felt unsettled, needed comfort, reassurance. An anchor.

I found a quiet corner with my Bible, to spend some time with God. Wished I could just be with Him, instead of feeling so weak.

A new thought surprised me: don’t regret the weakness, be glad it’s pointing me to my Strength. Rest in God, draw what’s needed for each moment as it comes, be glad of the reminder to do this. Forgetting only leads to launching out alone, which tends to mean missing the mark.

I don’t have to be strong in myself. God never asks that. He asks me to recognize my need and His bounty, and to love to run to Him.

Father, I’m so thankful that in my weakness Your strength shines, and that we’ll navigate today by Your plan. It will be enough. Today I will be neither introvert nor extrovert, but Christovert.

∞

He also gave me this song for the morning. What a God, so good on so many levels. Here are my favourites, the newsboys, with “I’ll Be,” from their album Born Again. May it bless you today.

Feeling Whole

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Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
Philippians 4:7-86-7, MSG*

Tuesday was a full day.

It was my first day filling in for a friend at her work, and that meant keeping a lot of mental balls in the air—not an easy task for someone who’s easily distracted. Between learning where to find everything and what to do with it, what I’d naively expected to be a morning slid halfway into the afternoon.

Not a big deal… except I’d planned to spend said afternoon cooking a large pot of spaghetti sauce and making apple-rice pudding for my writers’ group’s supper meeting. And writing this blog post.

Okay, cancel the sauce and open a can. Easy. Print the document I’m supposed to critique for the meeting before starting the pudding, so I don’t forget.

Open the email program to find the document. Also find urgent prayer requests I need to respond to under my hat of prayer team lead for The Word Guild. (And bless my wonderful assistant who’s already at work on this!)

So by the time the rice is cooking, I know I’m going to be late for my meeting. So much for going early to help set up. And I can’t reach our hostess on the phone.

Before you start playing tiny violins to accompany my suffering, I need to say it was a good day. Not bad, just hectic. And I’m not complaining.

We’ve all had days like this or worse.

What’s encouraging me this evening is that for once, instead of tensing up and trying to “hurry harder” I was able to remember the verses from James that talk about embracing what comes and being eager to cooperate with what God is doing, rather than fighting the tools He may want to use to shape us.

I’d read these verses recently, and I think our conversation here last Friday about using Scripture to retrain our minds made the truths stick.

When uncertainty and self-doubt asked (several times!) why I thought I could do this job, and self chimed in “I don’t want to do this anymore,” I remembered that God is quite able to help me learn and serve with a cheerful heart.

And He did. I even saw Him in the encouraging way the others treated me.

When perfectionism and fear murmured about my potential mistakes and what was left undone, it was enough to know I’m still learning and I did my best.

Time was passing, but I knew I was where God had me to be and instead of trying to mentally slow the clock (you’ve done that, right?) I trusted Him to arrange the rest of the day.

Well it all got done, even this blog post after my meeting—for which I was late and had to resist the guilt that goes with that. I’m tired, late getting to bed, but I feel good. Whole. Like I got it right even though a performance review of the day would reveal imperfect work.

It seems a tad self-focused to share this, but it’s not about me getting something right. It’s about God and discovering what relying on Him can do. We can each do that, and sometimes listening to one person’s story can encourage us about our own.

Father, thank You so much for Your grace today that enabled me to rely on You instead of on my self-defeating behaviour patterns. I’m sorry this is such a rare thing, and I pray in faith that You will finish the work You’ve begun in me—begun in each of us. Remind us of Your Word, help us to choose to believe what You say instead of what our inner critic claims to be true.

Many artists sing “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus,” but one of my favourite versions is by Third Day. Here’s their amazing medley: “Give/Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus/With Or Without You/Your Love Oh Lord” from their Offerings 2 CD.

Retraining our Minds

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We tend to believe our emotions or thoughts–they’re inside us, they must be true. But believing them often means not believing God.

This catches me every so often. I’ll be sure I’m right, and then I realize that this feeling or thought is directly opposed to what God says.

I may put too much stock in my own understanding (He’s working on that!) but when I bring it down to “me or God” I have to admit He’s more likely to be right!

The trick is to catch those pesky thoughts/feelings and retrain them by replacing them with God’s true Word. Different verses help different people in their circumstances, but here are a few of mine:

When I despair of ever changing: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV*

When I’m feeling down: “Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.” Isaiah 50:10b, NIV*

When I feel inadequate: “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” 2 Peter 1:3, NIV*

What are some of the verses that help you?

Included in Christ

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And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:13-14, NIV*

Too many times we live life on edge, with a low-level anxiety that we’ll be disqualified or rejected. We’re trying so hard, but what if something we say or do – or don’t do – puts up a barrier with our loved ones or with those we respect?

Sometimes we don’t even know this theme is playing in our mental soundtracks until we wonder why we’re tense. It’s something I’m working to recognize and to let God change in my own life, and this is the sort of Scripture passage that can help.

Look at what the Apostle Paul says in these verses: we are included in Christ – we belong – it’s guaranteed by God’s own Holy Spirit. Jesus knew both our best and our worst when He rescued us, and His promise is forever. Nothing can separate us from His love.

Father, forgive us when we get hung up on pleasing people and we give their opinions too much power over our lives. Thank You for saving us… for choosing us and loving us. Thank You for including us in Christ. Please help us remember this truth, to the praise of Your glory.

One of my favourite songs by the group MercyMe is “Spoken For.” Let these words minister to you today.

Scurry Syndrome

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My friend Belinda at Whatever He Says posted something the other day that keeps coming back to my mind:

I recognized that paradoxically, I was multi-tasking during my “quiet time.” There was no rush to do any of these things, nor any good reason to do more than one thing at a time. I decided to stop and savour each thing individually instead of trying to do so many things at once. (click the quotation to read the full post.)

Especially at this time of year it’s easy to slip into scurry mode, rushing, hurrying, trying to keep track of three or four things at once.

Somehow God slowed me down this Advent season, and I’ve been enjoying such a sense of peace. A couple of times this week, wisps of “hurry” stirred within me and I realized what had been missing in the peace: anxiety. No thank you, I do not want it back. I’ve been consciously stopping to pray and remind myself that everything is in God’s hands and not mine.

Let’s have a conversation: How do you keep the scurry syndrome from ruling your life?

What He Says

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For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
1 Peter 1:18-19, NIV*

Today is one of those days with more to do than hours to do it, and it’s been weighing on me since yesterday. But I think the same practice should apply here as if I were going into any other type of stressful or scary situation:

Trust in the Lord with all my heart, don’t lean on my own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
Pray for wisdom to discern what God sees as important for the day, rather than assuming my entire list is the day’s agenda.

He says He’ll never leave me. Matthew 28:20

He says nothing can separate me from His love in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:38-39

He says all I need to do is ask for wisdom, because He wants to give it. James 1:5

He says trust Him and don’t rely on my own understanding. Proverbs 3:5-6

He says my times are in His hands. Psalm 32:14-15

I choose to believe Him and to watch for and follow His lead.

Father God, thank you for redeeming me from the empty way of life handed down for generations. Thank You that circumstances and hurry-panic don’t own me anymore. Jesus, my Shepherd and the Overseer of my soul, has rescued me. Thank You that I’m in His care now, under His leading and authority. I choose to walk in that today, Christ being my helper.

The song God gave me is David Crowder’s “Every Move I Make.” How good of Him to choose a peppy one to energize me!

Knowing God’s Nearness Today

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Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
Lamentations 3:22-24, NIV*

As I prayed for a friend who has serious health trouble, the Holy Spirit seemed to prompt me to ask the Father to reassure her that He’d be with her whatever the future brings, but also that she’d know His nearness today.

We all long for some kind of reassurance for the future – specifically that things will be fine – but God asks us to focus on today. That’s the whole “living in the moment” thing I’m still trying to learn.

Definitely, we need a solid faith that God knows what lies ahead and can deal with it, but we’re not in the future. We’re in the present. And as Jesus said, today has enough troubles of its own. (Matthew 6:34)

Father, I’m so thankful that You know what tomorrow holds. Nothing will catch You off guard. Help me to trust the future to You and to live in the present – knowing You’re with me. Open my eyes to what you want to do through me today, who You want to touch. Help me enjoy Your company on the journey.

This week’s song is the classic “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” sung here by the group Selah.

Peace in Trials

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Many are asking, “Who can show us any good?” Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD. You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
Psalm 4:6-8, NIV*

Reading these verses in 2009, it occurs to me that troubled times are hardly a new thing. Personally and globally, they come and go. Just as they did for King David and the people of Israel.

David found peace in the midst of fearful situations by trusting God. He couldn’t change what was going on, but he anchored his faith in the One who could.

It reminds me of the little girl I read about, who was afraid of water but trusted her mother to carry her safely through it.

Michael Hyatt shares a quote from Max Lucado, taken from his new book, Fearless. Max writes,

Imagine your life, wholly untouched by angst. What if faith, not fear, was your default reaction to threats? If you could hover a fear magnet over your heart and extract every last shaving of dread, insecurity, and doubt, what would remain? Envision the day when you can trust more and fear less. Can you imagine your life without fear?

This one’s on my to-read list for sure!

Fear steals our peace, and makes us feel helpless. Fear is not from God, but faith is.

The Apostle Paul says “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7, NIV* ). God gave us a spirit of confidence in Him.

Father, as I look around at the fighting, the economy, the sickness…help me remember I’m not alone. You’ve given me Your Spirit. Help me—teach me—to live confident in You. You are more powerful than anything the world or the evil one can dish out, and nothing can separate me from Your love.

Let’s sing to God, “You Are My Strong Tower,” done here by Kutless.

God’s Presence with Us

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The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you;
he will never leave you nor forsake you.
Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.
Deuteronomy 31:8, NIV*

I’m rarely beset by nightmares, but the other night I had a scare right at bedtime. I was already overtired and a bit stressed, and now I was afraid of what I might see in my sleep.

Then I remembered one of the questions raised in The Shack: When we think of the future—of possible dangers and things that could go wrong—why do we see ourselves facing it alone?

I’d never thought of it before reading the novel, but it’s true. At least for me.

It’s also kind of silly. God is with us in the present. He sees what’s coming, and will be with us each step of the way. Nothing will catch Him by surprise.

With that reassurance, I decided to lie in bed and pray quietly, committing my sleep to Him. “You’ll be with me. You are good.” I repeated it as I relaxed into sleep. Next morning I woke thankful—and nightmare-free.

Today, tomorrow, He’ll be with us. And He is good.

Father, help me fully trust in your promise to never leave nor forsake me. You know the end from the beginning. You are good, and You are all I need.

∞

I chose this week’s song because it speaks of God being there after everything, and about how He repairs, forgives and makes us new. Here’s “The Glory of it All” from the David Crowder*Band.

Janet Sketchley

Writing Christian Mysteries & Suspense

Tag Archives: anxiety

Not Anxious

Weak is Okay… When Your God is Strong

Feeling Whole

Retraining our Minds

Included in Christ

Scurry Syndrome

What He Says

Knowing God’s Nearness Today

Peace in Trials

God’s Presence with Us