Tendency Toward Anxiety

 

Do not fear, for I am with you;

Do not be afraid, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you, I will also help you,

I will also uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ Isaiah 41:10 NASB

We can become anxious about all sorts of things. We worry about future events, we fear dreadful outcomes, and anxiety grows like weeds in our hearts and minds choking out hope, faith, courage, and trust in a future that is in God’s hands.

There is the run of the mill anxiety described above, then there is a chemical, biological anxiety that is driven from something within us. This latter type of anxiety runs in my family. I have one relative whose doctor told them that they were the most nervous person the doctor had ever met in his life. I’ve noticed that depending upon the state of my physical health my anxiety increases or decreases. The type of anxiety I experience is not tied to anything in particular, but is “free-floating”. It is anxiety looking for a place to land, something to latch onto. This generalized anxiety is a constant challenge. I have to guard against it and recognize it for what it is and not let it carry me away when circumstances are ideal for it to thrive in my thinking.

But we all experience anxiety. And we all can face it with courage with God’s help and guidance.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:6 NASB

I wish that I had a list of all the things that I have been anxious about throughout my life. I guarantee you that 99% of the things I have been anxious about either never came to fruition, or worked out ultimately to my benefit. I’m sure you could say the same thing. In the end, anxiety producing events in our life work to our good as we overcome obstacles and watch again and again how God takes our anxious events and turns them to our good.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 NASB

Everyday brings opportunities for good along with challenges our way. We can give in to fear and anxiety when problems and difficulties arise, or we can trust that God will bring us through with victory over our hardships and leave blessings in the wake of all our worry. 

We live with one thing always within our power: choice. We can choose to believe and trust God, or we can allow anxiety to have its way with us and make us miserable. Let’s choose faith and trust over fear and anxiety.

We may not be able to help how we feel. But we need not let feelings drive our choices and decisions and attitudes. For if we will only remember a fraction of the times God has taken care of our events and circumstances we can go forward with confidence knowing that God is not limited by our weaknesses. We are lifted up by His strength as we rely upon Him in faith trusting all outcomes to the Lord’s will for us.

Prayer: Dear Lord, anxiety abounds in this world, and we are prone to it, nevertheless as we give our fear and anxiety to You we can trust that our outcomes will be good no matter the circumstances each day brings our way. Thank You Lord for giving us help and strength in time of our need. Amen.

What's So Good About Good Friday?

When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Luke 23:33

One tradition says that Good Friday got its name from “God’s Friday”. When I think of Good Friday I think about Jesus’s suffering and death and at first glance there seems nothing good about it for our Lord.  Yet because of Him and what He endured on that cross for us it was definitely our Good Friday.

There are portions of the Bible that are difficult to read. The endless genealogies in the Old Testament, and all the detailed rules for setting up the temple with its numerous regulations. Yet for me, the hardest part of the Bible to read is about the suffering, humiliation, and undeserved death of our Lord and Savior Jesus.

I remember when Mel Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ movie was first released. Every Christian felt almost duty bound to go and see it. The movie was probably the most accurate representation of our Savior’s crucifixion ever to be seen on the big screen. It was detailed, and absolutely horrible and painful to watch. To this day I have only watched it a couple of times because of how it represents our Lord’s suffering and death with such painful attention to detail regarding what Jesus endured.

The suffering and crucifixion of Jesus would be horrible to read about and think about if not for the fact it took His death on that cross to cleanse us of our sins and make a pathway for our entry into heaven. We have the hope of our own resurrection thanks to the death and resurrection of Jesus. Thank God that the story of Jesus did not end with a horrible death on a cross but with an empty tomb and a Risen Lord sitting at God’s right hand in heaven. He paved the way for our redemption through the horrible things He suffered on our behalf.

While we feel grief remembering that terrible death on a cross, out of what seemed a tragic event came something good beyond words. Life Everlasting was granted to us by the sacrificial death of Jesus. The Good News in its essence is that Jesus died for us so that we can be Saved through His loving sacrifice. Without Him we would be left in darkness to pay for our own sins and without that Good Friday we have nothing good to hope in or look forward to. The darkness that covered the land on the day of His death would have been an eternal darkness for us without Him.  Yes, Good Friday is Good.  It is Good because of all that it encompasses, including everything that came afterward.

Prayer: Dear Jesus, it will take an eternity of praising You for all that You have done for us. It is almost beyond our comprehension to take in all that You suffered and endured for our salvation. While it is painful to think about Your suffering and death for us, we are so grateful that You were willing to go to the cross to save us. We praise You for it Lord, and forever will do so. Amen.

How We Handle Pain

But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn. Job 14:22

I started going to a new dentist years ago and he was numbing my gum for a procedure. It was one of those times when the needle got shoved into a nerve and I heard myself saying “Owwwww!” The dentist said to me that there was a little boy in the next room and if he heard me saying that I was in pain it would scare the boy. I made no more sounds and choked down the pain.

How we deal with pain matters. Sometimes we have to give voice to it, and sometimes we must choke it down and silence it so we do not worry others or have them overly fearful.

Whether or not we cry aloud in pain, the most important thing is what we do with it. How do we face it? Especially unrelenting pain?

There are all sorts of pain in this world. It is easy to focus upon physical pain because we have all experienced it. Yet there is mental and emotional pain from loss, grief, anything that causes us undue suffering and anxiety or depression.

“Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden: it is easier to say “My tooth is aching” than to say “My heart is broken.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Pain is common to us all, and the one thing we know for a fact when we are enduring it is that we want it to end as soon as possible.

When I think of the pain I have suffered there were almost unbearable times like when I had kidney stones and it felt like a knife was being twisted inside of my kidney. And the summer I spent on an air mattress on the floor in too much pain to move from a botched operation that left me with an open wound for months. I can list several others including the mental pain I endured during a severe bout of depression. We all have our lists of painful times. 

We have also watched loved ones in pain and that brings a whole other level of suffering to us as we feel helpless to relieve their pain. Like when my wife endured 16 hours of back labor when our daughter was being born. At times my wife’s eyes appeared to roll into the back of her head with agony. The helplessness we feel at such times is indescribable.

Prayer must be the first order of business when facing pain for ourselves or others. Over many years I have seen the effect of prayer, especially when others are praying for us. In no way that I can rationally describe to you I say with conviction that I have often “felt” the prayers of others. It must be something akin to when Jesus was walking through the crowd and was touched by the woman who suffered from bleeding and she knew if she touched His clothing she would be healed. Jesus felt power go out of Him (Luke chapter 8).  I have sometimes felt the power from prayers coming into me. Something touches our spirit when prayers are sent our way.

We pray. We take our concerns to the Lord and ask for His intervention on our behalf or on the behalf of the one who is suffering. Prayer is not a trite thing, not just something nice we tell people we will do when they are hurting. Prayer mixed with faith changes circumstances. It is a powerful thing, an important tool that should be put to use frequently by every Christian.

Pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5:17

You should always share your pain with God, and from Him you receive comfort through His Spirit.

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; John 14:16

God will help us in our pain. Either God will remove our pain, or give us the grace and strength to get through it. 

You are not without help in this world when pain strikes. Whether enduring physical pain, or mental pain and anguish, the Lord will help you through it when you call upon Him.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, this world throws all sorts of pain our way, help us when pain strikes, and let us never forget we can find comfort in You no matter what pain we are suffering through. Amen.

God Is Always With Us

But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. John16:7

It had to be a strange thing for the disciples of Jesus. It must have made no sense to them. How could it be possible that it would be an advantage for Jesus to leave them? They had spent years listening to His teachings, sharing meals, laughs, and experiences. They watched Him do Miracles. The idea of Him leaving them must have felt devastating.

But when you read the Bible book of Acts you can understand what Jesus was telling them. They would not only have His presence within them by the indwelling Holy Spirit, they would be like Jesus. They would do miracles, carry His teachings forward, and lead multitudes into the Kingdom of God with the power of the Holy Spirit that resided not beside them, not nearby, but within them.

Years ago when my anxiety was running rampant and panic attacks were devastating me I heard a preacher say that: “We need to become Christ Conscious.” He was saying we needed to get a revelation of the very presence of Christ dwelling within us. We not only need to mentally assent to the fact of God’s presence with us when we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, we need to have our very being saturated with the fact that we have a God who always abides within His children.

Getting that revelation of the presence of God within truly helped me with my anxiety and panic attacks. Knowing that the Holy Spirit brought the reality of God within me not just on Sunday, not just when I was feeling joyous, but especially during very tough times–it reshaped my thinking.

Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:21

Christians have endured hardship, persecutions, and even torture due to the fact they knew God was in the midst of it with them.

I recently was reading the book of Acts and got the point where Stephen was about to be stoned to death by a crowd of unbelievers. God revealed Himself visibly to Stephen just as the stones were about to fly. Like Jesus, Stephen asked God not to hold his death against them. The same compassion Jesus had on the cross was found in Stephen who we are told was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Every believer has the Holy Spirit within them, and with Him come both the Father and the Son for they are One. So every believer does indeed have the Kingdom of God within them for where God is–His Kingdom follows.

How would it shape your life if you truly got a revelation of God’s Presence with you always? What power and strength, joy and hope, courage and faith would you exhibit knowing the All Powerful Maker of Heaven and Earth dwells inside of you?

We can endure anything, overcome anything, accomplish just about anything as we allow Jesus to be Jesus within us. That He is inside of every believer is not up for debate. Whether or not we live in and with that truth is up to us.

Prayer: Dear Lord, ignite the revelation of the truth that You live inside the heart of every believer. Then help us to live out that truth in our lives. Amen.

Foul Weather Believers

If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is. 2 Timothy 2:3

We have seen it with others, and have probably done the same thing ourselves.  When everything is going well we get “busy” and don’t have much time for God. Yet, let some tragedy or illness or anything earth-shattering enter our lives and we all run to God.

Over and over again this occurs in the Old Testament regarding the people who God is making into a great Jewish Nation. The people of Israel were going about their lives worshiping idols instead of the Living God. They were sinning in every way imaginable. Then the Midianites or Amalekites or some other “ites” attacked them and they went running back to The One True God for His help. He had mercy on them and delivered them. Then they put Him out of their mind and went back to worshiping foreign gods again.

It is easy to judge those early Jewish people. We read about them and shake our heads thinking how crazy they were to forget their God. And yet, while we may not forget God, too often we take Him off of the center stage of our life once the calamity is over, then we get “busy again” with other things.

One thing I have learned from years of illness is that I never want to be far from God, not on the bad days or good days. Yet I recognize how easy it is when the pressure of illness is off for a while to get focused upon other things that in the long run are not of any real value.

The more miserable we are, the better believers we often are. It is a crazy quirk of human nature. We all have a bit of attention deficit disorder when it comes to God. We lose focus and get distracted by every shiny thing that comes our way until the pressure of pain and suffering refocuses our priorities once again upon the Lord.

I don’t want to live my life as a foul weather Christian.  Some ways we can avoid that is to have set times for reading the Bible and devotions. The same thing with prayer. I often begin and end my day with prayer. Yet much of the time I have prayers going up throughout the day, often praying out loud. So much so my wife often thinks I’m talking to her from the other room. I’m no super saint as anyone who knows me well can tell you. I have a substantial list of faults and weaknesses. Rather, I have developed a habit of relying upon God over many years through too many difficulties to list.

Fellow Believer, you do not want to wait until the roof comes crashing in to grow in your relationship with God. Begin today to set down deep roots of faith by spending time with Jesus. A foundation built upon the Lord will make you strong in your Christian life and when the floods come you will not be swept away. Running to God is a good idea when troubles come.  A better idea is to be standing close to Jesus no matter what the weather brings your way.

Prayer, Dear Lord, forgive us for too often being foul weather Christians who only run to you when hardships come our way. Please help us in our troubles, and be with us in our joys as well. Amen.

Trials And Suffering

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. Romans 5:3-4

I recently heard someone on the radio say: “Without Pain there is no growth.”

While we all acknowledge the truth of that, the fact is we all dread pain and suffering.

Thursday morning I had the misery of an old inflammation problem flaring up again. Just the day before I was perfectly fine, then it suddenly struck and I had to go to Urgent Care for Prednisone to fight the inflammation and pain. The medication Prednisone is a double-edged sword. It is wonderful for inflammation, but terrible with side effects like insomnia and in my case causing my blood glucose to soar making managing my diabetes very difficult.

The next morning on Friday as I was trying to get back on my feet from the inflammation issue, I awoke to a  natural gas leak in the house. Frantically I was able to get someone to  come out and work on the problem. It took hours to fix and I needed to be at home for the service. Despite keeping the windows and the door open I was exposed to quite a bit of natural gas which did my asthma and other health issues no good even while I was still battling my inflammation issue.

Two days later I began a new bottle of my Metformin. It is a medication that controls my diabetes. To  my frustration and no little concern I had a bad reaction to the new batch of medicine. Without the Metformin my Prednsone prescription for inflammation that I was taking could not be stopped from driving my blood sugar into the clouds. It put me into a very bad situation.

Eventually, with the help of my doctor, we found a new solution for my diabetes treatment. God had brought me through yet another set of life’s challenges.

We all go through difficulties in many ways. They cause us stress, pain, and suffering. Going through them is no picnic.  Yet, when we get into the habit of relying upon God helping us through these difficulties it strengthens us and builds a foundation of trust that teaches us we can rely upon God through the difficulties that we all must face.

Through pain we grow. Through suffering we learn to trust Jesus more. Our difficulties on earth earn us experience and teach us to persevere and not give up. 

It would be nice if we could grow and deepen our faith without the pain, suffering, and stresses in life. Yet pain and suffering are necessary to teach us reliance upon the Lord and to build our confidence in Him as we mature in the Christian faith.

Prayer: Dear Lord, how we would love to be free of the many trials we go through on this earth, but thank You for strengthening us in our faith as we learn to depend upon You through it all. Amen.

Encourage One Another

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Recently I was talking to a guy who had been through the same type of surgery I went through last year. We commiserated upon what we had gone through and even though I had just met him, it soon felt like I was talking with an old friend instead of a recent acquaintance.

Suffering and hardship brings us closer together. It reminds us of just how vulnerable and human we all are.  Our suffering and trials may be different, but the fact that we all endure hardship on this earth reminds us that rich or poor, famous or infamous, we are all on the same level with the humility that suffering brings.

Whenever we hear about someone suffering, especially if it is similar to our own experience, we feel empathy and a closeness to that fellow human being.  We can also, especially as Christians, offer them the encouragement that they do not have to endure such hardships without help. God is there and will aid us in whatever troubling situation we find ourselves in.

Do not fear, for I am with you;

Do not be afraid, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you, I will also help you,

I will also uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ Isaiah 41:10

I’ve often said that I have no idea how anyone can go through life with its many trials and troubles without God.  Life is often tough enough with God at your side, yet it can be impossible facing hardship on your own.

When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy. Psalm 94:19

Friends, life is going to throw some horrible things at you. At times we face things that seem beyond enduring. But no matter what comes our way, if we will trust in Jesus to see us through it, we will find the help and strength we need. Encourage one another with this truth.

Prayer: Dear Lord, We face hardships of many kinds. Too often we feel overwhelmed. But with Your help, we will not only survive our afflictions but come out stronger and wiser through it all. Thank You Lord. Amen.

God's Encouragement

  

You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; 

you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, Psalm 10:17 

We all have difficult times and find ourselves in need of encouragement. Sometimes God will send someone our way with just the right words when we need them. At other times we will open our Bible and find a verse or verses that speak right into our hearts bringing us encouragement. Or we may have some sign, large or small, that lifts our spirits and reminds us of the goodness of God like the example below that I shared with a prayer group recently. 

The Dark-Eyed Junco is my favorite little bird. It doesn't have the brightest colors and is a subtle little bird who usually feeds on the ground. A winter visitor, its slate gray top half is contrasted by his lower white half.  

About a month ago I had my garage door open, and I entered the house side door through the garage. A Dark-Eyed Junco entered right behind me. I finally cornered him against a window using a towel. I carefully got the little bird and held him in my hand before it got out of the open front door. 

Recently, I was having a very rough time with a health issue. I looked out of my front door window and on my doorstep was a Dark-Eyed Junco sitting there. It was a bit of encouragement from God right when I needed it. 

Has God ever sent you an encouraging sign, a person with the right word at the right time? God's goodness is revealed in a myriad of ways. 

Prayer: Dear Lord, how often we need encouragement. Thank You for sending it to us at just the right time. Amen. 

 

Something New

 

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5

When the Apollo mission astronauts first orbited the moon, the three astronauts aboard read from the first chapters of the Bible Book of Genesis. And when the first astronauts landed upon the moon’s surface, one of the astronauts, Buzz Aldrin, asked for people everywhere to give thanks, then he read from the New Testament Bible, and took Communion.

People mark important events, and beginnings. Each year brings a new beginning. A chance to do things differently, better, to embrace new opportunities with a new year. There is one way you can guarantee success in the new year no matter what it brings your way, and that is to enter into it with Jesus at your side. Then continue to walk with Him throughout the year to come.

Looking back I can remember years that I thought would be my last. Times when my body was barely functional and just surviving seemed beyond my reach. Yet the Lord brought me through all my troubles, small and large. And He will do the same for you.

You may be starting this year with impossible challenges ahead, or you may be dragging pain and grief with you from the past year. I encourage you to remember you do not have to go through it alone if the Lord is your Savior. If you have no relationship with Jesus–make this the best year of your life by welcoming Him into your heart.

For with God nothing shall be impossible. Luke 1:37

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Matthew 28:20

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17

Each year brings us both challenges and blessings. We never know everything that a new year will bring, and that is the wonder of it. This year will bring surprises we could never have imagined, new opportunities, new people into our lives, new experiences, and much more. We should hold tightly to the Lord for the storms that may come our way, and walk expectantly beside Him as He births new things into our lives this new year.

Prayer: Dear Lord, fill us with joy and hope in this new year, and strengthen us for challenges ahead. Help us to expect the best, while standing strong in the face of winds that may try to impede us. Through it all be with us and guide us with Your wisdom and with Your love. Amen.