Anxiety – Philippians 4:6
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Whether we live in peace or anxiety depends upon in whom we have set our hope. If our hope is in our abilities to manage and resolve the myriad issues of life or in others ability to provide for all our needs, we have great cause for anxiety, for we are powerless to control many of the trials we will face. Not so, with those who set their hope in the Lord, for they will abound in peace.
Consider the sad state of those who put their trust in themselves and other created things rather than in the omnipotent Creator of everything that is, and was, and is to come.[1] Depending on their own resources and intellect to ensure safety during life’s whirlwinds, they lie awake planning, and yet when violent winds wreak havoc around them, their preparations are no more beneficial than a tent in a Category 5 hurricane. Sadly, they refused to follow the Lord’s survival guide, which lays out directions on how to prepare for disaster.
We need not be like those foolish enough to put their trust in anything but the living God. For the good news is that our Father in heaven, the all-powerful God, is not only able to care for us but willing to take upon Himself our concerns and needs if we will release our grasp and relinquish them to Him.[2] For the Lord calls us to Himself, telling us to lay down our anxiety. The wise among us accept His offer, especially since anxiety gives us no benefit, being merely a thief who robs us of our peace, contentment, and joy.
Rather than living in fear, which cannot add a single hour to our lives,[3] we can place ourselves in God’s hands, trusting in His promise that not a hair from our heads will perish.[4] We can stop indulging in the mental anguish we endure when we struggle to provide for ourselves and take the far wiser course of entering God’s camp, for He is a shield about us.[5]
Partake of the antidote for anxiety: prayer with thanksgiving. Pray always, about everything, casting your cares upon the Lord, trusting in Him to hush the winds and quiet the seas, and watch Him work in astounding ways with amazing grace. Allow Him to guide you safely along the Highway of Holiness. Put your trust in Him, and He, your Rock and Fortress,[6] will bless and protect you.[7]
Astounding love, amazing grace
Filled the rooms within the place
Beyond the winds that whipped about
And turned my dreams inside out
The house I’d built could not withstand
The storms for which I thought I’d planned
I stood among the ruins and cried
But Jesus beckoned me inside
“Come in and dry off by the fire
And clothe yourself in new attire
Remain within this house of stone
And place your trust in Me alone”
[1] Isaiah 41:4
[2] 1 Peter 5:7
[3] Luke 12:25-26
[4] Luke 21:18
[5] Psalm 3:3
[6] 2 Samuel 22:2
[7] Genesis 22:17
