Anxiety stinks.

There’s your major understatement for the week.

Recently I’ve been battling anxiety a lot.  Loads of stress and grief punctuated – for extra fun – with panic attacks that jolt me out of bed between 1:30 and 2:30 in the mornings.  The combination of losing a loved one, work overload and stress from life in general have created a huge wave that seems to barreling straight toward me.

And I took my eyes off Christ, fixing my frightened gaze on the storm.

And I’m crying out to Jesus for help.  Help He has promised.  Help of which I am assured.  Help of which I have no doubt is here.

The problem for those of us with depression, anxiety and panic disorders, is that it becomes difficult – usually quite quickly – to rest in the Lord, to find peace in Christ, to get past the physiological factors that cause the disorders in the first place.

But, the Truth is still the truth.  It is important to seek God.  Stay in His Word.  Stay connected in prayer.  Stay as focused on the Lord as you can.

And trust Him.  Remember that the anxiety and fear stem from an imbalance, not from abandonment.  God is still with His children – always.

Always.

During times like this, when I am overwhelmed by life and it’s stresses, I clutch tightly to several promises in Scripture.  Like this one (Philippians 4:4-7, ESV):

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.

• Be glad, with a joy that is rooted in Christ.  Be glad in Christ always.  Not “unless”.  Not “until”.  But always.

5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;

• Rejoicing during dark times is only reasonable and right for those who believe in Jesus.  After all, He is near.  He is with you.  He promises to never leave us, never abandon us, never fail us (Deuteronomy 31:6, Hebrews 13:5).  Just because we cannot see Him or sense His presence does not mean He is not right beside us.

6  do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

• God is with us!  So why be afraid?  He is our Father Who loves us, cares for us, helps us… It doesn’t mean we will never face troubles or pain or difficulties.  We live in a fallen, sinful world.  But it means “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).  We can go to the Lord, our Father, the Creator of the Universe, with all our troubles and doubts, our pain and sorrow, our fears and worries, and know He is in control.  And we can do so with great confidence, thanking God for His provision and His care, knowing by faith that He has every aspect of our lives in His hands.

7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

• When we understand these things, we will find true, deep peace – a peace beyond understanding because, while circumstances say we have every reason to fear, God is far above all circumstances.  And He says, “I love you, my child.  Come to me.  Give me your burdens.  Rest in me.  I am in control.  Not you.  Not your perceptions.

I don’t know what you are facing today, but – whatever is troubling you – take it to God.  Cast your cares on the Lord.  He loves you.  He is with you.  He will give you the strength to see you through.

Don’t stare at the storm.  Fix your gaze on Jesus.

And rest.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:3 (ESV)

I find it interesting that Jesus begins His Beatitudes – indeed, His entire Sermon on the Mount – with this call to humility.  One of the keys to true happiness (not fleeting emotional giddiness but deep, abiding, unshakable joy) is possessing the humility to recognize that we aren’t perfect.  We cannot make it through this life without God.  His help, His guidance, are absolute necessities for us.

Like water.

Like oxygen.

We all have problems we face.  Some are small, niggling problems.  Some are huge, seemingly insurmountable issues. Sometimes we are dealing with an aggregate of problems that feels more like an avalanche hurling snow and stones down at us from above.

When we encounter trouble, where do we find strength?  Is it within ourselves?  When we remind ourselves that “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me”, is the emphasize on “I can do” or Christ?

Remember this: God is sovereign over all.  Nothing happens without His awareness.  In fact, sometimes He leads us into troubled times to teach us, or strengthen us. If we go about the battles of life on our own power, we will exhaust our batteries.

We were never promised an easy life.  But we were promised comfort, and help, and true blessing when we humbly set aside our ways, our will, our stubbornness, our egos… and recognize that God is in control.

Whatever we face, we can face with the Lord’s power.  The Holy Spirit is within us: our Guide, our Strength, our Counselor, our Comforter, our Helper.  When we try to plow through life on our own reserves, we end up stressed out, banged up, worried, tired, anxious…  Trust in the Lord.

The first step to fixing a problem is admitting you have one.  The first step to admitting you have a problem is humility, the ability to say, “I am not perfect.  I need help.”

We all need help.  We all need to be poor in spirit.  We all need to realize that we need God.

Quit trying to figure everything out.  Stop attempting to hoist the whole world on your shoulders.  Go to God.  Humbly cry out to Him for help.  Seek Him first.  Faithfully take on His yoke, cast your cares upon the Lord, and rest in His goodness.

Fight the good fight.

Do what you need to do.

But understand that what we need to do is follow the Lord and trust Him with the results.

Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. – Matthew 5:4 (ESV)

No one is perfect.  No one ever has been.  Except for Jesus, that is -and He was fully man and fully God, so that puts Him in a special category.

Being imperfect means we are going to make mistakes.

Blunders.

Stumble.

Fallow.

Hurt and get hurt.

Not necessarily out of malice or ill will.  But simply because life is imperfect.

When we think of mourning, we think of a widow in black, or someone who has lost a loved one and is grieving.  But mourning comes in many different varieties.

We can mourn a relationship gone sour.

We can mourn any loss – a job, a position, you name it.

We can mourn our old home when we move away.

We can mourn bad financial decisions or any number of poor choices.

We are human.  We are not perfect.

We are not perfect.

And God – the infinite, all powerful, all knowing Creator and sustainer – knows that.

He knows your weak spots.  He knows where you have tripped. He knows where you will fall.

God is bigger than our failures and faults.  And He will help youout of every jam.  There is no trouble beyond His abilities

God is love.  Trust in His love. Rest in Him.

Tonight, stop worrying.  Start praying.  Start trusting.  Expect the Lord to move in your life, and rest in Him.

 28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11:28-30 (ESV)

The other night my wife, son, dog, cat and I were all snugly seated on the sofa, watching The Incredibles.  And I learned a valuable lesson: if you’re going to be a superhero, don’t wear a cape.

They’re dangerous.

They get you sucked up in jet engines, caught on ledges… They cause any number of entanglements that will put you in mortal danger.

I also learned that trying to be a superhero when you are not – trying to live beyond your capacity for self-aggrandizement – is a bad deal.  

How often in life do we feel like we need to be a superhero – for ourselves or for others?  Sometimes it feels like we need to don a mask and cape just to survive the day.  The burdens in our lives and the lives of those around us get so heavy that we end up bogged down.

Smooshed.

We can’t do it all.  We can’t fix everything.  We cannot make all of life right.  Superhero is not part of our job description.

What we can do is lay down our heavy yoke of burden and take up the yoke of Christ.  We can choose to take off the burden of sin, of shame, of hardship and pain and sorrow.

And we can face life with faith in Jesus.  We can believe that God has it all in control.  We can accept the fact that we cannot go it alone.

One of the many remarkable things about faith is the strength it brings.  We are not responsible for the end results.  We are called to believe in Christ, to find strength in God (not self or other people), to love others and be salt and light…  When we realize these things and let God rule in our lives, fully trusting in His faithfulness and love and grace and mercy, that we find the strength we need – His strength – to face life with peace and hope.

To focus on God and not troubles.

To help others with their burdens.

To be salt and light, an shining example of Christ.

To be who God created you to be.

Today, cast off your burdens and cares.  Turn to Jesus.  Trust Him with your situations, your journey, your life.  

And take off that cape.  You don’t want to end up sucked into a jet engine, do you?

1  Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. – Romans 5:1-5 (ESV)

Memorize this passage.

Study it thoroughly.

Let the message sink in your very soul.

Tuck it away in your mind so you can review it anytime you feel troubled, or useless, or hopeless.

Let go of the troubles that plague you.  There’s no reason to carry them any further.

You see, these five simple verses are among the most hopeful in all of Scripture.  Here Paul explains why we have every reason to hope and not fear, be joyous not dreading, find freedom in Christ and not imprisonment in guilt or pain or sorrow.

We have been justified by faith.  In other words, through our faith in Jesus – by placing our trust in and following Him – we have been found innocent.  Every sin forgiven.  The slate wiped clean.  Our records expunged.  The past is done.  Gone.  The old man is gone as well.  We are renewed through Jesus!  So let go of whatever it is in the past that is holding you down.

We have peace with God through Jesus.  The Greek root word for “peace” means “to join”.  In other words, because of what Jesus did on the cross for us, and because we have placed our faith and trust in Christ, we have a very real and tangible connection with God.  The damage done by Adam and Eve has been repaired.  The breach is bridged.  Through Jesus Christ, we are forgiven and now can approach God – anytime – with full confidence that He is with us, He is in control, and we can rest in Him.  So let go of whatever fear is holding you back.

We now stand in the grace – the unmerited favor – of our Heavenly Father, who loves us with a love that is beyond our frail capabilities.  He guides our paths.  He extends such grace to those who believe in Him, trust in Him, rely on Him.  God will change our hearts, form us and shape us and lead us down the path He has designed for our lives.  In His grace we find the right path for our lives, if we will but follow and trust is the Lord, and not our own ways.  So let go of whatever uncertainty is keeping you from stepping out in faith.

Because of all this, we have hope.  Hope in Christ.  Hope for the future.  Hope for the here and now.  Great expectations of salvation and help in time of need.  Will our earthly suffering end?  There is no promise of a pain-free life.  But we find meaning in our suffering, strength in our weakness, strength to carry on because we are being carried by the Lord.  So let go of whatever weakness has you incapacitated and let Christ be your strength.

The Lord is with you always.  The Holy Spirit is within you.  And He is lavishing you with His perfect love.  He has given each of His children the gifts we need: forgiveness, freedom, joy, grace, hope, love…  So let go of whatever it is that keeps you from accepting these gifts from the Lord – whether it’s doubt or hurt or fear or simple pride – and embrace God with great abandon.  Let go of the shame.  Let go of the painful memories.  Let go of the bitterness and hurt.  Let go of the need to feel in control of your life.

Just let go.  Rest faithfully in God.  Seek Him.  Place your whole hope in the Lord.  And discover the amazing peace that comes from simply resting in Him, despite how circumstances may appear.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. – John 6:33 (ESV)

This verse keeps coming back to me.  I cannot tell you how many times I have written about it.

I think God is trying to tell me something.

So often we live our lives out of order.  We put so many things first and try to fit God into our hectic schedules.  Or, probably more often, we don’t treat the Lord as if He is Who He really is: GOD, The God, Creator and Sustainer of the Universe and all it contains.  The Great I AM.  Our Heavenly Father.

It is easy to take God for granted.  After all, when life gets busy, we tend to dart through the hours and days with blinders on, rushing from home to work to school to soccer to bowling to canasta to the movies to mow the lawn to go back to work…

You get the gist.

And all of this turmoil and trouble and time tripping causes us anxiety.  We don’t take time to tend to what is important.  We lose our true focus and, when things go haywire and life hits the proverbial fan, we think, “How did that just happen?”

Then, after we’ve been blind-sided by life, we turn to God.  We run to Him, begging for help.

We promise to go to church every Sunday if only He will ________________ (fill in the blank).

We determine to change, to put our lives right.

We begin seeking God.  And life begins to calm down.  We see God working in our lives and feel genuine joy.  And gratefulness.

Our faith is strengthened.  Our hope renewed.  Our focus sharpened on Christ.

And then…

The shiny object grabs our attention.  We slip into old habits.  If we’re not careful, we let life get ahead of us.  The Lord once more plays second fiddle to our schedules.

And we find our lives in reverse order once again.

The simple truth is this: so many of our stresses would be relieved, so many troubles averted, so many problems avoided, if only we would live our lives in the right order.

With the right perspective.

And the right priorities.

When we live our lives with Jesus at the center – truly spending quality time in His Word and in prayer – without putting our own wants first, we will find that the troubled that deviled us don’t bother us so much.  That’s because we aren’t mulling over our worries and fears and doubts.  We’re focused on the Lord and His will and His ways and His promises.

And it begins to dawn on us that life really and truly isn’t about us.

It’s about Christ.  It’s about what He did for us on the cross.  It’s about seeking His will first and foremost and far above my own imperfect desires and plans.

When we truly seek Go first, and put Him at the center of our lives, we find the peace and joy we so diligently seek.  It’s not that life always gets easier.  But, our focus switches.  And the troubles of this world see far less worrisome in the light of Christ.

If you are finding yourself over stressed, over burdened, over worried, over consumed, over booked, over busy, overwhelmed… stop and consider the order of your life.  Are you putting God first in your life, or trying to stuff Him in a box to fit in your crazy schedule?  Are you truly making Him Lord of your life, or paying Him lip service?  Do you trust Him enough to let Him call the shots, or do you want to be in control and let God have an advisory role in your life?

These are questions I ask myself quite often.  And the honest answer is not always very comfortable.  But I have found that, when I seek God first – when I lay down my control freak tendencies and my worries and fears and doubts and realize that I don’t need to know the outcome but The One Who determines the outcome – then I experience freedom.  I find peace and joy and rest for my soul.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. – Proverbs 3:5-6 (ESV)

14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. 15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16  For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. – Psalms 51:14-17 (ESV)

Shiny and new.  That’s how our society likes things.  We would sooner replace something that needs repair than fix it.

These are definitely the days of disposable thinking.  Corporations even help us along by manufacturing products with “built-in obsolescence”.  We had an appliance salesman once tell us that “they don’t build freezers like they to.  If you have an old chest freezer that still works, don’t get rid of it.  The new ones are made to last only about seven years.”  (I have no scientific data to back up the salesman’s statement.  I am merely paraphrasing his words.)

It’s a good thing for us that God doesn’t take that approach.  When sin entered the world, the Lord could have looked at Adam and Eve and said, “Well, they’re broken.  Guess I’d better toss ’em out.  They’re useless now.”

But He didn’t.  Instead He made a way for us.  Even when humanity became so sinful and depraved that God opted to flood the earth and wipe the people from the face of the earth, He waited until only one righteous family (Noah’s) remained.  That way, mankind would not be utterly obliterated, but would have another chance.

Even at that low point, humanity was deemed worthy of saving by God.

God did not create mankind with “built-in obsolescence”.  Rather, it is in our brokenness that we are strengthened, matured, and deemed worthy.  To have a “broken and contrite heart” is to realize our sinful nature and how totally we rely on God.  Our hearts are broken and contrite when we turn away from our old ways and allow God to break us and “create in (each of us) a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within (us)” (Psalms 51:10, ESV).

We are not worthy because of anything we do or say or think.  We are righteous because God has made us so.  Some folks have a hard time with that simple truth.  They want to hang on to past sins and pains like a badge of honor.  While scars are permanent reminders, they should bring back the memory of a wound bound and healed.  The scar means the pain is gone.  The wound is healed.  Scars should bring joy, as they illustrate God working through our brokenness.

Consider this: when we have a broken bone, we cannot fix the injury ourselves.  We need a doctor to set the bone so it will heal properly. As the bone begins to repair, there is a point when the area of the break is stronger than the unbroken parts.  Later, when healing is completed, the entire bone – even the area where the fracture occurred – is of equal strength.

So it is when we are broken in spirit.  Broken in family.  Broken hearted, broken in any way.  We cannot heal ourselves.  We need Jesus.  And when God comes to help us, we are stronger at the area of the break than anywhere else.  Once we are healed, the scar remains to remind us of God’s great love and care for us.

For you.

It is through our brokenness that we find how helpless we are, yet not disposable.  God is with us.  Which is good news, because we cannot survive without Him.  And our scars serve to remind us – and proclaim to others – that God is good!  That the Lord loves us each so much that He sent His Son to die for us.  That He is our healer, The One Who cares for us.

The One Who says we were not created with “built-in obsolescence”.

It doesn’t matter what you have done.  Go to the Lord.  Be utterly broken of yourself and your sin and let God our Father save you.

Mend you.

Heal you.

No, you don’t deserve it.  None of us do.  It is a gift from our Loving Savior.  And what true gift has to be earned?

  We all have – or have had – those moments when we are tempted to not believe that God is near.  Even though He promised to never leave nor forsake (abandon) us, we sometimes get overwhelmed with emotions, worries, pain, insecurity, sorrow… so much so that it can be very very difficult to experience God.
Here’s a quick tip: if you’re feeling like the Lord is nowhere to be found, go outside.

Look up at the sky.

Notice the blue hues of a clear day.  See the clouds wisping by ever so gently.  Feel the sun warm your skin.  Watch the birds fly by.

If the day is gray, notice the swirl of the sky above.  See the way the clouds turn and swirl.  If it’s raining, feel the drops on your face.  

If it’s night, check out the moon.  Understand the stars are suns, hundreds or thousands of light years away (meaning you are seeing light emitted hundreds or thousands of years ago).  Look at the constellations, the twinkling lights that have guided humans across this earth for eons.

Look at all this and ask yourself: what human can create anything this magnificent, this intricate?  How could this all possibly continue to revolve and move with great purpose and not be guided by the hand of God?  

Look up.  He is there.  Maybe you cannot see Him, but you see His creation.

And His sustaining power.

And He – God the Creator, God our Father – is sustaining you as well.

You are loved, dear one.  Deeply, completely loved.

1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? – Psalm 27:1 (ESV)

I have a particular bent against worry and anxiety.  There was a point in my life when fear nearly consumed me.  Like the apostle Peter, the waves nearly pulled me under. 

But God didn’t let me drown.  He didn’t let anxiety get me.  He didn’t allow fear and worry to drag me the bottom of the depths.

Tonight, I sit here thinking about how many of my friends and loved ones are courageously facing cancer.  I think of those dealing with other illnesses, or family struggles, or money issues, or just general anxiety issues.

I know so many of you are hurting, uncertain about the future, mourning,  troubled, saddened, frightened…

This comes straight from my heart to you.  Trust in Jesus.  Trust in the Lord.  I know it may sound like a cliche, which is most unfortunate because faith is the answer.

How often do we struggle over the uncertainty of the future?  If only we knew what was going to happen, we could plan for it.  Save for it.  Brace ourselves for it.  Maybe somehow change – or even avoid – the situation altogether.

The simple fact is we cannot know with certainty what tomorrow will bring.  But we can put our trust wholly in The One Who does.  We can rest in Him and say, “No matter what happens, the Lord is with me.  He is my shield, my helper, my guide, my Father.  No matter what happens, He is beyond circumstances.  He is greater than anything I dread.  In Him I place my full faith.  Not in my limited intuition or intelligence.  Not in my ways.  Not in what others say.  My faith is in God, and He has the final say.  Period.”

Truly, we have nothing to fear.  Nothing past, present or future.  We are God’s and, no matter what, He has a plan.  He will gives us the strength to endure, the wisdom to enlighten, the direction to press on.  He will use us to bless others who face what we each face.

You are not alone.  You are not helpless.  You have a large community of fellow believers in Christ ready to embrace you.  Most of all, you have God.  He will never leave you.  He will not abandon you.  He may have you in a painful season to teach you something.  But, regardless, He is with you.

Can you think of a gift on earth more precious than that?

Photo by S. Sepp.

Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! – Psalm 27:14 (ESV)

“Wait” is a four-letter word.  In my mind it ranks right up there with the most offensive four-letter words ever uttered (you know, like “diet” or “kale” [blech!]).  I don’t know about you, but my life is busy (another four-letter word).  Who has time to wait?

Sometimes we’re waiting in traffic (as in “slow” – go ahead and count the letters in that word as well).

Sometimes we’re waiting for something far more serious – a doctor’s report, financial help, healing in a relationship that’s gone sour… any number of troubles that come to us in life.

And waiting isn’t always easy.  Waiting can often lead to worry (worse than a four-letter word by one letter).  And worry leads to anxiety.  And the two together lead us away from faith.

There is good reason why Jesus tells us to keep our eyes on Him.  We are called to abide in Him – to stay (a good four-letter word) in Him, make God’s will – His kingdom – our home.

This leads us to one of my favorite four-letter words: hope.  The apostle Paul reminds us to “rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer” (Romans 12:12, ESV).  When we do these things, we keep our focus on the Lord and His promises.

And, as Peter learned when he walked on the water, staring at the storm will only cause us to drown.  But keeping our eyes on Christ saves us.  He is our hope.  “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).

Another lesson Peter has shared with us: “…with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8, ESV). God operates on a whole different plane than we do.  He is not contained by time or matter.  The past, present and future are all the same to our Heavenly Father.  He is utterly boundless.

His timing is perfect.

His strength is perfect.

His love is perfect.

His ways are perfect.

We are not called to understand everything, or know when (or if) things are going to come to pass.  But we are called to be faithful, to put our full trust in God.  We need to simply lift our hearts to the Lord and know that, no matter how life goes, we are God’s children. He loves us and will never abandon us.  His will (four-letters, great word) eclipses anything we believe we need (yes, four-letters again).

Our strength comes from hopefully waiting on God, knowing He is far above our circumstances.  He has a plan (four letters again) for our lives – for my life, for your life.

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. – Isaiah 40:31 (ESV)

Maybe “wait” isn’t such a bad four-letter word after all.