THOUGHTS ON WORRY

Happy first day of SPRING!

The weather is 60 degrees where I live and I’m wearing SHORTS. Woohoo!

Today I wanted to bring up a topic that has been on my mind quite a bit the past few days…WORRY.

Anxiety.

Stress.

What ifs.

A few weeks ago at my Bible study, we discussed strongholds. A stronghold is something that has a hold on you and is keeping you from reaching your full potential as a daughter or son of Christ. As I scanned past the list, my eyes narrowed in on one word: Fear. A word so familiar.

As a child, I was not as fearful as I have become. I knew that my parents would protect me from most of the bad parts of this world and honestly, I was pretty oblivious to the evil that this world holds. The older I am, the more aware I become of what this world is capable of and here I am, stumbling into some sort of independence. I have this idea in my head that I need to protect myself because nobody else can do as good of a job as I can. I have grown extremely cautious. I always check things twice. Heck, three times. I  plan ahead. I  prepare myself for the worst possible scenario in order to guard my heart from danger.

This is no way to live. And I know that.

I feel like God has been calling me.

Testing me.

Helping me grow my wings.

Showing me that HE is my father, and He loves me.

Whispering “trust Me, child” in little ways.

Showing me that just because I am not a “child” anymore, doesn’t mean I can’t relax in Him.

I know in my heart that God sees tomorrow and that His ways are good. So why is it so hard?

Why do I always doubt that He can handle it? That He has it under control? Time and time again He has answered prayers and shown me where He has been faithful in my life- yet I still feel like I have to carry my burdens by myself.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” Matthew 6

Even the sparrow on my back porch  has food to eat and a place to lay its head. As a daughter of the one and only King, am I not worth more than this small bird?

I know I can trust in God, yet I struggle with it every day.

Do any of you ever feel that way? 

“Yes, God handled that thing from yesterday, but I’m not sure He can handle (fill in the blank).”

If we are serious about putting our faith in God and casting our anxieties on Him, then we need to make the conscious choice to do so every single day.

Those fearful thoughts are from the enemy, and they don’t deserve a second glance.

Take ownership of the promises God says He has for you and march on.

Take a breath and know that God has got this. Yes, this.

The flowers blooming all around us in this beautiful spring weather do not have to think or worry. They just exist. And they are beautiful. Don’t you want to live that way? Can you taste the freedom of that lifestyle? How refreshing it would be to live out our lives, fully trusting and knowing that God is in control.

I hope that you feel inspired from this post and know that you aren’t alone in your worries. Look at the Bible and see that people have been struggling with anxiety for thousands of years. I think it is important to open up, share our vulnerabilities and keep this discussion open. How has God proved His faithfulness in the past? What has He delivered you from? Let’s remember His faithfulness and use it as a weapon against worry as we finish this week.

-Emily