Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4: 6-7)
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23: 4)
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (I John 4: 18)
I am going to confess to you, I sometimes struggle with anxiety. After the accident in which I was involved in 2014, I can become white-knuckled when I get into a tight spot or when someone comes out toward me while I’m driving. After the loss of my grandson, I am more skittish about the safety of my family. When I’m facing too many deadlines and responsibilities at once, I feel anxious. I can feel my heart beating faster and my blood pressure rising.
I know and believe the truth of God’s Word, and I trust Him – really, I do. But I am not immune to the experience of anxiety. It’s a funny thing (well, not funny) about anxiety. Once you begin to engage in a particular fearful thought, you see evidence supporting it everywhere. We tend to perceive in the direction of our fears, and all that “evidence” we see fertilizes our fears.
It’s also true that you can perceive in the direction of your faith! In other words, you will tend to perceive in the direction you believe. That’s the switch that has to be made if you want to live in peace.
Here are 3 ways to do that.
1. Know the source of anxiety. Post-traumatic anxiety can be due to the “shaking of your nervous system” during a horrific event that super-sensitizes you and presents those images to you repeatedly after the trauma is over. The process of desensitization can come over time as you walk in the courage of God, and you don’t run from the things that upset you. Yes, some forms of anxiety disorders are physical, happening due to certain glitches in the brain’s functioning, sometimes passed genetically. (These are treatable.) Then there are the habits of anxiety that arise from repeating negative thinking, thus stirring up fearful emotions. Most often, these are learned behaviors. Listen, God doesn’t want you to live in anxiety, and your anxiety did not come from Him. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.” (II Timothy 1: 7)
2. Create new mental pictures. Don’t spend your time dwelling on your circumstances, and especially avoid obsessing about all the ways your circumstances could become worse. Ask God to create in you visions of health, purpose, success, and blessings. Zero in on those. See them, feel them! Order your actions toward small positive steps in their direction today. (That’s called faith.)
3. Trust in His “Perfect Love” rather than in fear. The scripture tells us that when we are walking totally securely in His Perfect Love, fear won’t have place with you (or me).Won’t you join me this morning as I said with the psalmist David, who had plenty of legit reasons to be afraid, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.” This great truth also resonates in God’s words to Joshua when he and the Israelites were in a great predicament: “Be very courageous, for the Lord, your God, is with you!”
God Himself, the God Who created it all, knows it all, and has power over it all – that God is with me? The One Who knows all my past and is already in my future? The God Who has all wisdom, knowing exactly the right things to do at the right time? That God? The one Who Loves me perfectly and unconditionally? The God Who is with me, no matter what?
Could that really be true? Oh, yes, it is!
God, I recall that verse that I learned in the Sunday School nursery: “What time I am afraid, I will trust in You.” Please, Lord, help me to walk out that simple principle
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