Do you ever feel that anxiety is weighing you down?
Stealing from you?
That your life would be a whole lot better without it?
Anxiety is such a part of my life that I have kind of got used to it (can you relate?).
But I don’t think anxiety is meant to be normal!
A conversation with some friends the other day got me thinking. We were sharing stories about amazing ways God had provided for us and others, often in ways you wouldn’t have seen coming. We were sharing about how worry just isn’t necessary, because God always provides for those who trust in Him and follow Him through Jesus.
It really encouraged me. And it reminded me again that God doesn’t want me to worry.
God doesn’t want me to live bound up in anxiety!
I guess anxiety is probably my biggest weakness. And I think it’s something the Lord wants to deal with. Even a way that God wants to bring healing in my life.
Recently, I asked Him, What do You want me to do in this stage of my life?
And I sensed something like: Do not fear.
Wow. That hit home. I didn’t expect that answer. But, yes, I need it.
Because fear is a problem in my life, and God wants to bring freedom.
If you asked me who my hero is, I would say my Grandad. He loved the Lord and walked with Him. On days when the battle is hard, the memory of my Grandad encourages me to keep going.
I was thinking one day about what Grandad would tell me from Heaven. I think he would encourage me to keep following the Lord. I think he would encourage me about how the Lord is using my life. But I think he would encourage me not to worry.
Grandad was wonderful, but he worried. He worried what would happen when he left this earth, and how my Grandma would cope without him. But, with hindsight, I can look back and see that it was fine. God took care of Grandma, with the help of her family, and she even thrived in the last years of her life, and lived until she was 89.
God had it covered all along.
I can almost hear Grandad saying it: Caroline, don’t let worry steal from you!
I suspect that, if there’s one way the enemy could take me out of ministry, it would be through anxiety.
Anxiety wears me down pretty much every day of my life.
I tend to scan the future for problems, trying to work out how I would solve them before they have even happened.
They think that anxiety is a big reason why people get ill.
And the crazy thing is that it isn’t even necessary, and it doesn’t even help. It just makes things worse.
I think that, instead of worrying and ruminating, the Lord wants me to choose to trust in Him.
To keep looking to Him, bringing it to Him, choosing to trust Him, again and again.
Lord, help me to do that! Help me to choose to trust You. And to choose to believe that You will be faithful (because You will).
Caroline Abblitt 