STRESS AND ANXIETY

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. ~ Matthew 6:25-27,33-34

I had one of those anxious moments in the car today. I say ‘anxious moment’ because those tend to not happen too often for me. There’s just something about driving that gets you quiet enough to hear your own thoughts. A drive can reveal a lot. I think it’s because we distract ourselves so much that when we are forced to commute for a long period of time our minds get quiet enough to hear God. 

Maybe you don’t relate to this. Maybe you hate driving and having to be behind the wheel is extremely stressful for you. Or maybe you just have horrible road rage. Whatever your feelings about driving we all need a sacred space to get quiet and be still.

My drive started with God telling me not to turn on music or a podcast like I usually do. He wanted me to talk to Him. So I did. It was messy and full of tears. God was revealing different things I’d been holding onto. With every tear-filled word, I could feel peace entering my body. He was calming my spirit with His quiet voice and with every whisper my anxieties began to melt away.   

Whenever I’m going through an anxious or stressful time the last thing I want to do is confront my emotions. I have to force myself to pray when I’m in a state of stress. With my personality type, I tend to want to sit in my sadness and just let it simmer for a while instead of finding a way out of it. I want to distract myself with TV or Instagram. I want to crawl in bed and hide from the world. 

It’s in those moments that I force my knees to hit the floor and just let the prayers flow. They usually start out with complaining, or crying, or asking God “why?” But always without fail I feel a load lift off my chest. Sometimes the relief is very small and I only get a millisecond glimpse of hope. But it’s a kind reminder from God that He sees me. He feels my pain. He’s with me. 

I wasn't planning on writing about anxiety because honestly, it’s not something I struggle with very often so I feel I don’t know enough about it. But this week has been an anxious one for me and I feel God telling me to write about the truth of what real life looks like.

I chose this verse from Matthew because sometimes it’s easy to forget that God’s in control. I tend to have a tight grip on things that are important to me. These words from Matthew 6 remind me to loosen my hands and let go. I am not in control. God’s plan is much greater than my own. 

Matthew 6:33 reminds us to seek FIRST His kingdom. When we humble ourselves and go to God first our problems start to look a lot smaller. Our perspective shifts and we start to see that everything will fall into place, and it probably won’t look like what we had envisioned. And that’s ok. 

Our job is today. We must live in the present moment and not obsess over the things of yesterday or tomorrow. We are here today right now. We were created for such a time as this.