How to keep your anxiety at bay

 

I recall a season when I had serious accommodation challenges (I had a few days to find a new place and move all my stuff). To say I was stressed would have been a gross understatement.

So, I picked up “Be Anxious for Nothing” by Max Lucado.

This was a book I had been meaning to read but never got to, but at that moment, I knew I needed help, and I was led to this book.

I realized that I had allowed the issues of life to drain me. It just seemed like problems were coming at me from every angle, and I was at my wit’s end.

For many of us, the desire for marriage and children has caused similar anguish, if not more.

It has left us upset, frustrated, and straight-up angry with God.

We have become anxious and easily irritable; we may even believe that the waiting period is not only unfair but unnecessary.

More so, we may see people who don’t share our beliefs or values tie the knot all the time, making us question our stance.

In such vulnerable moments, we must go back to our true source, as the urgency of our challenges may lead us to resolve the issues in our own strength.

Before you choose your counsel or your way, please allow me to share a short story from the book:

The author’s key message was from Philippians 4:4-8 which calls us to:

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God…”

In explaining how to practicalize this, he used the story of King Jehoshaphat.

The story of King Jehoshaphat.

The author had highlighted this story about what king Jehoshaphat did in the face of an enemy attack. Here is the Bible excerpt:

Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria; and they are in Hazazon Tamar” (which is En Gedi). And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah…Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s…And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: “Praise the Lord, For His mercy endures forever.” Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated.”

II Chronicles 20:2-3, 7, 12, 15, 21-22 NKJV(read full story here)

Wow, right!

How do you go to war with your choir in front?

Who does that?

Jehoshaphat, apparently. And it worked!

For me, the principle of this story connects to similar threads in the Bible – from King David to the Israelites, and even Apostle also admonished the church to practice this.

And it’s a call to start with praise.

Sis, do you think God is unmindful of your needs and your heart’s desires? (Matthew 6:28-34)

Who do you think gave you the desire for marriage?

The Bible reminds us to ‘delight ourselves in the Lord and he will grant us the desires of our heart.’ (Psalm 37:4)

He is calling us to redirect our focus.

To lean on him absolutely – not on our biological clocks, other people’s expectations, or our flesh.

He is calling us to wait on Him for his never late but always on time. And how do we wait?  By spending time in Him. By praising him and soaking our hearts and souls with His goodness.

Do you know that praising God does something to our spirit?

It acts as a trigger, a key that unlocks our memories of God’s goodness in times past.

It reminds us that the God who did it before can do it again.

 

You can choose to trust Him

Today, I am choosing to trust God with every pain, ache, challenge, and difficulty.

What about you?

Will you trust God with your love life?

Will you trust that he can weave an unbelievable story for your life, even if that does not include marriage or early marriage?

I pray you will lay your request – in all honesty, and humility – before his throne of grace knowing that he alone is able to do more than you can ask or imagine.

In all this, I further pray that the peace and joy of our Lord will overflow in your hearts, now and always. Amen.