Yesterday we began a discussion of why everyday anxiety can be sinful: the first reason presented by Jerry Bridges is that it implies a basic distrust of God. If God says in His Word that He will provide for our every need, then we should believe Him and put away our fretful thoughts. The second reason, according to Respectable Sins, is this:"Anxiety is a sin also because it is a lack of acceptance of God's providence in our lives. God's providence may be simply defined as God's orchestrating all circumstances and events in His universe for His glory and the good of His people. Some believers have difficulty accepting the fact that God does in fact orchestrate all events and circumstances, and even those of us who believe it often lose sight of this glorious truth. Instead we tend to focus on the immediate causes of our anxiety rather than remembering that those immediate causes are under the sovereign control of God."
During class we discussed how this kind of perspective really does change our levels of frustration if we truly believe this biblical principle. One of our members described her attempt to arrive at our study. Going through the drive-thru for coffee, she discovered she did not have her wallet with her. She returned home, looked everywhere, but couldn't find it. She then searched her car, and yes, there it was! Because she had just read this chapter, she was able to laugh it off and understand that for some reason, God wanted her to see how she is "normally" frustrated by such events. She experienced a "new" way of dealing with an unexpected delay.
How good would it be if we could grasp this belief in the fact that God is in control of every aspect of our lives, even the most mundane, frustrating, and anxiety-producing events that greet us every day? How much anger and rage and high blood pressure could we relieve by just believing that God has a purpose for everything? I'm guessing a lot...
AMEN to that Candy! I can't believe how hard yesterday was the day after our discussion of "Everyday Anxiety" It would seem that a test was prepared for me because my entire day was filled with people at work that were causing me not just regular old anxiety, but extremely damaging to my health and emotional state kind of anxiety. In my people pleasing (sinful nature) I was a wreck by the end of the work day. On my knees I crawled into my quiet place at home and went to prayer with my journal in front of me. I wrote down my prayer to God asking Him several questions and writing them down with scripture. By the time I was done I had made a list of anxiety producers in my life with a place next to each to be checked, either Contiune on with this or nip it in the bud. I did this by placing a number beside each stress producer from 1 to 5, 5 being the worst. I am praying that God will help me take these #5's out of my life and I know the "pruning process" is going to hurt because it means I will have to dissapoint some very good people. As a Christian we give to others always before ourselves but that can turn into the sin of being a man pleaser. A great scripture to put this Christian attribute into perspective is found in Philippians 2:4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Notice He puts us first, if we let ourselves become worn out because we are to fixed on taking care of everybody else first, what do we really have left to give to others? That's my book on that. DS
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