Calm My Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow
Why is worry like a rocking chair - because it gives you something to do, but you don't go anywhere!
When we worry, we are basically saying that not even God can do something. Instead we need to have faith.
Linda quoted George Muller who said, "The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith. The beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety."
Linda surveyed several people, and asked them what they worried about. And aside from the glib comment, "everything" the top answer was "money." Followed by parenting, marriage, health, job security, weight, and threats. For her personally, it was definitely her family, especially since she spent several years oversees far away from her grown children.
She also talks about the different between real anxiety and worry. True anxiety usually is a chemical imbalance that has to be treated - something physically wrong with your body. She from now on will talk about anxiety and worry in the definition of everyday "normal" worry that we have in our lives. Worry is derived from the definition of "to strangle or choke" and I think that is a pretty good definition of what worry does to you! And you can understand why you could not be content if worry is a huge part of your life. There is no peace for someone who is anxious. She said that "Anxiety is that which divides and distracts the soul, that which diverts us from present duty to weary calculations of how to meet conditions that may never arrive. "
She points out the fact that worry is related to our perspective, not our circumstances. Which means in the exact same situation, one person could be worried and the other at peace. Worry can also be real or it could be in our imagination. I am sure we can all relate to that one :) She used the example of a child standing in the middle of the road - of course we should be worried and immediately jump into action - it is a warning system built into us. However, if your worry is based on something that might happen...that is an imagined situation. I can't worry that I might get cancer, or my children might rebel when they get older. I can't worry that someone might to rob our house (that one is for you, Stephen :) :) ). None of these are real situations. This type of worry drains our emotions and leaves us discontent and not trusting God.
Her next section is about how worry is destructive - for example, how people who worry are four times more likely to have heart attacks. Worry makes us more susceptible to disease. It literally makes your nervous system sick and effects your digestive system and your heart. It completely drains you of your strength (and even more so if you stay up at night worrying!).
Linda gave an example of a man who made a chart and kept track of his worries for a while - and what he found was that 40% were things that would probably never happen, another 30% were about decisions in his past, 12% were about other people's criticism of him, 10% were about his health, and only 8% were actual, real worries!! As she points out the obvious fact - "worry never changes a single thing except the worrier...Worry is counterproductive."
Jesus tells us in the Bible to avoid this type of anxiety. He makes it very clear, actually. See Matthew 6:25-34. Five times He tells us not to worry!! Plus, as Linda stated at the beginning of this chapter, Jesus tells us here that it is a faith issue. We must focus on GOD not on our problem. Linda says that of course we need to do our part - pray, prepare, and/or plan - but we need to let God do His part - take are of all the "might" situations of what might happen. Linda has very strong opinions about worrying. She agrees with Kenneth Wuest who wrote that "We commit sin when we worry. We do not trust God when we worry. We do not receive answers to prayer when we worry." And, she quoted Bishop Fulton J. Sheen who said, "All worry is atheism, because it is a want of trust in God." So many people do not agree - they think that worrying is OK, just part of life, or even what they are SUPPOSED to do! I definitely agree with Linda, and not others who think so casually of worry.
Linda then quoted I Peter 5:6-7, which says, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because he cares for you."
She points out that so many of us focus on the "casting our anxiety" part of the verse, and miss the part about HUMBLING ourselves before God. She explains what she thinks this means: "Humility means to have total trust in God alone. It is the surrender of our total being - intellect, emotion, will, plans, and judgments. It is relinquishing everything...Humbling myself involves yielding to God as the Blessed Controller of whatever situation or person is causing me anxiety." God cares for us, no doubt. But if we want true peace from our anxieties, we must humble ourselves and see God for who He truly is.
Linda challenges her readers to do something visual with giving your anxieties to God - she has an Anxiety Box where she writes her problem on a piece of paper, puts it in the box, and says, "God...it's yours...You can deal with it much better than I can." She sometimes reads through her slips of paper with worries, thanks God for the ones that He has already taken care of, and places the ones that are still concerns back in the box. Every time she passes by that box, she is reminded that God has it under control, and she needs to leave her worry there. She said a box might not work for everyone, but hopes that each person can come up with something that means something - visually - to them.
She has a great quote from George MacDonald in this chapter:
"It has been well said that no man ever sank under the burden of the day. It's when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bear. Never load yourselves so, my friends. If you find yourselves so loaded, at least remember this: it is your own doing, not God's. He begs you to leave the future to Him and to mind the present."
She also wrote something else that stuck out to me: "If we aren't worried about tomorrow, we can concentrate on trusting God for today."
Linda says that trusting God and leaving our anxiety with Him is a process...
- Acknowledge that anxiety is sin and confess it as such to God.
- Yield to God's sovereignty. Thank Him that He is the Blessed Controller of your problems.
- Choose to cast your anxiety on God.
- Choose to trust God with your tomorrow's and live for today.
"It's not as important what a woman IS as what she's BECOMING, for we shall be what we are now becoming! If God can take a woman like me, who likes control and becomes easily anxious, and begin to transform her into a woman who is trusting God and choosing not to be anxious, He can do the same with you."
I am so thankful that God has never given up on any of us, even in the midst of our failures!!
4 comments:
Lots of things to think about. Thanks for sharing. Aunt Linda Mowatstolvh
awesome lesson, I am also improving in this area but I have a long way to go. I am going to suggest this book tomy book club whenever I start going again.
I needed this. Thank you.
I am a HUGE worrier, especially since I had children. This was a great post. Thanks for sharing.
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