Anxiety

“Be careful (anxious) for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”

“And the peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”        Philippians 4:6-7

I can sit here all comfortable and tell you to not get anxious, don’t let things bother you, but I will turn around in the next moment and be all out of sorts over this or that. We are Christians, and we try to live our lives for and through the Holy Spirit that Christ sent to us at the day of Pentecost (see the book of Acts, chapter 2). We have a helper in the Holy Spirit to help us live our lives for Christ, but we are still here on this earth, still in these mortal bodies – and these things are very willful and try in every way to go it alone whenever we can. 

WE CANNOT MANAGE ALONE! We need the Holy Spirit to guide us through our daily lives, but we are so busy with worldly pursuits that we do not have time to even listen to the Spirit, let alone follow what He is trying to tell us to do. The Spirit’s function is to aide us in keeping our eyes on Christ, but there is so much stimuli going on around us we are fidgeting this way and that, to and fro (you get this point, I am sure).

The thing is, it is not just you; it is not just me – we all do it! We get distracted by the least little thing and start to panic! This is nothing new:

“And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away.”

“And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.”

“But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with wave: for the wind was contrary.”

“And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.”

“And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.”

“But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.”

“And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.”

“And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.”

“But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried, saying, Lord, save me.”

“And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”

“And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.”

“Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.”      Matthew 14:22-33

The Apostle Peter was just like us – Jesus was right there at arms length from Peter. Peter got so anxious about the crashing of the waves around him that he took his eyes off of Christ – and Christ was right there in front of him!

Kudos to Peter though – he got out of the boat and attempted to get closer to Christ. We, like the other disciples in the boat, just stand by while others are doing things we should be attempting. We might possibly fail – we are human.

The thing is, we cannot get closer to Christ unless we get out of our anxious moments and let Him pick us up from the waves crashing around us.

AE