For The Anxious Heart: Being Still And Knowing
Have you ever felt like you’re stood right in the middle of a boisterous storm with the challenges of life battering you from left, right and centre? When the situations you’re facing couldn’t get any worse, but they do? When the debt couldn’t get any bigger but another letter comes through the post with even bigger and bolder red writing? When your account couldn’t get more overdrawn than it is but has? When the goals you’ve set to achieve for a certain time aren’t yet boxed off? When your health feels like it’s hanging on a piece of string? When the investment hasn’t yet paid off and you’ve been waiting for so long? When you’ve been let down by the person you expect to be upset by? There’s a spiritual lesson I learned from Paul once in Acts 27: 18-19 Paul was on a ship and caught up in a really bad storm. The ship was literally being tossed about. “And the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship.” Acts 27:19 What I grasped from that was that when the ship was about being overthrown, the lightened the load on the ship: so literally grabbed stuff and threw it into the sea. Sometimes when you’re facing a storm in life, you need to throw some things overboard. “What kinda things?”
You alone know the answer to this. You alone know what you need to let go or let loose of. It’s not something you need to think twice about. When posed the question you immediately know what it is. It’s time to think about the baggage you’ve been carrying for so long and perhaps lighten it or forsake it and completely throw it overboard.
3 scriptures for an anxious heart: "Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest.” - Matthew 11:28 “Whenever I’m afraid, I put my trust in you—” - Psalms 56:3 “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” - Matthew 6:25-34