If there is one thing that I am absolutely good at, it would be at being anxious and overthinking things. I am constantly practicing self-discipline in this area of my life. So, when I hear someone quote the Bible when it says to “be anxious for nothing” I have to shake my head and laugh. Sure, I would love to just leave it at that.
This phrase that people like to quote comes from the New Testament in Philippians 4:6-7.
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
I like how The Message Bible paraphrases it:
“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”
Sounds good right? I can tell you from experience that this is way harder to do than to quote. It is very difficult for me not to be anxious about things. This is a lesson that I am constantly learning. There are times I manage it better, but old habits die hard. I have to talk to myself a lot about this area.
Once when I was supporting attorneys in court, one of the supervisors came up to me during a break and he said I was very calm while dealing with the that attorneys and judge. I told him that I may be calm on the outside, but I was freaking out in the inside. Unfortunately, I have been accustomed to handling my anxieties that way. It has begun to take some toll on my health at times. I still catch myself keeping the anxiety inside. I may seem quiet and calm on the outside, but many times people won’t see the mayhem going on inside.
Religious folks will say “don’t worry when you can pray”. So, I'm good at multi-tasking and can do both - pray AND worry. Just simply saying to pray would be fine if we didn’t live in reality. Sure, I know that’s good advice and it can work but when you are in the middle of your anxious moments it isn’t so easy. I have even found myself being anxious in praying to God. I want to see results immediately and I’m good at helping God in figuring it out. I even get frustrated when God doesn’t work in the way I thought He should. I have to remind myself that God isn’t obligated to give me a report or updates on what He is doing or when He is going to do it.
One thing I am always reminding myself is to trust God and leave the results to Him. I don’t have to take on the worry about what God will do or won’t do. That’s on Him. I don’t control God. I don’t always understand His ways, but I certainly can’t control His ways either.
So how do I reign myself in when I am anxious? I take a timeout. I put down the devices and spend time in silent meditation. I can tell you that I don’t practice this discipline nearly enough. It is also very difficult to do. It's amazing how difficult it is to sit still and be silent. We live in a very noisy world. It should be a daily thing, but I am not as consistent about it, and it seems that I wait until the anxieties backup until I get back to it.
Silent meditation isn’t anything super spiritual and I only discovered this about 10 years ago during a retreat at a monastery. It was new to me because I grew up in a church that was loud and emotional. We used to pray loud as if God was deaf and the louder, we got the more we felt that we got His attention. Today some of my most spiritual times are when I’m in nature and away from the noise of the world or just simply being quiet and praying silent prayers. God doesn't need to hear an audible word from us. He doesn't hear us with a physical ear. We can be silent and still before God. He knows us pretty well and we don't have to pray a King James Version prayer for Him to hear us.
We also don't need to speak in tongues either. I grew up in a church that did that. They would say that if you spoke in tongue that the devil didn't know what you were praying and that somehow praying in tongues carried a little more weight than any other. That is not true. I don't know about the speaking and praying in tongues, but I don't think God can hear silent prayers any more than any other prayers. I'm not going to say anything negative about speaking or praying in tongues, just that it never worked for me. That kind of praying is just not who I am.
I am good with whatever method works to help us with our anxieties. The bottom line is that God wants us to cast our worries and cares on Him and let Him take care of us. It sounds easy but it isn't. It takes practice and having faith in God.
