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Saturday, July 29, 2006

Anxious? You're not alone!


Turn all your anxiety over to God because He cares for you.
I Peter 5:7

"I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears" (Psalm 34:4).

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7).

"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" (1 Peter 5:6-7) "Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?" (Luke 12:22-26, NIV).

As you can see, the Bible is full of passages dealing with anxiety. Clearly God knows that we have fears and anxieties and wants us to turn those over to Him.

I've always loved the passage about the birds. It reminds me that being anxious does nothing to change - anything! A lot of the things I've worried about never even happened. Some of the things that did were not half as bad as I feared. And the rest I obviously succeeded in getting through with God's help.

I don't think ahy of us will ever become super-human and able to feel no anxiety at all. However, we need to remember that the Bible reminds us of two things: we're not alone because God understands our anxieties and, if we are wise, we can take them to Him and cast all our anxiety on God because He cares for us.

That's a pretty good deal if you ask me. Makes me wonder why I forget to do it sometimes!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks i liked this.

Anonymous said...

Wow I havent been over in a few days. You've been putting a lot on this blog, its great! I really can relate to this today. Worrying about everything even on a weekend. I need to pray and then move on with my day. Take care.

Anonymous said...

The guy in the picture looks like me when I get stressed.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for emailing me with the new post. I am doing better today. My wife went out and took some time off yesterday from caregiving. We are both doing better and getting along better. ALS is hard to live with but it's good to know that we aren't in it alone. I have someone who gets me out of bed but really early but at least my wife doesn't have to do that. I can read your blog until she wakes up. Can you write more about feeling scared? Do you have anything on terminal illness? Thanks.

Tom

Ruth said...

Hi everyone!

Tom- you bet. I'm going out for awhile today but when I get back I'll look for some resources on terminal illness. Also I can write about feeling scared because it happens to all of us - and maybe we can share ideas on how to handle it spiritually as well as practically as we go on our journeys.
You might enjoy some of the Catholic podcasts in the link to the right if you're up early too!

Take care,
Ruth