Tag Archives: worry

Trusting in Troubled Times

Troubling Times

Should we be afraid of the times we live in? If you look at the statistics, it doesn’t look good. According to Chris Hedges, a writer for the New York Times, “Of the past 3,400 years, humans have been entirely at peace for 268 of them, or just 8 percent of recorded history.” For all those years of fighting and warring, estimates say 150 million up to 1 billion people have died because of war.¹

What is our hope for the threat of violence and war? Jesus.

Winning the War with Worry

Jesus promised the disciples in John 14 that they didn’t have to be afraid. What could the disciples have been afraid of? They had the Creator of the universe, the One who spun the clouds, splashed the seas with white-capped waves, and flecked the stars across the galaxies like a painter’s flip of the wrist with a brush and a canvas, walking with them. The One who roars with thunder and is gentle as a breeze. The One who stood with the three protestors in the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar. The Bright and Morning Star and Son of God sat with them around a table. What did they have to fear?

The fear that the Romans and religious elite would break down their doors and arrest them was a very real fear. They feared the visceral sight and sound of men wailing as they were being crucified on a hillside. They feared for their lives.

Facing Your Fear

What do you say to someone when they face their deepest fears? What would you want to hear to dispel your fears? Jesus said three words, “Believe in me.” Believe in me? What would “belief” in Jesus do to keep the Romans from arresting them for scheming and plotting against the empire?

Jesus said to them:

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.

John 14:1

Jesus was saying to them, “Are you afraid? I have something to offer you that will overcome and counteract those fears.” Jesus offered them a promise of an eternal home in heaven. He spent three years telling them Who He was. He spent three years letting them in on His secrets, pulling back the curtain, and revealing more of the story to them. His big reveal was this: “I’m going to go and prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2-6)

Another word for “believe” is trust or faith. Jesus was saying, “You trust God? You can trust me. You have faith in God? Have faith in me.”

Believing in God’s Goodness

Do you believe God is good? Do you believe God can be trusted? Jesus calls us to trust him. Choose to trust Jesus today to calm your fears and quell your frights. Jesus wants to bring calm to your mind to de-stress you.

Don’t let your heart get to the point where you lose your sense of your trust in God.

**This is an excerpt from our devotional, FearLess: Worry-Free Living in a Fear-Filled World.

More Encouragement

For more encouragement, check out my post, 3 Steps to Releasing Worry and Fear.

1. Hedges, Chris, “What Every Person Should Know about War,” July 6, 2003, The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/books/chapters/what-every-person-should-know-about-war.html.

5 Ways to Deal with Anxiety

God’s Answer for Anxiety

God understood that we have anxious thoughts, but He didn’t leave us without an answer. He gave us a solution for when we feel anxious.

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6,7

God understood our tendency to worry, so he told us what to do. He told us to pray about it and talk to Him about it, and then thank God for all he has done for us. Then He told us what the result would be—peace. The older I get, the more I realize what a gift peace is! That’s it. The answer to our anxious thoughts—pray about it and be grateful.

That sounds great, but how do we do this practically speaking. Here are five ways to push away anxiety.

1. Go for a walk.

Sometimes, when anxiety feels like it’s crippling me, I get out the door and go for a walk. I talk to God and tell Him what’s on my heart. Then I listen. And sometimes, that’s it. And then, maybe I’ll put on my audiobook or some music; but the anxiety starts to recede. I feel like I can face the day again.

2. Listen to uplifting music that puts your focus back on God.

Listening to music that points my attention to God helps soothe my spirit and brings peace and calm. It says the words for me that I can’t say right now through the language of music.

3. Read the Bible before bed.

One of the most anxious times is at night when we go to bed. I’m not sure why it is, but nighttime is the worst for anxiety. To help with that, I read a Psalm every night before I go to bed and pick a verse to think about as I drift off to sleep. I can’t tell you what a difference it makes!

4. Talk it Out

There is something about talking out your anxiety. There is power in the darkness, but when we bring light to the darkness, shadows dissipate. When we talk out loud to God, we hear the words we’re saying. I don’t know the science behind it, but it makes a difference. Talking out loud to God brings a deep peace.

5. Gratitude

Practice being thankful. There is a direct coorelation between gratitude and worry. It’s impossible to be thankful and worried at the same time. Try it. It doesn’t work. Find ways to incorporate more gratitude into your day. I do this each morning in my Faithfully Stepping Journal. It’s also fun to create a gratitude journal; we did this at the beginning of the year.

The next time you feel anxious thoughts taking over, try one of these ideas.

More Encouragement

For more encouragement, check out my post, 3 Steps to Releasing Worry and Fear.

Finding Peace in Non-peaceful Times

The Lack of Peace

The lack of peace in our world right now can be terrifying. My kids saw my husband and I watching the news on Ukraine last night and had hundreds of questions before bed. My little girls wanted to know if Colorado was close to Russia, because that’s where their grandparents live. I reassured them that it wasn’t. Matt and I told our kids when we finished talking that our goal was not to scare them but to help them to have a heart to pray for the people in Ukraine.

Our Response

It’s hard to know what to do in times like these when peace feels so far out of reach. It feels wrong to continue with normal life—to go see a movie or to go to bed when the other side of the world is in turmoil. It feels wrong to go about our lives when so much destruction is happening. Yet, we have to get up tomorrow and go to work and deal with all the things that we have to deal with. We sort of want to put a pause on life, yet life keeps moving forward.

Then, there’s the fear. We lie in bed at night and wonder what’s going to happen next. We fear for our safety, for the safety of our country. Thoughts of war run through our heads, and we can’t shut it down and sleep.

How do we respond? How do we find peace in the midst of turmoil? Here’s a few things that I thought of in response to what’s happening in Ukraine.

1. Pray

Pray for peace and for the people of Ukraine. I believe God gives us a heart of empathy that doesn’t let us turn away and just go about our normal day-to-day affairs after hearing and seeing what is going on in another part of the world. I think he does that, so those images will impress upon our hearts the burden to pray. There is evil in this world. Satan is still alive and well and wreaking havoc in this world, and he took a third of heaven’s angels with him when he fell. It would be foolish to think that they are not at work. The Bible tells us there are principalities and powers of darkness in this world. We have the power in our hands to be able to overcome the dark, and that power is through prayer.

We can teach our kids the same thing. The best response is to spend time together as a family and pray.

2. Give

If you want to actively get involved, Saddleback Church in California has a Ukraine Relief Fund and is actively working with pastors in Ukraine to get them the help they need. If God has blessed you with the means to be able to give, this is a great way to help.

3. Love

During times like these, we are reminded of what really matters. For the dear people in Ukraine, it doesn’t matter what kind of house they have, what kind of car they drive, what possessions they have accumulated. What matters to them now is the safety of their loved ones. These times remind us to love on our family. Make right relationships that need to be made right. Spend time loving on your kids; check in with extended family members and neighbors. These are times that people are more open, so capitalize on it and spread love.

4. Hope

Find hope in the only One who can bring hope. Pick a verse or two below to dwell on. When you can’t sleep at night because of the fear in your heart, repeat the verse to God in prayer.

5. Encourage

When we feel helpless, scared, fearful, uncertain, one of the best things we can do is choose to bring hope to someone else. Instead of focusing on me and my fears, find somebody that I can focus on instead.

Take cookies to your neighbor, invite a family over for dinner, send flowers to somebody, check in with your loved ones, call a friend, wave at the crossing guard, smile. Do what you can to encourage somebody else today.

We all can play a small part in making our world a better place today, tomorrow, and the next day. Choose to do something today to work towards that goal and let God’s peace fill you when you do.

More Encouragement

For more encouragement, check out my post When God Finds Us. Here’s a song to bring peace to your heart today, as well. Weary Traveler by Jordan St. Cyr.