So today is the longest day ...
For some of us that feels great.
For others, a long day is not a good day because it feels like there's going to be a lot to get through ... and, anyway, that means the days are going to be getting shorter now, and then it will be winter and ...
You see the point?
It is really easy to drop into a downward spiral of anxiety if we do not take care of the way that we think.
It seems like an astonishingly high number but in any one week in England, six in every one hundred people have General anxiety Disorder.
That does sound like a lot, doesn't it?
Now, even during a pandemic, NHS Wales offers a range of treatments to people when it gets unmanageable ... if that sounds like you, don't hesitate to talk to your Doctor!
But a certain measure of anxiety seems natural in life and we do need to recognise the difference between the anxiety you can talk to and the sort that you can't.
In any event, feeling powerless is what lies at the root of anxiety ... whatever pattern of anxiety a person's up against.
The good news is that God stands ready to help us in this situation, because ...
God's plan is not for His people to fell powerless
Anxiety in our broken world is really understandable, but what is equally clear is that anxiety is not generally something the Lord wants His people to feel powerless about, and that He (as well as the medics where they become necessary) gives His people a lot of help to deal with this matter.
In 2 Timothy, Paul was in a situation he might have reason to be anxious about.
Imprisoned for his faith by a hostile state and abandoned by many people who did not want to be tarred with the brush of association with him, Paul wrote to the younger man Timothy:
"For God did not give us a Spirit of fear
but of
- power and
- love and
- self-control."
2 Timothy 1:7
Why not be anxious, Paul?
The verses that follow spell it out for Timothy.
For the follower of Christ it is clear that the Gospel addresses directly the sense of powerlessness that empowers and drives our anxious thoughts.
So here's Paul's point with Timothy at a time when many have been to anxious to go on associating with the persecuted prisoner, Paul:
The Point
God is personally invested in you - as your 'Patron'
In his world where powerful people's patronage was everything, Paul is saying although we may not have influential friends and people who can come along and carry weight for us, we have the most powerful of patrons in God Himself.
How do we know that, as believers?
He has put His Holy Spirit in you
In the words of our Verse for the Day
“For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid,
but gives us
power,
love and
self-discipline.”
2 Timothy 1:7
Paul make clear Who 'the Spirit God gives us' should be identified as in v. 14
“Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you – guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.”
2 Timothy 1:14
But there's more to indicate we're got a great 'Patron', Who delivers on looking after us:
“He has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,”
2 Timothy 1:9
Saved you
Called you
Defeated death the ultimate enemy for you
And it's all predicated on the faith that is in you
Paul's whole chat with Timothy on this matter rests on the issue he's already referred to:
“I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.”
2 Timothy 1:5
https://www.bible.com/113/2ti.1.5.nivuk
The Takeaway
Whether you have the anxiety you CAN talk to, or that you can't ... grasping and thinking on these things helps either address the anxiety itself or to strengthen the person who can't talk to it but is nonetheless afflicted by it. It makes us stronger in general in the face of life's struggles!
And if you don't yet know what anxiety feels like, be thankful but not complacent!
Thinking on these things, reminding yourself of their realty, is precisely what you need to do to keep on strengthening yourself from the inside out as a believer, because the outside always seems to be getting worn away and that constant exercise of faith is what both makes and keeps us strong in the Lord.
If you're struggling with anxiety, we find that our prayers often help.
Let us know, and we'll gladly add praying for you to our list.
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