Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7 NIV
If you are going to live a non-anxious life, you must choose to believe beyond yourself. Life-changing belief has two parts. The first is admitting you cannot handle your past, your present, and your future. You must let go of your desires and attempts to control. The need to control and the fear of not being in control are at the core of all anxiety.
We humans easily assume that life will be better if we can be at the control center of our own lives. We try to force our wills on our loved ones, we act as though we own our families and can dominate our children. We out-talk our friends, think our opinions are wisest, and share them without being invited. We are experts on politics, people, and other things we know nothing factual about. We predict with an air of certainty things that are far too complex to ascertain.
Why? We have major anxiety, so most of us attempt to lower our anxiety by controlling every single element and variable in our environment. We sit in the driver’s seat of our life, maintaining a tight grip on the steering wheel, trying to keep everyone and everything on path. Even if we do occasionally manage to keep most everything in place, we come to the end of the day or the experience exhausted, our hands practically paralyzed from the unbreakable grip we held on that steering wheel. Relationships are hindered and a new round of anxiety begins.
No one is wise enough, strong enough, capable enough to be in control of everything. And then, you don’t need to live very long to discover that even the best, the most capable among us can control extraordinarily little, and certainly the most important things are above the pay grade of all of us. We can do our best to raise our children well, but ultimately we have no control over how they “turn out.” We can have frugal budgets and great financial plans, but we can’t control the economy or our boss. We can be the best partner we know how to be and get counseling and coaching on being even better, but if your partner wants to leave, you can’t make him/her stay. We can live well and kindly and build a great reputation, but one misguided person can smear us and cause some to believe wrong things about you they will always remember. And then there’s death, commonly reported as the greatest anxiety for most people. Unless we choose suicide, we know we ARE going to die. We just don’t know when or how.
We might as well let go and focus on something else. God invites us to let go of our anxiety and care and drop it on him. It’s a great choice. We’ll talk more about it tomorrow.
- What benefits are you experiencing from anxiety? What is keeping you from admitting you truly have little control, and simply praying for influence instead? What do you need to drop into God’s capable hands right now?