Anxiety

by Terry Wane Benton

When your nerves are frayed, and you are afraid of what is going to happen in view of what you just lost, it can consume you with stress, worry, and anxiety. I believe that God helps us through things even when we cannot see any hope at the moment.

I’ve been through several valleys of anxiety in my time, and each time God helped me through those valleys. Reading about such anxious moments David faced and how he affirmed God's care and help in the Psalms showed me that anxiety was real for David, but he handled it by affirming faith in God as a “very present help in trouble.”

He had to remind himself that even if the mountains are falling all around him, there is a stream of refreshment that makes glad the city of God (Psalms 45). “God is my refuge,” he repeated over and over. And in a while, the frightening storms began to subside and settle into a peaceful new day.

There are many unpleasant tasks and challenges to our faith, and it is then that the quality of our faith is up for review. I have to ask myself in those moments, “Do you truly trust God to see you through this? Have you been playing at faith? Is there no hardship that tests the quality of your faith?”
When anxiety seems to be winning, it is time to check our faith in God.

Must I be carried to the skies
on flowery beds of ease
while others fought to win the prize
and sailed through bloody seas?

Are there no foes for me to face?
Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace,
To help me on to God?

Sure, I must fight if I would reign!
Increase my courage, Lord!
I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain,
supported by Thy Word!

[Am I a Soldier of the Cross, Isaac Watts]

Is this how you get a grip on your anxieties? In anxiety, it is always time to draw near to God, and He will draw near to you! He cares for you! But what about your trust in Him?