Anxious Much?

“O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people.” – Psalms 117:1

What a beautiful season of reset God has given us at this moment.

I have to fully disclose that I really did not get it at first.  I along with so many other people all around the globe have been glued to various news outlets and been privy to different conspiracies leading to a system overload.  I had at one time had so many news feeds and streams going that I thought my internet would literally shut down.

I had to take a break from it all.

My belly was beginning to ache yet again; my head was hurting even after two cups of coffee, and the brain drain was on an all-time high.  It even felt like my throat had swallowed up one of the biggest frogs ever.

Oh no, did I just get bit by that ole’ nasty FEAR bug?  Why yes, indeed I had.

Fear of anyone and everything had meandered into my mind. This was an extremely painful and draining thought to me. I had at one time experienced a condition called ANXIETY and DEPRESSION.  In spite of all the counseling and self-help work I had done in the past it only took about a day or so for those enemies to rear their ugly heads inside my mind.

“For God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” – 2 Timothy 1:7

In a frantic moment, I realized that God would be my only help through this plight.   I had to press in, and be relentless about it until I received the answers to why I was feeling this physical and mental confusion.

I had to, first of all, understand that this was not going to be an ordinary prayer on an ordinary day.

I needed to understand that I had never in my entire life known such fear, sadness,  anger, and mourning like this.  This was most definitely going to require a different kind of prayer.  I was going to need to break out the heavy artillery; the likes of which I had no clue.

I needed to experience a breakthrough kind of prayer.

So, I cried out to God.  In my prayers, I begged the Lord to allow me to see beyond all of the noise and distractions to get to the real reason that I (we), are in this season of current events.  I needed to understand exactly what I should be doing during my downtime.   I have to admit that during the first few weeks of this pandemic, I was overwhelmed and in a very negative headspace.

Wow, God answers prayers!

I believe that each one of us has or will have prayers that look very different from one another depending upon our individual lives and beliefs.

For my life, the Lord let me know that I needed to do four major things right away.  These were:

1.  Ask for forgiveness

2.  Surrender all fears ( no matter what)

3.  Activate my faith in him

4.  Pray daily before doing anything else

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” – Philippians 4:13

I can’t even fully express to you the level of comfort and relief I experienced after my prayers.  In my daily prayer time, I make sure to keep my focus first and foremost on praise and thanksgiving.

I now spend more time praying for others. I do believe that Jesus Christ will increase my level of faith over time.

I understand that I am like a beautiful painting in the works.  Each carefully planned layer, color, tool used, and brushstroke that is incorporated by the gentle but firm hand of God gives this canvas called my life its value and purpose.

I know that one day my faith and I will look exactly the way in which he designed.

“I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.” – Psalm 32:8