I found this on a friend’s blog. I figured if it spoke to me, it’s speak to someone else…
You name it, I tried it. I prayed. I fasted. I studied my Bible. Yet over and over, no matter what discipline I practiced, the ugly demon of anxiety crept back into my life.
Then the Lord taught me a valuable lesson. The lesson did not come all at once. It was something I learned over time. The Lord revealed the basis for most of my anxiety. And as I previously admitted, the lesson was not learned over night.
And what was the lesson?
My problem was not anxiety. My problem was pride.
Ouch! That hurts to admit even after all these years.
My anxiety was the result of pride. My fears were due to lack of humility. So to cure my anxiety I had to crucify my pride.
There are plenty of passages I can cite the Lord used to make His point, yet this one is central to His lesson for me:
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:6-7)
Note two words: HUMBLE & ANXIETIES.
I believe there is a direct correlation between peace and humility. To state it conversely, there is connection between anxiety and pride. Anxiety rises when we do not trust God. Anxiety increases when we think God is not able. Fretting runs reckless when we want control rather than when we surrender control over to God.
“Humble yourselves,” the Lord commands, “Casting all your anxieties on him.”
For years I addressed the symptom rather than the cause. For years I was clueless about the cause to my fears. Time and again I was casting my anxieties of Him without humbling myself before Him.
Only a humble (person) can cast his anxieties into the hands of God. It is in humility we admit our inability, while we trust in God’s ability.
The Lord taught me to rid my anxiety by crucifying my pride. The Lord showed me that He was using anxiety to humble me. Anxiety was God’s way of telling me to humble myself before Him. In humbling myself before Him I learned to cast all my anxieties on Him. The result: my anxieties disappeared.
So, what about you? Why do you fret? What causes your worry? Could it be your pride? If so, I beg you to crucify your pride and wait on God’s peace. He will give it, He surely will provide.
Reminds me of a post that I had where I learned that we should come quietly before God instead of starting up our prayer time by asking for stuff and then walking away without giving God a chance to speak.
If we do all of the talking then it must be that we are worried and our anxiety come from not trusting God to provide.