"Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" -Mark 4:40
Anxiety can be terrifying. In the worst of times, it turns us into the smallest of people, stealing our hope and our confidence all at once. Daily, it turns us into bottles of 'what if's' and fear. I think it is something that almost everyone deals with, but for a few of us, anxiety has started to run our life.
This week I was officially diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. The people that know me best know that I am a worry wort. Tests, assignments and daily tasks seem to always make me worry. I freak out in large crowds, and silly little things tend to put me on edge. I never really saw it as a problem, but apparently, it is.
Ironically, my pastor spoke about anxiety this week. As college students, I think that we all tend to freak out about things on a day to day basis. The future is just a test away and people expect us to know what we are doing with our lives. After listening to my pastor tonight, my eyes have been opened to the world of anxiety and to the idea that I can be freed of it.
1. Worrying exists because we try to be our own god.
Yes god, lower case, because this task is impossible. God never intended for us to carry the weight and the shame of the world. By placing tasks on our own back we become weak and restless. We stray from the Lord, thinking that we can do it all on our own. It seems fine at the time, but sometimes the weight and pressure of the world becomes all too much and we cannot do it ourselves anymore. God did not intend for us to have restless nights worrying about little things, like what we're going to wear to class tomorrow. We need to learn to lay everything at his feet because He is truly in control.
2. We worry because we have little faith in the Lord.
If we truly trusted in the Lord, we would never worry. We might know in our head that He is in control, but we need to learn this in our hearts as well. We need to stop turning to God as our last resort, we need to instead turn to Him first. Prayer is the perfect fix to anxiety, because Christ is the only one that can truly take the worries away. It might not happen instantly, but the Lord has a plan and He intends to carry it out. So instead of worrying, we should sit back, relax, and watch the Lord as He carries out his magnificent plan for our lives.
3. No medicine will fix depression or anxiety.
This statement will probably be debatable for many, and that is OK. My point is that medications are just temporary fixes. They make us feel better for a short period of time, but they never really fix the problem. We drown ourselves in depression and anxiety, because we turn to worldly things, instead of God. If we were to change this pattern in our lives, things would be much easier. I know that these are serious disabilities, but if we just stop and think about how big Christ is in comparison to how big our problems are, I think we would see situations in a different light. Christ is the true fix or medicine in any situation.
I write these statements like they are easy ones to follow. I understand that it is difficult to trust in the Lord, especially in trying situations. But I know that if I try my best to make Christ my first resort, rather than my last, I will live a life with less worry and more freedom. I hope, like me, that you see these words as a way to free yourself from depression and anxiety, because it is possible.
