Anxiety to Assurance
Genesis 33
Gen 33:4 But Esau ran to meet Jacob
and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they
wept.
TWO
brothers come together and weep as they embrace. God has worked a new spirit
into both Esau and Jacob since the time Jacob fled his brother’s murderous
intent. Surely the tears came as a release from 20 years of soul-disturbing
anxiety.
Anxiety is one of those emotions that can
help save your life, or it could really stop your life. For example, Jacob
displayed some “good anxiety” when he went ahead of his family to bow down in
humility to Esau. He also showed an appropriate anxiety when he offered Esau a
large number of sheep. Jacob was intent on doing all he could to survive this
uncertain encounter!
This “good anxiety”, though, is a result
of the “bad anxiety” that certainly had caused him to anxiously wonder, “Should
I go home? Will Esau attack? What will happen to me and my family? What will
happen to all I’ve worked so hard to achieve? Will God protect me in this
encounter?”
Anxiety works in our lives as a bad tune
in our head. It becomes dull, disturbing background noise to all our thoughts
as we find many, many reasons to fear and doubt our own abilities and God’s
care over us. We easily form anxiety with our imagination, wondering “What
ifs?” as we weigh what to do.
Anxiety, though, can be a doorway to a
God-centered assurance. When the anxiety comes in to try and stop you from
life’s joys and peace, turn to your God and say, “I give my fears, my doubts,
and my “What if’s” to you, Lord.
Then let him take them. It sounds simple.
It is. Try it, and let God turn off the bad music in your mind.
LIFE
Link: Cast all your anxiety on him
because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7 NIV)
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