By Pastor Roger Feenstra
Anxiety – everyone experiences it. The dictionary describes anxiety as, “Worry about what may happen.” To be anxious means simply, “To be worried.” What do you worry about? Many times our worry comes because we are not patient. We want to be in control! We want results now! What we need to learn is patience. Patience is one of the cures for the problem of anxiety. In the book of Galatians, the Apostle Paul writes,
“But the fruit of the Spirit is…patience” (Galatians 5:22.)
To be patient means to “wait” or to “take your time,” to “endure.”
It is a wonder why we worry. We want to have joy in our lives, but worry brings just the opposite. The Bible says this about worry,
“Do not be anxious about anything…” (Philippians 4:6.)
But how do we do that? How do we go through life without worry? How do we learn to have patience?
IT BEGINS WITH PRAYER
We live in a fast world. It’s easy to jump from one thing to the next in our lives without taking time to consider what we just experienced. The book of Philippians says,
“But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6.)
God tells us in his Word to pray about everything. No one can pray and worry at the same time. When we worry, we aren’t praying. When we pray, we aren’t worrying.
Look at this verse from the book of Isaiah:
“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”
When you pray, you “stay” your mind on Christ, resulting in peace. “Stay,” means just what you think it means, “To remain, dwell, stop or delay.”
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE PRAY?
Through prayer, our sin (our most hidden sin) is brought to light before God. King David wrote in the book of Psalms,
“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (139:23,24.)
Do you know what happens when your sins are brought to light before God? In answer to your prayer God washes away your sin completely! Psalm 51:2 says,
“Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!”
Here’s what that means for you: God, not only washes away your sin, the Bible says,
“He removes them as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12.)
How far is that? It’s forever! If you keep going east, you will always be going east – the two, east and west, never meet! Not only that, Micah 7:19 tells us,
“He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”
Even in the 21st century no one has ever found the bottom of the sea. It’s just too deep. Our sins are cast away: never to be brought up again! That is a wonderful promise.
PRAYER TAKES PATIENCE
We neglect times of prayer because we are too busy. We are rushed in the morning, we are rushed during the day, and we are rushed at night. Our lives are too busy to pray, because we are not patient enough to “wait” on God. In other words, we lack patience for prayer.
Jesus Christ gave special time to prayer when He was unusually busy. He would get away from the crowds that followed Him and go into the wilderness just to pray. Look at what He did as recorded in Luke 5:15,16:
“But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.”
It seems like the busier Jesus’ life was the more He prayed.
WHEN SHOULD WE PRAY?
We should “Pray at all times” (Ephesians 6:18.) We should “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17.) We hear so much about Muslims praying five times a day, but God tells Christians to pray all day, every day.
We should find times during the day to set aside just for prayer. It might be when you first get up in the morning. It might be sitting in your car before you go into work. Maybe you take a walk and pray while you are walking.
Temptations come on us suddenly and announced. When they do, you can lift up your voice to God and ask Him for help wherever you are. Even when you awake in the middle of the night, perhaps God is calling you to pray at that moment?
WHEN YOU NEED PATIENCE, LOOK UP
In the 1960’s many of our soldiers were captured by the North Vietnamese and held in prison camps. These prisons were not like ours in the U.S. These were places of torture, solitary and depression. Many men, like General Robbie Risner spent seven years or more in these prisons. They never heard from home, they never read news of what was happening in the U.S., and they had little contact with the other prisoners – for seven and a half years, General Risner looked at his cell. He described his cell this way, “Dirt carpeted the floor, Rats scurried beneath the grate vent and roaches roamed the walls and crawled over sleeping prisoners.” There were no beds, chairs or tables in the cells. Risner described it as “sad and dismal; the essence of despair. Everything was gray, dull, lead-colored, dingy and dirty.”
How does a person survive such misery? Anxiety stares you in the face every waking moment and haunts you in your dreams. Risner’s solution was to stare at a blade
of grass. Several days after his incarceration he worked away the grate near the floor of his cell and was able to stick his head through the vent while lying on his stomach. Through a pencil sized hole in a brick he was able to see daylight and he could just see a single blade of green grass. It was the only color in his world. Everyday, he would begin his day by sticking his head into the vent, looking at the grass, and praying. He called it a “blood transfusion for the soul.”
What about your world? Is it filled with despair, darkness, hopelessness, and anxiety? Read the words of the Apostle Paul in Colossians 3:2,
“Set your minds on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”
You see, when we look to Christ, in the midst of our anxiety, it is like looking at a fresh blade of grass in a dull gray world. The promise from God’s word is this,
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7.)
It takes patience to look at a blade of grass in the midst of trouble, but God promises us fulfillment when we do it.
The Bible tells us that we are to be “Patient in tribulation and constant in prayer” (Romans 12:12.) That is the cure for anxiety.
Study Questions
1. Would you describe yourself as a worrier? Explain.
2. How do you normally handle worry that seeps into your heart?
3. Is it true that no one can pray and worry at the same time? Explain.
4. Why does heartfelt, genuine prayer tend to defeat worry?
5. What stops you from looking at the “things above?” Explain.
6. What can you do this week to lessen the anxiety in your life?
