The Cost of Choice
Theme of the week: Why Am I Anxious?
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
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Key Bible Verses: Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24, NIV) Dig Deeper: Ecclesiastes 12:1-7
When faced with anxiety we feel exposed, naked, and vulnerable. Hiding and covering up is typically how we respond when we feel those things.
God has not only created us, but he has created us as free beings, and in our freedom we are given possibility and choice. I would like for you for a moment to imagine God freely calling you toward his good purposes. And as you journey in that direction you may find yourself caught between the present and the future. That in-between place of present and future can create all kinds of anxiety because of the freedom of choices God has given us in our life. Perhaps we are anxious because the experiences of our past have shaped us in such a way that we are in dread of making a free and deliberate choice. Or perhaps just the mere possibility of making a wrong choice has left you feeling anxious.
Anxiety is, therefore, both the cost and gift of our identity as free creatures in relationship to God. We have choices. Without freedom, and the anxiety it entails, we are just slaves—yearning for safety and security and grumbling at God rather than living the anxious journey through the wilderness toward freedom.
—Rhett Smith in The Anxious Christian
My Response: What do I most frequently feel anxious about?
Thought to Apply: Little men with little minds and little imaginations go through life in little ruts, smugly resisting all the changes which would jar their little world.—Author Unknown
Adapted from The Anxious Christian (Moody, 2011) by permission. All rights reserved by the copyright holder and/or the publisher. May not be reproduced.
Copyright © 2012 by Christianity Today/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity. 1 of 1
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Lord, help me to view my anxiety as an opportunity for change and dependence on you, and not to let it paralyze me with fear, doubt, and inadequacy.
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