Fear and Anxiety

Yesterday on the blog, I shared quotes about guilt and shame from Recovering Redemption by Matt Chandler.  Today, I am sharing from the same book on the topic of fear and anxiety.  This is a great book. Go and pick it up at Faith and Life Bookstore in Newton, KS.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is still the one reassuring answer to your antsy heart.

Eden was, by contrast, a place of peace and prosperity.

And so, beginning from that tragic point in time, fear and anxiety began aggravating the human heart, so that even His redeemed children through the ages, down to this very day, would know the cruel feeling of being robbed, of living without the peace and prosperity He'd intended for us to enjoy.

For while "Abba" does connote a level of family intimacy, it sends up more of the idea that "my dad can beat up your dad," that our Father is not caught off guard or pushed around by anything that seems too big or oversized for us, no matter what it is.

The bottom line underneath most of our fear and anxiety is that we simply don't believe--don't have faith--in the goodness of God.

So ask yourself: Why don't you trust Him, after all He's done to save us from situations that are much more eternally impossible to untangle than any fears we could be facing today?

A gospel choice. . .And when I wake up tomorrow before sunrise, even if the specter of January (speaking of a medical procedure related to his cancer) is the first thing there to greet me, am I not within my rights to tell it to move to one side, seeing as it's blocking my view of God's "new every morning" mercies? 

I'm wise to be a good steward, but I'll never be my own rescuer. . .Because He's in charge anyway. And in Him, you're in His peace. That's not just good. That's great.