What is anxiety? Anxiety can be a feeling of fear, dread, uneasiness, and a multitude of negatively heightened emotions. The real question isn’t “what symptom will you be feeling in those emotionally heightened moments?”, but rather “will you continue on, finish the job that God has called you to do?” Many like I had once believed God to only deal with things of the church, such as being a Pastor, Deacon, Usher, Choir singer, etc. But God doesn’t only work inside the church: He works outside as well, within the very world we inhabit everyday. God calls people to be married and unmarried, doctors, lawyers, biological and step parents, and a multitude of other things. So if God calls many of us to be a multitude of these things, does that mean we don’t worry or fret if we’re good enough or meet those imaginary standards? I and many alike have felt this gut-wrenching feeling that makes us ponder if we’re the right person for the task, whether we will succeed, or if our perceived skills are appropriate for the job at hand. That feeling we’ve all felt is anxiety.
A lot of the time the worry or anxiety we all feel can be due to us being unable to visualise whether we are capable of doing or completing the task at hand. Or possibly how long the journey seems in order to reach our intended destination. But Rome wasn’t built in a day, right? So why do we need to know every step? Maybe all we need to know is what we need to do and where to go. As we all can relate, it can be worrisome and demoralizing seeing all the different things we may need to do or obstacles we may have to maneuver around. However, (Luke 12:25-26 TPT) reminds us “Does worry add anything to your life? Can it add one more year, or even one day? So if worrying adds nothing, but actually subtracts from your life, why would you worry about God’s care of you?”. So maybe all we need to do is go, take that first step, adhere to that nudge God may be giving us, because he sees the full picture that we may not, and he’ll enable us when we feel we cannot.
An instance I remember I almost let my anxiety and worry drown out what God told me to do was during one of my most challenging seasons in my faith. I always felt like I struggled to hear God since I had become a Christian. I was waiting for the burning bush or the parting of the sky message that signified “go ye”. But we know God speaks to us all in different ways (Job 33:14 CEV). In this particular circumstance, I felt God “intensely” telling me internally to pray with my roommate, someone who ridiculed me about God and didn’t have much, if any faith of their own pertaining to the realness of God. He was going through a tough breakup and I was going through my own spiritual storm where I was questioning my very own faith in God and prayer was an insecurity for me. So you could say the odds felt stacked against me, I was living quite literally a mission impossible.
Yes, this is something so many of us feel. The internalized feelings of feeling ill-equipped or inadequate. Wondering how we can possibly succeed or accomplish what the task at hand demands. In that very moment I felt and thought all of these things. But something within me, a belief, said “If I do my part, God’s going to do the rest”. And so I took that necessary first step and God followed suit. Both my roommate and I left that prayer session in better spirits and in awe of God. That first step and continued belief is all God needs to do a work in us, but it can also be at times the hardest things to be do, like so many of us can attest to. But God has a resume that showcases his track record of doing the impossible with the most improbable, the Bible. The Bible featured Moses, a man who had great success as a leader, but had human “imperfections” as well. His temper, a speech impediment, fear and self-doubt. Yet, rather than representing weaknesses, these human flaws ultimately contributed to God’s strength.
Our weaknesses, doubts, disbelief or perceived skill lacks are not a deterrent to being called by God to do something; on the contrary, it provides an opportunity for God and his enabling power to shine more brightly.
(John 4:4 NLT) should strengthen us when it states, “But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.” God can tell us countless motivational quotes and much needed words of encouragement at our most vulnerable moments in our disbelief. Yet, the choice is still up to us to believe, to have some amount of faith, no matter how small (Matthew 17:20-21), and most importantly taking that first step of faith and following God down wherever he’s leading or calling us. Because that self-doubt will kill us before anything touches us.
Scripture Reading: Job 33:14; Matthew 17:20-21; Luke 12:25-26; John 4:4
