Restless & Worrisome

Have you ever climbed into bed at the end of a long day hoping for a decent rest? Today was one of those days. Tonight was one of those nights. I crawled into bed and pulled the covers up around me, closed my eyes, and said a quick prayer. No sooner had I finished did the thoughts come.

Thoughts about circumstances and situations that I cannot change. Worry began to creep into my bedroom, sulking in the corners with it's dark oozing poison to rob me of a peaceful rest. As I'm lying there being bombarded by the troubles of my life, a verse keeps replaying in my mind.

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:7 KJV

With each thought, I remember that verse and pray that God would help me trust Him in these situations. The opposite of trust is worry. So by worrying about these issues and situations, I was not trusting that God was in control. I was instead, taking away the hope and faith I have in Christ and worrying over situations beyond my abilities. Now how much sense does that make?

I can't solve these problems. But yet here I was taking them away from the one who can! Doesn't take much common sense to know that worrying about things I cannot change and taking them out of the hands of my capable heavenly Father is pretty stupid on my part.

So rather than lay there worrying more, my sleep already disturbed, I got up and found a Christian chatroom. Would you believe me if I told you that the very first verse anyone posted in the room was 2 Timothy 1:7.

What does it say? God has not given us a spirit of fear (or worry) but a "spirit of power" and love and a sound mind. Power for what? Power to overcome our fear? Power to overcome our worry? Power to keep our eyes fixed on the one who has the answers to the questions that are plaguing our sleepless nights? "And of love"- the Bible says that perfect love casts out all fear. Oh what a good God we serve. He knew we needed His perfect love and His power to overcome our fear and He even knew to write about it in His word so that we would know the solution to our fear and worry. Oh thank you Jesus.

I love this last part most "and of a sound mind." When I'm lying in my bed at night, unable to sleep, it is so easy for the enemy to come at me with his accusations that I'm unstable. He knows that this is an area of weakness in my life and he will use it every chance he gets. But God knew that too. He knew how the enemy would try to come against our minds and our hearts and so He gave us the last part of this verse to remind us that we have sound minds. We are not crazy. We are not unstable. We are not insane. We do not belong in asylums - though some of my friends might disagree. In Jesus we have sound minds, stable minds.

Isn't God good? He made a way out. Even when we are facing the fear and worry of dark days- God has given us power to overcome, His perfect love to cast out every spirit of fear, and sound minds to know that a better day is coming. And after all that, He made a way for us to be victorious over the temptation of putting our trust in anything other than Him.

"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear [it]. " 1 Corinthians 10:13 KJV

So what's our way of escaping worry? God's peace. God's presence. God's people. When we get in the presence of God and praise Him, He will fill us with His peace and remind us of the hope we have in Him. His love casts out every fear. His hope reminds us that He has good plans for us. His people surround us and lift us up in prayer. He is good and greatly to be praised- even now. Especially now.