53 Anxieties

At our last Bible study, we talked about fearing ~ less. And my friend that commented on the topic mentioned giving God her list of 53 anxieties for the day, at the beginning of the day, and then moving on from there. While we all laughed about it, something struck me as I was finishing Fervent last week.

Now, we know we can't just trust God to not let our greatest fears and worst nightmares become our reality. BUT, what if we did actually write down our list of 53 Anxieties for Today and just saw what happened?

Here's why.

First, if we can see our list of worries and see what would be my guess as most of them NOT happening, we could potentially begin to see that what we are most worried or fearful of is holding a fake power over us that is keeping us held as very real prisoners.

Second, even if one of our 53 Anxieties did happen, I am also quite sure that we would see God move on our behalf to bring comfort.

And most importantly, we might actually notice some patterns. Patterns of our thought processes. Patterns of where we see we trust God the least. And patterns where the shouts of the enemy our loudest, where his whispers are being clearly heard, and where we are accepting our doubts and fears as Gospel truth.

John 8:32 tells us Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. What if the truth we need to set us free can't be found unless we can recognize the lie in order to dismantle it with truth? Because here's the thing. If we don't dismantle the lie, then any time we have the slightest glimmer of hope over our anxieties, worries, fears, or doubts, that seed of promise is going to fall on rocky ground, sprout quickly, and leave us in the exact same spot or it's going to clear out the room in our head that will end up being infilitrated by the enemy and seven of his friends because we didn't fill that space with something better.

I don't know that I could come up with a list of 53 Anxieties each morning. But I bet I could easily hit 25 or 30 at the start and have 53 by the end of the day. Personally, I think I would rather come up with a list of 53 truths I can cling to once I can honestly own where I am not trusting God and then let Him do what He does best: build my faith, build my confidence, and fulfill my hope.

Every season has the potential to throw us a curve ball. And our enemy is tricky and he watches and waits for the best time to strike. And no matter how much we think we can avoid his tactics forever, he will have a few lucky shots here and there. But if we could just accept that the spirit of fear comes from him alone, then maybe, just maybe, we really can start to fear less.