18 Apr Life giving practices that will help you become more resilient.
An extract from Part 1 of our Resilience Series by Gosia Denham. Watch the full message below.
You can also download the ONE MINUTE PAUSE App by John Eldredge that Gosia mentions in her message – click here.
When you feel Anxious – let Him shepherd you!
We need to learn to give Jesus control. Building resilience will always require of us to give something over to God.
Psalm 23:1 says “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.”
Think about that for a moment.
The LORD is my shepherd! The King of Kings. The Creator of the world. The one who holds the whole universe together. He is my shepherd.
He cares for me, He leads me, He looks after me, He provides everything I need.
I lack nothing.
A lot of our anxieties are to do with lack. We don’t feel we ARE enough, we lack the wisdom and talent of others. Or we don’t feel we HAVE enough. Not enough time, not enough resources, not enough money.
As our shepherd – He is our provider. The promise of His word is that He will give us everything we need for today. We lack nothing with Him.
If we want to build resilience in our lives then we need to let Him shepherd us. We need to give him control over our lives. Give him all those things that cause our anxieties. Give him everyone and everything we are anxious about.
1 Peter 5:7 encourages us to “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
Anxiety comes from feeling out of control and so we try to control things.
We think that if we can control the outcomes of our lives, control our image, control what people will think and say about us, then everything will be ok. We even try to protect ourselves by controlling other people.
But control is an illusion. No matter how hard we try – it will never work. People will still think and say what they want to. Life doesn’t always go the way we planned. We can’t twist God’s hand to give us exactly what we want. And that feeling of not being in control fills our lives with anxiety.
Over the last few years, I’ve been learning to give control over to God. That means giving Him everyone and everything to Jesus. Giving Him all my anxieties daily, sometimes even twice a day. I just sit quietly with Jesus and try to feel the point of anxiety, try to listen to that knot in my stomach and work out what I am anxious about.
Last December I was anxious about not having enough money for our Christmas Hamper Project. If I was completely honest with myself and God, that anxiety, was not so much about whether I will have enough for all the people that need help, I was just afraid that if we don’t hit our financial goal, if we don’t give out more hampers than last year, then there goes my reputation.
As I sat down with God, I said outright – “Lord I give you the hampers this year, you do what you want to do with them, I give you my worry about what people will think if I don’t make the target, I give you my reputation.” I had to do it a few times over those couple of weeks, sometimes in the middle of the night, but the relief of casting my anxiety on Jesus was enormous.
There is a huge release of tension and pressure when we fully give control of all our situations to the Lord, our Shepherd. That is part of getting back to the garden with God, with our Good Shepherd who cares for us.
What is that knot in your gut today? What do you need to relinquish control over in your life? What situation, worry, need do you need to give to Jesus? Who do you need to give to Jesus?
I encourage you to sit down with Jesus sometime today, work out what you are anxious about and place it into His hands.
Give everyone and everything to Jesus for He cares for you.
Watch the full message:
No Comments