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| Rid Anxiety From Your Life |
On April 14th I wrote out the following prayer:
Heavenly Father (Teacher), I have an abundance of studies in progress. These are subjects that I started to study and have not completed. It is overwhelming me because I want to complete them and it seems to be impossible because of the quantity. This also includes my writing projects that are not completed. I need Your direction in how to proceed with this. I also want to be well prepared to teach Sunday School each week so studying for that is at the top of my list. It is written, “In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.” I pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Fifteen days later, on the morning of April 29th my anxiety level was still rising with a To Do List that seemed completely out of control so I wrote the following in my journal:
Anxiety is robbing me of the joy of studying the word of God. There are too many irons in the fire, and the fire is not big enough to heat all the irons. Currently, I have 68 Bible study topics that are not completed. And I have 29 blogposts in Drafts mode. And I have 5 books I need to finish reading. And I have 11 major writing projects to work on. And I have Sun School to prep for. Comfort me O God and soothe my anxieties. Teach me a better way to tackle my To Do Lists so that I come away feeling like I’ve accomplished some things, and not just added yet another thing to the lists.
After this, I attended our Saturday Fit Body and Bible at church and afterward the First Lady and I had a conversation about my anxiety. She gave me a word… “fluidity”. She said Holy Spirit wants me to release my rigidity and flow in the Spirit as He leads me from study to study, and project to project.
I went home that same day and completely dismantled my Studies in Progress binder. I made sure that all the study projects were on my spreadsheet and I filed them all away for future reference. The Holy Spirit wants me to follow His lead from now on. As He leads me into a study, I will look on my Studies in Progress spreadsheet and see if it is already on there. If it is, I will pull the reference material and continue the study as He leads me that day. If we don’t complete it that day, I will update the spreadsheet and file it away. If we do complete the study I can remove it from the spreadsheet and process it accordingly. If it becomes a blogpost, I will add it to that list, and if not I can file it away in the journal and so on. My anxiety was completely gone. I was relieved to no longer be governed by my To Do List but now governed by the gentle leading of Holy Spirit. The Scripture that He dropped in my spirit was Matt 11:28-30… “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
On the following Monday morning, the very first thing He led me to study was The Glory of God. I searched my spreadsheet and saw that we had already begun the study back in March. I pulled those notes out and studied for hours. It felt good. I enjoyed it. There was no anxiety at all. I stumbled across a YouTube video where this teacher was expounding on the glory of God and I received life changing revelation.
I heard Pastor Steven Furtick say, “If the enemy cannot distract you, he’ll try to discourage you, just as he did the prophet Elijah. The Lord approached Elijah and asked him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” God likes asking rhetorical questions that will get us to thinking.
God will never design a life for us that makes Him unnecessary, because if I think that I can do it all on my own, then I don’t need Him. He had to show me that without Him I am nothing but a ball of anxiety with no way to make my calling worthwhile, but through Him, I am more than a conqueror.
My anxiety level had taken away my enjoyment of studying. This was the enemy’s goal to discourage me from studying God’s word. The word that First Lady gave me to stay fluid was the answer to my dilemma. As a result, I have now developed a brand-new process for studying the word of God. His yoke is easy. His burden is light.
Thank You Lord!
To God be the glory.
Dee Richardson, Voice of the Dove