Anxious ???

      Have you ever thought about the word ‘anxious’?  According to one dictionary’s account, this word means:  experiencing worry, unease, or nervousness, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.  As certain as I am that this is a pretty accurate definition, I am just as certain that I didn’t need to define that for you.  To be human is to know the emotion of anxiety (anxious thoughts).  This word is so prevalent in our society that we’ve created an entire pharmacological industry to mask our experience of it.  For me, this emotional experience has everything to do with wanting to know the missing link between the present moment and the future outcome.  But could we actually experience peace without knowing the intricate details?   

     While enjoying my journey through the book of Genesis, God impressed these things upon my heart.  We see that God provided an overview to Abraham of what He was about to accomplish through him. 

“Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.  But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.  As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.”  

(Genesis 15:13-15 ESV).

Consider for just a moment how Abraham would have felt hearing the detailed plans of God’s story in advance.   Four hundred years of affliction followed by justice and then prosperity left huge gaps in Abrahams knowledge; however, God was building an intimate relationship with Abraham, giving him the end from the beginning, but not sharing the missing link taking him from the present moment through the detailed path to the outcome.  In God wisdom, He knows that trusting Him far outweighed knowing all the details.  Would you agree that some details are just better unknown?  Would knowing you were going to have cancer move you out of anxious thoughts or would they escalate to something far worse like deep depression and dread?

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.

Hebrews 11:8–11 (ESV)

     We also read a similar proclamation in the book of Jeremiah which many people claim as life verses guiding their journey with Almighty God.

 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.” 

(Jeremiah 29:11–14 ESV)

     Scriptures are full of God-ordained plans and prophetic utterances that have been fulfilled.  Many of those fulfilled prophesy bring hope to the weary sojourner.  There are many Biblical examples of ancient sojourners asking God "How".  For example, Do you think Abraham was anxious regarding receiving the Promised Land when he said to God, “How am I to know that I shall possess it,” (Genesis 15:8 ESV) What about Gideon’s response when God revealed plans, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel?  Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” (Judges 6:15 ESV), or Zechariah response to the messenger of God, “How shall I know this?  For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” (Luke 1:18 ESV).  Even Mary who was to become the mother of Jesus had her question, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34 ESV) No one is exempt from wanting to know the details to God’s plan for our lives, but faith requires a mystery that moves us from the present to our promised future.

     In hindsight let’s look at several unknown factors that produced the promised outcomes found in Genesis 15: 13-15 verse shown above.  At the onset of the story both Sarah and Abraham aided God in creating offspring through Hagar, but Ishmael was not God’s chosen descendant.  God wished to use a 90-year-old woman to become the mother of many nations.  God tested Abraham’s faith through asking that he sacrifice his only son Isaac, but at just the right moment a ram appeared and spared Isaac’s life.  Would faith have been required if Abraham knew there would be an unblemished ram on Mount Horeb?   We are reminded through God’s story that although He spared Abraham’s son, He would not spare His own.  We observe the miracle of Abraham’s servant seeking a wife for Isaac and God giving a clear revelation that Rebekah is to be that woman.  Rebekah, like her mother-in-law Sarah, and her daughter-in-law Rachel suffered from infertility.  Yet we see how God blessed their wombs and created a nation so great that even Pharaoh decided to enslave them fearing being overtaken by their numbers.  

     It was not necessary for Abraham to know how God would move past Esau and choose Jacob, nor how Jacob’s eleventh son, Joseph would create a pathway for Jacob’s ancestor’s to be enslaved under Pharaoh in Egypt.  God’s foundational outline moves His Story from the end back to the beginning.  Just as God planned that Noah would come from Seth’s (Adam’s third son) lineage, and Abraham would come from Shem’s (Noah’s first).  As significant as Josephs’ rise to prominence in Egypt shows us that God can do the impossible. We see this repeated by an unlikely candidate, Moses, whose prominence is the backbone of God's chosen people.  God has designed plans for our lives without revealing the details.   God never intended for us to be embedded in the details, He wants us to grow in faith as we depend on Him to work all things together for our good.

     In the writing world, an author may choose one of two styles in creating a story.  One method is to plot and the second is called pants.  In the first, a plotter creates a foundational outline that she uses to guide her writing.  Whereas the second, a pantser, write creatively hoping the story will magically reveal itself.  A plotter with a foundation is less likely to have to scrap large portions of her work, unlike a pantser who may find herself on an erroneous path leading nowhere.   We learn from Scriptures that God has a plan and it is well laid out.  He is not running the Universe by the seat of His pants.  But even beyond looking at the foundational design that is evidenced through Scriptures, we should also recognize the futility of our anxious thoughts.  We see time and time again how God reveals His story and then delivered exactly what He revealed through His divine authorship we call life.  God says, “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’ (Isaiah 46:9-10 ESV) What does our faith reveal when we encounter a detour to our self-made plans and find ourselves going to unexpected places?  Are we anxious?

     We also see, “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.”  (Proverbs 19:21 ESV), and “The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way; though he falls, he shall not be cast headlong, for the LORD upholds his hand.” (Psalm 37:23-24 ESV) The phrase ‘though he falls,’ should give us a clue that we can anticipate some unpleasantries.  It does not say ‘if’.  Where do God’s truths go when we find ourselves in anxious thoughts about our health, our family’s safety, or an unexpected turn of events that move us out of familiar places?  Scriptures offer us the book of Job to teach us that although we may suffer, that God who drives our universe has nothing but good intentions for our personal growth.  It wasn't Job's sin that led to his immense discomfort.  In the end of the story, we do not see God's correction which should have reassured Job that he did indeed live a blameless life and was not being punished.

     This past week, our fourteen-year-old daughter enjoyed a high school trip to sunny Florida with her marching band.  Watching the weather, we found ourselves anxious about the timing of her departure by bus.  A few moments after she left, we learned that our airline plans to join her were canceled due to weather-related issues.  At the very moment of this cancellation, I found myself emotionally saddened by the disappointment of not getting to go and support her journey.  But through prayer, God reassured us that He was in control.  It was not necessary to analyze how to reestablish our plans, although I wanted to.  When the door closed to us, we connected the only way we could, through prayer and technology.  The polar vortex which dropped temperatures into the forty below category, along with accumulating snow lasted only far enough to delay our daughter's arrival by a few hours, but the ‘what if’ scenarios that clogged our minds required significant movement by God to remind us that faith was the answer.  Even in her return, we found an ensuing ice storm present itself at the exact moment her bus was scheduled to return.  The only answer remained, trust in God, it is His Story. 

     What anxious thoughts are you pondering that are stealing your peace?  God’s word speaks to our anxiety when it says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 4:6-7 ESV)

     So how do we fully trust God to handle the circumstances in our lives?  Paul continues to write in Philippians telling us how to replace our thoughts, “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”  (Philippians 4:8 ESV) I would encourage you today to allow Peter to comfort you with these divinely inspired Words, “Cast all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.”  (1 Peter 5:7 ESV)