Now let us turn to our message for today.
It is titled, Anxiety and God's Plan for You.
This is continuing this weekend's theme
of mental health, help, and spirituality.
We're going to look at a theological perspective
but we aren't only going to leave you wondering
what to do with it at the end.
We'll look at some practical applications.
Before we do that, one more word of prayer.
Loving Heavenly Father, we thank you again
for your love and your care towards us.
We know how much darkness and stress and turmoil
there is in this world and we pray that
through all of that fog, you would be that light
shining bright in our lives.
So Lord, be that light to us today.
We pray in your name, amen.
Another part to my story, I love backpacking.
If you are new to this, if you're new tuning in online,
some of my other church members have heard me share
about my love for the outdoors, the forest,
hiking, camping, tents, campfires, I love it all.
I like it all.
Not a fan of ticks and mosquitoes and poison ivy
but that comes with the rest of it
and there's so much good for me that I can tolerate
the not so good.
On this same trip with my brother,
we did a new total mileage for the number of days
we were out there, it was 52 miles in three days.
We felt it in every fiber of our bodies.
It took a little while to recover but we made memories,
we enjoyed each other's company,
we got to run across some kind people who helped us
when we got turned around, saw some beautiful landscapes
and little waterfalls and the like, I love it.
God's nature, his creation is wonderful
and I like being immersed in it.
However, this is a however, when you're doing so many miles
that means you have to do a lot in each day
because we only had three days but we were trying to do it
in about two and a half.
Long days, it meant that our two nights
that we were out in the woods, we didn't finish
until after the sun had set.
It gets darker a little earlier in the woods
because that hill is up there and the sun goes behind it
and next thing you know, it's dark.
Trees add to it.
Our first day, we went 21 miles, 21 miles.
We were optimistic, we were aiming for a battlefield,
we were gonna camp at the battlefield,
there's gonna be something flat at a battlefield,
that's where we were going, that's our goal,
that's our target.
We had prepared well, he and I are,
at least between the two of us,
we are known for being over preppers.
We carry too much and we have extras
and we never really learned that lesson
but we were prepared, we had our food,
we had our clothing, we had warm socks,
we had our tents, we had our bags,
we had everything that we needed for our journey
and we knew that we wanted to get to that battlefield.
Well as the sun started to go lower and lower
and then disappeared and then you hear the nighttime sounds
and the shadows get even blacker
and then you can't see the rocks and the roots as well.
I noticed a change in my brother's body language.
Have you ever been in the woods
or away from a city at night?
It's different, isn't it?
You don't have what they call light pollution
anywhere around you, dark is dark.
It's very dark.
Do you ever feel like when those moments
when it's like that much darker,
do you get a little bit more alert
on what you hear or smell or what your toes
are picking up through your shoes as you take a step?
Are you looking for something that might
throw you off balance a little bit more?
Well I noticed that in my brother.
He was doing a couple of things.
One, he stopped talking so much.
That was a small blessing.
He also picked up his pace.
As he picked up his pace, he distanced himself from me
and I noticed his steps weren't quite so
just kind of wherever they may fall.
He was a little more careful and a little bit more certain
because we didn't want a twisted ankle at night
in the middle of the woods.
I also noticed that when he did talk,
the only thing that he said was one word,
blaze, because when you're hiking a trail,
you look for the markers on the trees
or the signs that tell you you're on the correct trail.
You haven't gotten off onto where a deer path
or some other animal or a water runoff.
Sometimes it's a little confusing.
Blaze, he would say each time we saw our little
white diamond with a turtle on it.
That's what we were looking for.
Blaze, blaze.
I'm like, well, he's paying attention.
It's very good.
I was a little less concerned about it.
I have a little bit more experience than him
and I asked him, it seems like you're moving
a little quicker and you've stopped talking quite so much.
What is going on?
And he goes, well, I'm a little more fearful now.
Understandable.
What are you fearful for?
Well, I'm fearful that one of us could get hurt.
I'm fearful that we could find ourselves on the wrong path.
I'm fearful that we're not going to actually make it
to our destination at the end of today.
He didn't much care that my response was,
well, be thankful in all things, dear brother.
I found it funny.
I was a little less concerned.
We were well prepared with our basic needs.
And we had markers along the way telling us
where our path was going.
We had the map and we had the markers.
So I was wondering what could we learn
from these experiences in the woods.
And because I knew that this weekend was coming up
and I knew that this topic was coming up,
I praised God that as I am stumbling through the darkness
and we're making our way to point B,
he impressed me with two points.
Two points.
One, in Matthew chapter six,
during Christ's famous Sermon on the Mount,
that begins in Matthew five and it continues
through chapter seven.
In Matthew chapter six,
we find a spiritual approach to anxiety,
to fear, to unnecessary concern.
And I wanna make sure that we catch that word,
unnecessary concern.
Those are our times when it's very much necessary
to be a little anxious.
But Jesus, after talking about giving to the needy
and he shares the Lord's prayer
and the blessing of fasting when you fast.
Fasting could be a very real part
of your spiritual practice.
There are different ways of fasting.
Then he talks about laying for yourselves
up treasures not on earth where they can be destroyed,
but in heaven.
And then he says this in Matthew six and verse 25.
Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life,
what you will eat or what you will drink,
nor about your body, what you will put on.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air,
they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns
and yet your heavenly father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they?
Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour
to his span of life?
And why are you anxious about clothing?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.
They neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you,
even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.
If God closed the grass of the field,
which today is alive and tomorrow thrown into the oven,
will he not much more clothe you, oh you of little faith?
Therefore do not be anxious, saying what shall we eat,
what shall we drink, what shall we wear?
For the Gentiles seek after these things
and your heavenly father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness
and all of these things that is the needs of life
will be added to you.
Now one difference between my brother and I
on our backpacking journey that night,
that first night is I knew our needs were met.
We had shelter, we had a way of making fire,
we had light that, you know, our headlamps are good
for about 10 hours of light.
We had food, we had clothing and a sleeping bag
that was going to keep us warm from the elements.
Our needs were met.
More than that in your life,
your heavenly father knows your needs
and he is not only prepared but he is sufficient
to meet them.
So when we talk about unnecessary stresses and anxieties,
it is true that you may not have a wardrobe
that takes up two full bedrooms
with a fresh pair of socks every single day.
I think few people actually enjoy that.
You may have a much more simplified lifestyle,
a handful of outfits, a pair of shoes and the like.
God knows your needs.
And when it comes to your needs of life,
what Jesus is saying is where are your priorities?
Are your priorities stressing about the ins and outs
of walking this mortal life or are your primary concerns
about the eternal life?
Are you laying up your treasures in heaven
even if that means maybe you don't have an extra pair
of shoes this week?
Maybe you don't need the designer wallet if it means
that you can help someone with an education
that's setting them up for discipleship.
Maybe if your priorities are spending a little extra time
in the word of God rather than stressing
about catching a sale, God knows your needs
and he will take care of you and he will bless you.
Maybe if you are struggling with the Sabbath
and to the human mind how taking 24 hours out of a week
and not putting it into productive labor,
that means money making labor, how else will we make it?
Survive, I need the extra paycheck,
there's incentive pay on a weekend.
Can God really stretch my check to cover all of that
if I'm faithful to him on the Sabbath?
I promise you not only can he, but he wants to
and there are too many testimonies that he has and will
to call it a coincidence when he does.
He's there for you.
That's not a promise that it's easy,
but it's also a certainty that he's there for you.
If you feel an unnecessary anxiety welling up in your life
about the basic needs of life, food and shelter
or the fact that we age and you wish you could add
an extra five or 10 years onto your life.
If only I could go back with all my wisdom
to when I was 24, 24 was a good year.
I could do all that I wanted, I never hurt.
We could go back to that, oh, how wonderful would it be?
Well, that anxiety is not going to add any more seconds
or minutes or hours, you certainly can't go back in time.
I dare say the only thing you will add are anxiety lines
and gray hair or less hair.
You can't add that onto your life,
but if you are investing in heaven,
eternal life is your reward.
That is certainly a goal worth striving towards.
Take your cares to God,
your anxieties when it comes to the basic needs of life.
But then again, the second part of it was
what do you do with your anxiety
and what do you do with your anxiety
when you travel?
As you are moving day to day
and you experience what life brings to you.
My brother and I were well prepared for our trip.
My brother and I had studied our maps
and we knew our turns and we knew the way points.
And like I said, each time we saw our white diamond
with a turtle blaze, we were on the correct trail.
I would invite you to turn in your Bibles
closer to our scripture reading for today in Philippians.
Our Bible verse says,
do not be anxious about anything,
but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
Paul gives a couple of imperatives
beginning in chapter four in verse four
and then in verse four in verse five.
And then finally in verse six,
those imperatives are directions, instruction.
Do this if you are a disciple of Jesus.
But it comes on the back end
of what he ends chapter three with.
It's always good to read a little bit before with Paul.
Paul almost always builds up to something
and then he gives you a therefore do this.
So if you only look at the beginning
of the verse four, you might wonder,
what's the foundation for the therefore?
Paul coming towards the end of chapter three,
beginning in verse 12,
speaking of that resurrection from the dead,
that first resurrection,
the resurrection to eternal life,
that resurrection to glory in Jesus.
When Jesus came forth from the tomb,
victorious over death,
that's the certainty that he can give
the same thing to you and I,
our loved ones who have passed away,
leaving the holes in our relationships.
Because Jesus is victorious,
he can also grant it to you and I.
And that is what Paul is talking about.
In verse 12,
not that I, Paul, have already obtained this eternal life
or am already perfect.
How many of us have already obtained
eternal life or perfection?
Correct answer.
None of us have.
So in other words,
consider yourself in fine company
with the apostle Paul.
But Paul presses on to make it his own,
and the reason being because Christ Jesus
made him his own.
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own,
but one thing I do,
forgetting what lies behind
and straining forward to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal for the prize
of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Let those of us who are mature think that way,
and if anything you think otherwise,
God will reveal that also to you.
Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
If you are farther along in your Christian walk,
in other words,
Paul is saying,
think like me.
Think like me.
Well, what is he saying?
I forget what lies behind
and I strain forward to what lies ahead.
Often our anxieties come about
in a misplaced identity crisis.
The enemy of souls loves to tell you
that you are still the you that you were
when you messed up at 12,
at 16,
at 20,
at 30,
at 50,
and if you're still messing up at 70 or 75 or 80,
the enemy of souls loves to tell you
that that's your identity.
And if you have ever experienced
a conversion in your life,
a coming around to Jesus
and accepting His grace,
Satan loves to tell you,
no, not yet.
You are still the same unforgiven you.
Paul is telling us that our identity
is no longer what was before we came to Christ,
but our identity is now wrapped up in Christ
and the glory to come.
And so when those anxiety causing thoughts
come to bear that God has not forgiven you,
that you are still the same wretched man
that you once were,
Paul is exhorting and encouraging to forget that
because you are now in Christ
and you have a goal.
That goal is heaven.
That goal is eternity.
That goal is the forever presence
with a God who loves you,
delivers you, strengthens you,
and sustains you from now
all the way until forever then.
That's who you are.
Are you pressing toward that goal?
Are you looking for the blazes along the way?
I like that picture because the Bible tells us
that when you've come to Christ,
you are blessed with the fruits of the Spirit.
You are given gifts of the Spirit.
There is a change of heart.
He says he will recreate that heart that is in you.
There is a change of attitude, a change of priorities.
Other people notice it in you.
Take that as a sign that you are on the right path.
As you progress along the way
and you read the Word of God,
and you see, okay, I'm supposed to grow,
and I'm supposed to pray,
and I'm supposed to commit my life
and do studies with other people
and share and witness,
mentally you can go blaze, blaze, blaze.
As you become a deeper student of the Word of God
and you get into the prophecies,
Daniel and Joel and Revelation
and the Word of God points out the markers along the way
telling us that we're getting closer to Christ's return.
When you see that happen in the community,
your life, nations abroad,
the movements of leadership, et cetera,
rather than getting caught up in the weeds
and saying, woe is me,
it's all out of my control, say, praise God, blaze,
Jesus is coming soon.
That goal is creeping ever nearer.
That's the goal that we're straining towards.
So then it is in that context where he can say,
brothers, join in imitating me.
Keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example.
We should look to him.
Our citizenship is in heaven, he says.
And then he can say, rejoice in the Lord always.
And again I say rejoice.
Your identity is in Christ
and you're moving towards a goal.
Rejoice.
Let your reasonableness or your gentleness,
your meekness be known to everyone.
Be a witness of how Christ has changed you.
And then do not be anxious about anything.
If you do feel some anxiety coming,
he has a help for that.
You can do anything by prayer and supplication.
Now some might think that those are complete synonyms.
They're not really.
Prayer is a more general application of addressing God,
conversing with your Creator.
Supplications are direct, specific, pointed.
You are pressing those into the throne of God.
A supplication would be, Lord,
I fear I'm about to be fired
because the economy has turned.
How can I provide for my family?
I'm getting a little anxious about that
and who can fault a person for feeling that way?
Take that.
That's a supplication.
Name it.
Lean into God's graciousness with that supplication.
The anxiety is more than I can overlook at this point.
Lord, provide.
Take care.
Sustain.
I need it.
I need the peace.
If you are concerned about an illness
or an ongoing struggle with a temptation,
maybe you feel shame with your anxiety.
Well, in your devotional life,
in your studies, and in your prayers,
don't just, Lord, help me with my temptation.
That could be a generic prayer,
and it's good that we pray that in some settings.
But if the anxiety is really getting to you,
take it, name it, press it into God's presence.
Yearn for the deliverance from the anxiety.
Desire that a God who created you
and shaped you and formed you
and knows your feelings and your thoughts and your burdens
knows you.
He cares about you infinitely more
than the birds of the air, Jesus says,
or the flowers of the field.
Christ did not hang on a cross for the pine tree.
Christ sacrificed all, and He gives all for you
because you are of infinite value to Him.
Press in your needs and your cares and your concerns.
And then do it with thanksgiving.
Thank God that He hears you.
Thank God that He loves you.
Thank God that even in the midst of what might seem like a mess,
if you pause and pray through it,
God will bring to mind things that you can be thankful for.
I am cranky at the price of eggs right now.
I'm cranky.
The ones that we buy are now about $9 or so for 36 of them.
It started out at about $1.88
when we were consistently getting them.
I praise God I have eggs to eat.
There are many people who go hungry
or they have a meal a day,
or in other parts of the world,
they'll have a meal every other day.
I praise God that I get to pay $9 for my eggs.
I don't like it.
I am thankful for it.
And then we can expect that the peace of God
that surpasses all understanding
will guard our hearts, our minds, in Christ Jesus.
I don't know how it happens.
My testimony is I've experienced it in my own life,
and I'm sure there are others who could perhaps echo this.
At times, the storm was heavy, and it was difficult.
And you couldn't explain it.
But the banking account that should have gone red
always stayed black, and the math never added up.
Those basic needs.
There were times when I should have been afraid or angry,
and you just go, God's got it,
and I don't know why I feel this way.
I'm thankful in those moments.
But we want to be careful.
We want to be careful because some might be tempted
to either feel or tell others
that if you are struggling with anxiety,
if you do have a reoccurring depression issue,
if you feel the blues more than you care for,
if you don't know how to get over that hump,
and maybe it's affecting relationships,
your eating habits, your sleep time,
all of these different ways that anxiety and fear,
depression, mental health concerns interrupt life,
and then you read these verses and you say,
God, I'm doing these things.
Maybe my faith is not strong enough.
Or heaven forbid someone look at you and say,
you are not yet a full disciple if you are still struggling with your anxiety.
Pray harder, pray longer.
Wax philosophically or with soaring rhetoric.
Use these and those in your prayer.
Then God will hear you.
Maybe that's what's keeping you back.
Can you imagine, can you understand
how you could get trapped in a rut
and think of a failure as a Christian
if you start to say, I'm anxious and I'm not sure,
but I'm also praying and maybe I failed God
or maybe he stepped away from me.
Can you understand how that could be a trap?
Sadly, there are people who have promulgated the idea that
if you are anxious about literally anything in your life,
even the understandable ones,
that means you are a faithless, struggling pseudo-Christian.
I would like to dispel you of that thought today.
That's a tough life we live.
There is an enemy who wants to see us in despair
and confusion and hurt
and not looking for the light in life
but only focusing on the dark, the shadows.
So what are some ways that we can practically
consider what to do with our anxiety?
I'd like to share a few.
We will go through these semi-quickly.
It's not an original list.
You can find some good helps if you look.
Be mindful, some are better than others.
If you're wanting to take notes, this is a short list.
We start with, if you're fighting anxiety or concern
or whatever the case may be,
as a Christian, one who acknowledges God,
first and foremost, let God be God.
Too many of us believe that we can shoulder the burden ourselves
and muscle through on our own,
and we can just do it.
God has said, my peace I will give you.
I will send you a comforter.
Take my yoke upon you, for my burden is light.
There is so much cooperation when it comes to what we struggle with,
and God longs to be a part of it.
Let him be God, and don't try to ask him to get out of your way.
Let God be God.
The Spirit produces fruit in our lives, not us.
We are participants, but we let God be Lord of our thoughts,
including those anxious ones.
Pray that he help you get them under control.
Let God be God.
Number two, view anxiety as an urgent signal to act.
Sometimes our body responds with anxiety in a way that tells us,
not that we are struggling with a spiritual weakness,
but rather that it's an emergency sign.
Something is off in our life that needs our attention.
And so rather than always trying to repress anxiety,
maybe take time to consider it and exercise a little introspection in your life.
What could be causing this that maybe needs my attention?
It could be there as a benefit.
Feelings are not always our enemy.
Sometimes they can be a help.
Paul is warning us not to be anxious.
In other words, a state of long-term existence.
In anxiety.
But if you have moments of anxiousness,
it might be your body telling you, let's look for a cause.
Which leads us to number three, which is to get to the roots of anxiety,
not merely the symptoms.
I just need to feel better,
but maybe there's a cause, again, that needs your attention.
When does your anxiety surge in your life?
Are you a type A workaholic who needs to cut back from 70 or 80 hours a week
down to, for you, a manageable 50?
Maybe that will help alleviate some of it.
Are you away from a family or a friend, your community support group, for too long?
And you need to reconnect with those who can help support you.
Get to the root of it, not just the symptoms.
That would be like if you had a terrible toothache,
and the infection had gone to the root,
and you thought you could only take a Tylenol each day to help ease it.
Maybe you need the root canal.
So take care of the causes.
Number four, and this is important, get professional help.
There has been, for too many years, in at least our society,
and the studies show, especially for men struggling with this,
asking for help is a hurdle that they often don't try to get over,
a breach that they often don't want to step across.
Get professional help if your anxiety is stemming from something that is big,
deep, hurtful, traumatic.
There is nothing shameful, wrong, unchristian, or a lack of faith.
If you go and talk to a professional, a licensed counselor, a psychologist,
a psychiatrist, someone who has a wealth of experience and information
that can help you in addition to your disciple walk with Christ.
Seek for it.
This also is a way some people need the medication.
If that's you, that's okay.
But you can't get it by coming to your pastor.
We can pray.
We can see what the Word of God has to say.
But if you are in need of a medication to help you through or help you with,
you have to seek that professional help.
And we want to encourage you to consider that.
Number five, set healthy boundaries.
Too many times anxiety is caused because we don't have healthy boundaries in our life.
Defined like this, at least one way,
a boundary shows where one person ends and another person begins.
It could also be where your personal life ends and your professional life begins.
Healthy boundaries can cover a whole range of things from our relationships
in our family and our friends and our church,
but also to our professional environment.
Again, that's 70 and 80 hours versus 40 or 50.
Do you take a vacation if it's offered you?
Are you able to decompress when you come home from work?
Or do you carry in your briefcase and all the emotions of what's been piled on
and you go to bed with it still?
Healthy boundaries are a good thing.
The Bible tells us in Proverbs 4.23 to guard our hearts.
Maybe you need to say no to people, no to things, no to whatever it is,
and start saying yes to a little bit of self-care and positive people in your lives.
Number six, seek joy over a spiritual obligation.
The desire to be actively engaged in spiritual practices is good.
I encourage it. Pray, journal, study, read, whatever the case may be.
But if you begin to look at your discipleship experiences and activities as a checklist
where you need either so many or so long, otherwise you are, again, failing God,
I would like to encourage you to rather seek the joy in those practices
rather than just the accomplishments of the practices.
Does that make sense?
If you are more fulfilled for you by prayerfully considering a Bible verse
that also has a coloring page with it.
I know that's a thing right now.
I am not wired that way. Maybe you are.
Take the 15 minutes or the 10 minutes or whatever is healthy in your life
and pray about the Bible verse.
Lord, what can I learn from this while you're coloring in the photo of the birds
or the roses or whatever it is?
Find joy in it. Engage in something that you like.
If you are not an avid writer and journaling and putting things down on paper is not for you,
don't try to make it for you because then it will be a drudgery and a chore
rather than a joy that's uplifting when you come into Christ's presence.
Pray, read, study, do all of those things, but seek the joy over simply the sense of obligation.
Number seven, I love this one, pursue Sabbath.
I don't know exactly when it started.
In my childhood, I think many of us could remember if you stayed up late enough at night
and you were watching the TV, the signal turned off.
Do we remember that? Snow or colored bars or something like that would come on?
At some point, they just changed that with only infomercials.
And then now you have countless channels on countless platforms running 24-7.
Businesses are open all the time.
I mean, how many I know I have, I've driven into the Hobby Lobby parking lot on a Sunday going,
surely they are open and they're not. But we've become so accustomed to the 24-7 activity level
and mentality that Sabbath is needed.
Well, one, it's baked right into creation and it's baked right into the weekly cycle.
If you read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, you will find that on the seventh day,
God rested, blessed it, sanctified it, set an example for us,
and then told us to do likewise.
So if you start on Sunday, which is the beginning of our week, and you count seven, you get to Saturday, Sabbath.
Don't worry about your schoolwork. Don't worry about your work work.
If you've got party planning to do, set it aside for those 24 hours
and invest more in your relationship with your Savior, your spouse, your family, your friends, your church family.
We want you here. We love you. And we want you to to be present with us on Sabbath.
But guard those hours and take a deep breath and enjoy it.
Sabbath can also be take your vacations.
If you have them and you're able to take them, even if it's a staycation, you're not going into work.
You're staying at home, but maybe you get to do a home project or you get to just sleep in without the alarm clock.
Take those breaks from a busy life in your prayer practices.
If you are feeling anxious or stressed, that is not often the time to consider longer, more complicated prayers.
Simplify. If you are dealing with anxiety or an anxious feeling about things in your life and you are bringing your prayers to God,
I would suggest simpler prayers, right to the point, shorter, fewer words.
If we think about when Peter was walking on the water and he took his eyes off Jesus in the middle of that storm and he started to sink.
That was a three word prayer. Lord, save me.
If you find yourself sinking into the waves of a storm, simplify your prayer.
The Holy Spirit knows exactly what you mean, and he will take that with all of what you need right to God in a better way,
surely than you could ever express yourself.
Simplify it. Take that stress off of a wordy or lengthy prayer and bring it down to something.
Perhaps a little bit more helpful.
Number nine, paying attention to your body.
Anxiety can often present itself with stomach aches, shakiness, distracted thoughts and inability to focus, struggle remembering things,
irritability, sleeping in more. You don't want to get out of bed, whatever the case may be.
Pay attention to it.
Again, that may be your body telling you that you need to address something.
We know that as our society has become ever increasingly active and more stressful,
we have likewise a similar increase in heart disease and hypertension in probably even like bad indigestion or heart stomach reflux and so on.
Those could be signs that maybe you need to cut something out of your life.
Find those healthy boundaries. Are you praying? Are you sharing with a loved one who can then support you?
Number ten, turn your eyes to the present moment.
Jesus did counsel us back in Matthew 6 to not worry about tomorrow.
Today has got enough going on.
Take your cares about today before God and trust that he who was, is and will be is already there tomorrow.
He's got that. Let God be God in those moments.
You could overburden yourself today about something that you have zero control over because that's tomorrow.
I also wanted to add, it's not on this list, but it did occur to me, number eleven.
In the United States of America, we are rather individualistic. Some say hyper individualistic.
That has led us in some part to being the nation that we are in our history, that has in some part led us to be a strong working force and so on.
It has also meant that the temptation to again go it alone in these times of challenge and anxiety makes it that much harder.
I would like to add a number eleven and say find a community that will support you in your need with what you're going through.
And community can be anything. Community can be as simple as one trusted individual.
One person that you can share and they will listen and they will wrap their arms around you, cry with you, hear your stories, pray with you.
Be there if you really need it in those emergencies.
Maybe community is a little bit broader, a small group, a collection of ladies or men that you can also do the same thing.
And in that community, you know that three cords are not easily broken.
Whereas one is much more susceptible.
In community, I want to add and include a church community, a church family.
We are all sons and daughters of God and we all recognize that we are walking a difficult life, but we are all striving towards that same goal.
We at the Ringgold Seventh-day Adventist Church desire and strive to make this a loving, supportive community of believers.
And we want that to be a reality and we want others to know that that is available here for them.
And whether or not you're finding it here or somewhere else, a church family, a church community is a help.
And I would encourage you to find it where possible.
We are not going to get away completely from the anxieties in our life.
Thorns and thistles, stumblings and challenges are going to be here until Jesus comes to take us home.
Know that your needs, God is not only aware of them, but when you have placed your first priority in the heavenly kingdom,
the assurance is He will take care of your daily needs.
So you don't have to be anxious about that.
You also don't have to be anxious about the path you are traveling or the goal you're going towards so long as your eyes are focused on Jesus.
He was victorious in conquering death and living the life as the second Adam and overcoming the prince of this world.
That's our goal.
He's our King.
That's our focus.
And along the way, look for those markers that tell you you are on the right path.
You don't have to be anxious for your goal and your direction when you are looking to Jesus with joy and thanksgiving.
And then finally, when you are faced with those anxieties because they do happen with prayer and supplication, press into God's presence.
Bring your cares to Him.
He wants to hear them and he wants to bring a peace that surpasses understanding.
Add your thanksgiving with your prayers, trusting by faith that He hears, He loves, and He will sustain you not only now,
but all the way until He takes us finally home.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you again for your care for us.
We thank you that it wasn't just starting our lives and then leaving us alone, but you are invested in each one of us.
Lord, as so many people are struggling with depression and thoughts of harm to themselves or to others,
as people are unsure how they are going to get through the next day or hour or week or whatever the timeline is,
Lord, we pray that your Holy Spirit in a special, unique, and powerful way would come into the lives of people needing peace and comfort, support, and healing.
We pray that you would show and reveal yourselves to those who are seeking relief from this world's cares.
We pray that if there are those of us who can be of some help, that you would grant and bless us discernment and wisdom,
the right words, and a caring and listening attitude.
Lord, may we be a people that are known for support and unity and love and service.
And Lord, I pray that you would do all of these things not because we are worthy, but because you love us so much.
And you have said that you will do them when we seek after you.
So we pray for that promise to be carried out in our lives today.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.