Does it ever feel to you like a day’s worth of work just to get yourself dressed & ready and the kiddos as well? Does it ever seem that a 10 minute shower is a luxury? Do you ever feel the slightest bit weary in disciplining? Can it sometimes seem that life is pressing in on us at all sides and we are just barely able to keep the walls from completely closing in? Does it feel as hectic in your mind as it does inside of mine at times? I think that is what it feels like to be anxious and anxiety the great thief when it comes to prayer & joy in Jesus.
There is not a cookie cutter three step program to prayer and freedom in Christ. There is no such thing. There is only daily working out your salvation with fear and trembling, realizing it is actually God who is at work within you to will and work according to His good pleasure. If “Time to Pray” came in a kit, no doubt it would be a best-seller, because most of us desire to walk intimately with Christ yet struggle to apply truth.
Prayer is simple yet there are many road blocks to it. Anxiety keeps us from praying at times and certainly it keeps us from praying in faith as anxiety has at it root a desire to control…pretty much everything. If you haven’t had any deep struggles with anxiety, you ought to know that you are in the minority…most of the women around you coexist with it, some coping better than other with its paralyzing effects. An anxiety filled mind is not the kind of mind that the Lord intends for the Christ follower to live with.
Psalm 107:20
He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.
The problem with an anxiety filled woman is that the fog of anxiety clouds right vision, and the fog only clears when our anxieties are truly cast upon the Lord. I think you know what I mean…what are some ways that you have seen anxiety cloud your own life and create a block in your prayer life?
*Too anxious about the to.do.list to sit quietly and pray.
*Too worried about the kids, whether or not they are entertained, to press pause and pray.
*Too immersed in a family issue or trial to gain perspective enough to pray over it and leave it there.
*Too consumed with all that’s going on at church and your part in it to pray.
Anxiety, it prevents our minds from praying as we ought unless we do with anxiety what we ought…that is get rid of it! Let anxiety drive you to Christ instead of away from Him.
Philippians 4:4-7
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 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.
Why focus in on the condition of your sweet mind?! Because a clear, faith-filled mind is a necessity if we are to cultivate faithfulness and allow the Lord to give us a mind to pray always. Living without anxiety does not mean that we pretend that the most pressing concerns of our life are not concerns at all. Instead it means that we functionally trust Jesus with the matters that trouble us most and instead of leaving times of prayer with the pressing weight of anxiety, we leave times of prayer filled with faith as a child of God. Believing that our Dad withholds no good thing from His children.