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The Three Musketeers: Worrying, Stress and Anxiety

1 Peter 5:7 

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” 

These three terms, these three concepts, seem to be inseparable siblings: a bond that can’t be broken. Maybe you experience one or another or even all of them, but I’m certain, in some capacity, you’ve experienced at least one of these in your life.  

Stress and Worrying has become so attached in my life, that I could almost call it a friend. It’s a daily battle I have to go through and an on-going thing I have to constantly try to manage. One thing I have been praying about recently is staying in the present more; it has helped me a lot. I don’t know what that may look like for you, but for me it looks like going on walks, drawing, watching movies and talking to my favourite people. Although God may not be included in them explicitly, I do think God provides us with means of help if we do ask Him.  

There isn’t really a set structure of today’s blog, because like with our lives, we may try to manage and organise things, but it can all end up getting messy when things come up. These three concepts come and go, and some stay longer than others, but all can be subsided with one thing: trust. I’m not promising that you will never worry again, or stress and have anxiety if you trust God, but I am saying that trusting God is the only means to manage these things and be free from these things. Freedom isn’t associated with never going through anything, it’s knowing that when you do, you have someone to go to.  

Looking more closely at the verse, there’s a couple of things I wanted to point out. We see that our anxieties shouldn’t be kept internal. We are told to “cast” them out, meaning to throw them away: not just into empty space but to God. At times it may feel easier to hold on to our worries because we become so comfortable living in them: it’s all we’ve ever known, but I want to challenge you with a thought: God knows you more than you know your worries. What that means is that, as comfortable as it may feel to reside in our stresses, we can find more comfort in the person that can relieve said stress.  

Another thing to focus on from the verse is that “he cares for you”. It sounds so simple, but do we really know that? Do we live lives that embody that statement? We may think that our problems are just for us alone and God may not be concerned about that, but He does, and it is our job to trust Him enough to “cast” it.  

 

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