FXF Shorts: Stress

Stress seems to go like this for me: It has been another long week, we press on as always, we work so hard for the weekend, and then wham! Plans change.

All that hard work to get two days off? Gone. In its place? Something less fun, like cleaning up your room, or those things that are good and godly, but we begrudgingly drag our feet to do, like calling a loved one when we could be gaming. Anyone else been there?

It being my first year in college, I have been floored by my workload. With my life DOMINATED by it, my hobbies and social life almost completely put on hold, it's really thrown-in-the-deep-end-esque. Without the chance to take breaks, and the work just keeping coming, it seems like I'm drowning, and with no time for fun sometimes I feel I'm becoming a robot. This has led to the resurfacing of the question: "what's all this for? what's my life doing?" (besides homework that is).

"What's all this for? What's my life doing?"

The funny thing about stress and anxieties is that although they get big and can spin out of control, they only do that when we lose sight of who God is. God has the power and patience to care about me and care about you, even though we can be crazy, moody, and sinful. The thing I really love about Christ is that it doesn't matter if you are a good Christian or not so much, he loves us just the same, and furthermore, irrespective of our shortcomings. As Psalm 103:1-5 states, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.” Or take 1 Peter 5:6-7: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

The best thing you can do for your anxiety is to go to God. Simple as it sounds, you have no idea how often we forget to ask our creator for his divine wisdom, the only true thing that can set our minds at ease. Some ways to combat anxiety daily is with Bible plans, memorized verses, repeated mental refocuses towards the Lord, and listening to worship music. Above all those, however, there’s no better way to relieve anxiety than praying to your father for it. Some things you truly just need to ask for. Although they may not work for everyone, these little things help me to remember that God is in control of the big, the little, and the stupid; that nothing is too small to ask him for intervention on. Like everything then, this isn't a one-stop anxiety fixation shop, but it should help get you to truly understand and act upon the fact that you CAN trust God to be YOUR SOURCE IN THIS LIFE.