Anxiety Reading Plan – W1D4

Check out all the previous Anxiety readings here.

Anxiety Reading Plan | Day 4

Prayer

Take a moment to be silent and still. In order to be fully present in body and mind, take a deep breath in and let it out slowly. Do this three times. Ask God to give you His wisdom today.

Bible Reading: Proverbs 3:5-6

Read these verses three times slowly.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.

Reflection & Questions

What is anxiety? It is the fear of the loss of something in the future. It may be loss of money, lifestyle, people, health, reputation, life or a myriad of other things. We all have some degree of anxiety and it can be a good motivator in moderation. The problem is when that fear of loss gets control of us. This might be manifested in a paralysis of analysis, where we end up doing nothing because we are trying to make sure we don’t lose anything. Or might show up in making decisions that closes us off from truly living. The reality is we are going to lose things in life. We live in a broken, sinful world. We will lose our health. We will lose loved ones. We will lose our finances. Ultimately, when we die we will lose all those things.

Today’s verses are an invitation to temper this fear of loss through trust. God is inviting you to allow Him to be God in your life. This is the antidote to the fear of loss. But this isn’t a nebulous trust, like some may say, “You just gotta have faith.” “Faith in what?” would be a valid response. Faith in mother nature? Faith in the universe? Faith in faith? As believers, we’ve come to see that we have a heavenly Father who you can trust “with all your heart.” He will guide us and show us the way.

The way to do that is to lean on Him. Putting the weight of your concerns and fears on Him. As the verses say: “lean not on your understanding; in all your ways submit to him.” We don’t need to play god and figure it all out. We don’t need to go down the never ending rabbit hole of letting our fears govern our behaviors. We can temper our fear of loss through trusting our good God, letting Him be God and trusting Him to guide us through this broken world. We will lose things in this world, but we will never lose Him, for He will never leave us nor forsake us.

1. What do you fear losing? Would you say that fear has control of you? Why or why not?
2. How can you grow in trusting God and leaning less on yourself?

Prayer

Talk to God in response to today’s reading.

Worship Song

You might use this song today to worship Jesus today:

Recommended Summer Reading

If anxiety is something that you or a loved one wrestle with, “The Anxiety Opportunity” by Curtis Chang is a great read. Check it out on Amazon.

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Check out more Bible Reading Plans here.

Questions?