“Fear not because I have overcome the world” ~Jesus
One of the hardest things during times of uncertainty is learning how not to be afraid. It’s easier to let your mind wander and envision hypothetical disastrous situations. It is easier to be afraid than to not be afraid. I know all too well the chains of imprisonment that entangles the life of a believer, especially when FEAR is the warden of the prison.
The anxiety that keeps you limited and stuck in one place.
The paralysis you encounter from overthinking the “what IFs.”
The constant doubt that leaves you shaky from moving towards freedom.
The physical reactions of when your heart palpitates, the tightening of the chest, and the racing thoughts.
Fear is no easy companion to live with, and anxiety is even worse with cohabitation. Although working through the issues of life and all the external factors that trigger fear, one thing is for sure… fear doesn’t have to control you.
I wish someone would have told me that before the pandemic, or maybe they did, and I wasn’t listening. But after a lot of time in prayer, I realized Jesus overcame the world so that we will have nothing to fear.
Uncertainty is uncomfortable, and instability is a nightmare. When we are uncertain about what will happen tomorrow, here comes the fear. Rolling like a boulder falling down a rocky mountainside. The emotional instability that follows is what makes matters worse. Not being able to handle uncertainty is where anxiety comes from.
How do you control yourself from becoming emotionally unstable when your job is laying people off and you do not know how you will support your family?
How do you control your emotions when one of your family members is on a ventilator and their body organs shut down and don’t have too much time left on this earth?
How do you hold it together when you have 4 kids and all you have left to survive is a stimulus check to pay rent but not pay for food?
The reality of life sometimes is interrupted. And hard truths often are drowned out by our anxiety, fears, and fantasies of what we wish would happen instead of what is happening.
I believe in the midst of uncertain times, the silver lining always hid in the scriptures. There is no other place where you can find such profound proverbial insight that leads to better perspectives on negative situations. During times of uncertainty, the best practices to eliminate fear and anxiety are a better perspective. And Here’s a way to change your perspective:
1 Peter 5:7
Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you!
There is nothing like knowing God cares for you. What makes this scripture very interesting is that it is consistent with what God has been saying all throughout the Bible: HE LOVES & CARES ABOUT US!
I don’t know about you, but that takes a huge load off of my chest knowing that God cares about me. Knowing that He not only cares about who I am, about how I am feeling, about what I am feeling, but He cares enough to take care of me. I think in these chaotic times we become unhinged and unstable because we are always trying to figure things out for ourselves. If fact, I think we sometimes believe society has us in a place where we believe that the only person that will truly take care of you is YOURSELF.
In my humble opinion, I think this is where a lot of anxiety comes from. The fear of not knowing if we can take care of ourselves if something bad happens.
The unfamiliar territory of making a mistake in the future that will cost us everything. The unfamiliar territory of living your life without someone you are so accustomed of having around all of the time.
But in reality, this scripture really breaks it down for us. Casting all of our anxiety isn’t just casting our feelings onto Jesus, but rather everything that is the source of our anxiety.
It is literally placing those things that stress us out and saying, “Jesus take the wheel”.
Let me be real. Sometimes the only prayer I have on my lips is “Jesus please fix it” lol
That word CAST really means to throw in the Hebrew language. And I would imagine it is not a polite throw like when you are throwing your keys downstairs to someone who has to open up your car to get your pocketbook that you left in there.
No.
I think it is more like a violent throw. Like when you come home from work and you’ve been holding yourself to use the bathroom. When you finally get inside, you throw your coat and your shoes all over the place. Yeah, I think it’s more like that.
I think this scripture really reflects on our inability to hold onto something we can no longer control and then violently throwing everything off onto Jesus, who can absorb it and fix it.
What makes holding onto anxiety so crucial is the fact that it is our pride that makes us hold onto it. We want to fix our anxiety, and we want to fix our problems ourselves. And to be quite frank, I think the quicker we can acknowledge, we can not do everything alone, the easier it will be to get rid of all the stress and the things that make us anxious. So do yourself a favor, take an inventory of all the things you are holding onto that you want to be in control of and you want to fix… and throw it on Jesus!
Until Next time my friend,
By: C.J GREENE
CJ Greene is an Associate Pastor at New Life Covenant Church under Bishop Randall Furlow. He travels the world with his beautiful wife Samaria Greene preaching the word of God and training up lay members of the Body of Christ in Prophetic Prayer and leadership development. He and his wife are therapists in the state of CT and are working towards opening up a Christian Counselling Center.
Throw it on Jesus… An awesome read!!! There are a lot of individuals dealing with this weight of negativity (FEAR) and they need to know, they can “throw it on Jesus.” One thing we know for certain. if we believe, God will supply the strength necessary and will help us. He will uphold us with His RIGHTEOUS RIGHT HAND.
This was encouraging to me as well. Individuals need this encouragement to get through challenging times of uncertainty.
Blessings,