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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Max Lucado
Read between
January 2 - January 4, 2024
Anxiety is a meteor shower of what-ifs.
Anxiety and fear are cousins but not twins. Fear sees a threat. Anxiety imagines one.
The presence of anxiety is unavoidable, but the prison of anxiety is optional.
Anxiety is not a sin; it is an emotion. (So don’t be anxious about feeling anxious.)
This much is sure: It is not God’s will that you lead a life of perpetual anxiety. It is not his will that you face every day with dread and trepidation.
To change the way a person responds to life, change what a person believes about life. The most important thing about you is your belief system.
Anxiety increases as perceived control diminishes.
That’s why the most stressed-out people are control freaks. They fail at the quest they most pursue. The more they try to control the world, the more they realize they cannot. Life becomes a cycle of anxiety, failure; anxiety, failure; anxiety, failure. We can’t take control, because control is not ours to take.
Rather than rehearse the chaos of the world, rejoice in the Lord’s sovereignty, as Paul did.
The next time you fear the future, rejoice in the Lord’s sovereignty. Rejoice in what he has accomplished. Rejoice that he is able to do what you cannot do. Fill your mind with thoughts of God. “[He is] the Creator, who is blessed forever” (Rom. 1:25). “[He] is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). “[His] years will never end” (Ps. 102:27 NIV).
The mind cannot at the same time be full of God and full of fear.
“Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything” (Phil. 4:5–6 NIV).
Death, failure, betrayal, sickness, disappointment—they cannot take our joy, because they cannot take our Jesus.
what you have in Christ is greater than anything you don’t have in life.
No more “if only.” It is the petri dish in which anxiety thrives. Replace your “if only” with “already.” Look what you already have. Treat each anxious thought with a grateful one, and prepare yourself for a new day of joy.
You can be the air traffic controller of your mental airport. You occupy the control tower and can direct the mental traffic of your world. Thoughts circle above, coming and going. If one of them lands, it is because you gave it permission.
Healing from anxiety requires healthy thinking. Your challenge is not your challenge. Your challenge is the way you think about your challenge. Your problem is not your problem; it is the way you look at it.
No problem is unsolvable. No life is irredeemable. No one’s fate is sealed. No one is unloved or unlovable. But Satan wants us to think we are. He wants to leave us in a swarm of anxious, negative thoughts.
“Anxiety weighs down the human heart” (Prov. 12:25 NRSV).
Paul’s call to peace can become a list of requirements: every thought must be true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and worthy of praise.
Maybe this image will help. When a father leads his four-year-old son down a crowded street, he takes him by the hand and says, “Hold on to me.” He doesn’t say, “Memorize the map” or “Take your chances dodging the traffic” or “Let’s see if you can find your way home.” The good father gives the child one responsibility: “Hold on to my hand.” God does the same with us. Don’t load yourself down with lists. Don’t enhance your anxiety with the fear of not fulfilling them. Your goal is not to know every detail of the future. Your goal is to hold the hand of the One who does and never, ever let go.
Today, I will live today. Yesterday has passed. Tomorrow is not yet. I’m left with today. So, today, I will live today. Relive yesterday? No. I will learn from it. I will seek mercy for it. I will take joy in it. But I won’t live in it. The sun has set on yesterday. The sun has yet to rise on tomorrow. Worry about the future? To what gain? It deserves a glance, nothing more. I can’t change tomorrow until tomorrow.
May I laugh, listen, learn, and love. And tomorrow, if it comes, may I do so again.
