Answers for Anxious Times

These are anxious times! We face tremendous challenges in the world today, uncertainties about our futures. What will happen after the presidential election? How close is the world to war? Will I have a job? Can I afford to buy groceries? These are all things filling our minds and our hearts, stealing our thoughts and concentration. They are legit concerns.

Counseling services are at an all-time demand as people seek out answers. But what can these individuals tell them to lower fears and anxiety? They have been trained to say the right words in the right way, to listen carefully and help people change their thoughts. Please do not misunderstand. Counseling is necessary and helpful, but more is needed. Drugs, listening, therapies, exercise and many other prescribed activities can help but are not the answer.

So, what are we to do? What is the answer? All these things are based on one basic thing, fear. It has been described as…F-false, E-evidence, A-appearing, R-real, but it is so much more! Fear is real, fear is crimpling, fear robs us of logic and thinking for ourselves. It is one of the two strongest emotions that has evolved to protect us from real harm. It is not always present but activates on instinct and imagination.

The other strongest emotion is love, and love is the antidote to fear. Love is bigger than you and I. You can invite love, but you cannot dictate how, when, and where love expresses itself. You can choose to surrender to love or not, but in the end, love strikes like lightning: unpredictable and irrefutable. The only real trigger to love is TRUTH! And, if you have followed my articles at all you know that I believe that there is only OneTRUTH.

This TRUTH is laid out for you, as it relates to being anxious, in the sixth chapter of Matthew as follows:

“Therefore, I tell you,?do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing???Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.?Are you not of more value than they???And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his?span of life?]??And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,??yet I tell you,?even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.??But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you,?O you of little faith???

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’??For?the Gentiles seek after all these things, and?your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.? But?seek first?the kingdom of God and his righteousness,?and all these things will be added to you.

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” The OneTRUTH I believe is that God is in control and that in all these things, he will care for those that love Him.

TRUTH and fear are closely related! We eliminate fear by combating it with TRUTH and love. Here are a couple steps that might help:

1.????? Stop listening to news reports, social media, or other sources of false information. They count on spreading fear to get you to pay attention to what you have to say. Have you noticed; they create problems to which they apparently have “the answer” but does the problem actually exist?

2.????? Focus on kindness! Kindness is catching in its inspiration to better the lives of people.

3.????? Seek TRUTH in all things!

4.????? Believe that ordinary people can do extraordinary things, anything is possible with passion and purpose, but it requires inspiring and leading a "village" of believers and supporters.

5.????? Always tell the TRUTH. People have become so accustomed to lies that honesty is deemed radical.

6.????? Love is the greatest need of mankind today. Love conquers all. Love is the greatest force in the universe. It is the force that gives healing and life, binds souls together, and whispers to us that all will be well.

We cannot deny that we live in a broken world. But it is even worse than this. We live in an extremely broken and negative world. Too many of us have reacted to the brokenness of the world by piling on with a lack of hope or anything positive to say. We have adopted fear, based on lies, and have become anxious.

People are broken by economic conditions, marriage problem, drug addiction, and so many other conditions of man today. Homelessness, racial tensions, political division, and threats of war are all strong indicators. People find themselves in increasingly more difficult situations with few options or opportunities.

The TRUTH is that things are in a bad state, but they are not impossible. Incredible things can happen if we can only plant seeds of HOPE.

I believe in the inherent good in everyone, the ability to create a positive outcome when all others can see is the brokenness. People need to be reminded, especially in their greatest time of despair, that they are loved and that someone does care about them. They can be restored from the depths of their brokenness into the light of new hope and a positive direction.

When you begin to see the inherent good in people, the seeds of HOPE become seeds of TRUTH. You help to produce positive change and see people transform before your eyes. The TRUTH is that people can change, and bad situations do not have to last forever.