Let me tell you, if the Lord handed out extra jewels for our eternal crowns based on number of and sheer irrationality of one’s, well, irrational fears, my crown would be so sparkly and bejeweled that you would need to wear sunglasses to look upon me, and so heavy that I would need a brace to support my neck in order for me to lift my head.

Allow me to list a few of my irrational fears to prove that, in this area of life at the least, I excel.

I am afraid:

• that if a fly buzzes around me in particular for a lengthy amount of time at an outdoor function that you’ll think I have poor personal hygiene and will think less of me.
• that if I say to a vendor at a farmer’s market that I might come back to buy his bag of apples and then instead buy someone else’s bag of apples, that he will go home and tell his wife about this lying, cheating, rude lady who isn’t supporting his farm business.
• that my dentist can tell that I haven’t been flossing and thinks I’m a lesser human because of it.
• that I’ll accidentally mix bleach with whatever it is you aren’t supposed to mix it with and I’ll fill my house with some deadly chemical and poison my whole family.
• that if I eat junk food, in secret, while driving in the car that this will be the time that I get rear-ended and choke to death on my Nachos Bell Grande.
• that if my children can’t tie their own shoes by the time they start grade one that they will have emotional issues from my negligence well into their adult years.
• that someone will pull my children aside in a public place and spontaneously quiz them on the capitals of the Canadian Provinces, they won’t do well, and they’ll be forcibly removed from my care.
• that every police officer I see behind me on the road is about to pull me over on account of my poor driving, or on account of a crime of which I’m being falsely accused.
• that my not knowing how to ride a bike really does make me a loser.
• that the people I knew in High School will find me on Facebook and air all my past failures to the people who know and love me today.
• that I will be forced to learn how to ride a bike and I’ll either a) never get it and thus be a loser forever or b) finally get it and have to admit that I really like it.
• that my sister will die not knowing Jesus personally and it was my fault for not telling her more clearly.
• that maybe, just maybe God’s promises in His Word don’t really apply to me.
• that if I need to ask for help it means that I’ve taken on more than the Lord meant for me to do and that I’ve failed.

What about you? What things keep you up at night? I bet I’m not the only one with a list as long as her arm of ridiculous things to be stressed out about. And how many of them do you think are legitimate? About how many of these fears is the Lord saying, “Oh yes, my daughter. Please worry about that one. It is of eternal significance and truly something that you need to work out for me”?

Don’t get me wrong, some of these things feel really, really legitimate. And some things in our life DO need a lot of thought and prayer, and some planning to avoid disaster, so far as it depends on us.

But what about this?

“Do not be anxious about anything.” (Phil. 4:6)

How do we do that? How do I just not be anxious? Is there a magic pill to take? Is there a self-controlled, white-knuckling I can do to overcome this? Do I just shove down all my anxieties deeper and deeper into the heart of me, burying them with food, with computer time, with shopping, with bitterness, with ministry addiction,…?

No, no, no. Praise the Lord, no. Read the verses before and after Phillipians 4:6 to get the whole, beautiful, freeing, wonderful picture.

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice!”

Step one: Look for the joyful things in your life, no matter how small and seemingly trivial. Rejoice in them to yourself in prayer time, and to your friends and family around you. Say it out loud so you don’t forget the happy, non-anxious things in your life.

“Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.”

Step two: Okay, seriously? What is the worst that could happen if someone takes a really unflattering picture of me at a church function? Is my anxious reaction reasonable? Look at the irrational fears in the grand scheme of things. Watch them shrink to nothing.

“The Lord is at hand.”

Step three: Those things that aren’t trivial that are worrying you like health concerns, finances, your own sin and guilt, your children’s education and safety…all these things we can be “not anxious” over because the Lord is at hand. He is beside you, guiding you, instructing you, calming you, working out every detail for your good and His glory.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

Step four: Don’t pretend you don’t need help both in getting through the fearful situation in a practical, temporal way, and in getting over the emotions attached to the anxiety in our lives. Please, really and truly take it to the Lord in prayer, and then leave it there. He knows we need Him. Why can’t we admit we need Him too?

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Step five: Breathe.  Isn’t that what we want: Peace?

This week I want to surrender my anxious thoughts and my restless heart to the Lord of Peace. I want to be reasonable about the things that are irrational fears so that I’m thinking clearly enough to rightly consider the issues that ought to be brought before the Lord in prayer and thanksgiving and supplication. I want to trust that the Lord is at hand, ready to cover me in His peace. I want to be free of irrational fears, don’t you?

And if that means I need to take a smaller crown in glory, so be it.

Barbara and her husband, as they homeschool their 7 children, are finding out that no two children are alike! Between lessons and lunches, Barbara blogs at Fuel by Barbara.