Don’t Be Scared, keep believing

I don’t know about you, but for me, as this pandemic has continued, I have gotten more and more scared. The world is scary right now; no doubt about that.

As long as I look at the world and the state of it, it is so easy to fall into despair. When I look at the Lord, He says, “Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat and what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on… Are you not of mom value than [birds]… Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.” That is from Matthew 6:25-34. Go read that passage and come back to this.

Now, are you back!? Wasn’t that a lovely bit of scripture? I love it so much. I didn’t know that was in the Bible until I was a senior in high school. I have loved it ever since. It fills me with a sense of “God has this, and He’s taking care of me.” I know it basically says that haha.

You could read this and get a sense of you shouldn’t pray, but I think it should do the opposite. I have a friend, and she imagines making a ball of all her bad feelings and then throwing them into God’s arms/love. He at that point takes them and gives her good feelings in return. I would encourage all of us to do something like that. My version is talking out loud to God about what is happening and doing my best to give them to God. In other words, I sit in it for a little while and talk to him about it, then give it to him.

He wants everything that is good for you. He doesn’t delight in seeing our ruin. I feel He’s saying, “Come back to me child, my darling [insert your name here]!” He wants you to have faith (or trust) He wants what is best for you.

Ugh, Angela, why did you bring up faith,” my imaginary reader said to me.

“Well, because that’s ultimately what He wants for you to have,” I say back to that reader. “Have you read the title?”

I know right now that faith (or trust) is hard to have right now seeing the world in apparent ruin, but He wants that for you and me. I wish I could say that I have reached it, but I don’t think I will ever reach there before I die. I rejoice in this because that means I can grow and become closer to God. Oh, do I need to grow? I think I’m at the point where I fight God’s will then I EVENTUALLY go with His will. This takes time. Oh, does it. BUT God does win because I realize He’s God, not me. I’m sure if you aren’t where I am you can relate to it a bit. In my mind, this is resignation to God’s will. This virtue is about accepting the bad situations and realizing that they must happen for our flourishing. I would recommend not fighting God’s will to the best of your ability, obviously. God is willing to help you take baby steps in this area if you just let Him help you.

Actually my favorite part of that section is where Jesus says that we cannot add any time to our lives by worrying. It is actually proven that if we worry we could lose life. It’s like God hardwired an incentive in our biology to not worry and trust in Him. Oh, I wish I would listen to that when I’m worrying, but I cannot. It’s most likely because I want control. If you are here with me worrying, answer this question: Why do you worry? If it’s in control, why is it so important to you? And possibly the most important question, are you willing to give it to God? If not, how much are you willing to give Him? He doesn’t want to see your ruin and have faith that you in Heaven because there is no Heaven for Him without you.

I guess what I’m trying to say is yes these are scary and worrisome days but have faith God has you and your dear ones. Everything will be for his glory in the long run, and I’m praying for you.