Tag: foundation

Anxiety Series

Prepare For Battle – Day 2

Jaime

I grew up by the world’s standards, often hearing;

If you want something, go and get it. If there’s a problem, you fix it. All responsibility was placed on the individual. 

There were a few problems with this.

  1. My ways of fixing things weren’t always good for me.
  2. Knowing that my entire life depended on me was way too much pressure.

Once I became a believer, my worldview shifted. I no longer felt the need to control everything. I managed what I could and chose to trust God with the rest, but this didn’t happen right away.

Like any other relationship, it took me a while to build trust. Through reading God’s Word, I learned a lot about His character and who He was, discovering that He was in fact Trustworthy.

He keeps His promises. We see this by his finished work on the cross.

Thus began a process of developing my worldview and overall foundation. This has affected the way I view the world and how I function in it. It’s all helped me to deal with my anxiety from a more biblical perspective.

What we believe about the world influences everything in our lives, including how we deal with anxiety.

 

What’s your worldview?

Mental Health, Suicide

Step Aside, Suicide

Jaime

Once upon a time, there was a prison guard. His primary responsibility was making sure no inmates escaped.

Two men sit in prison. They were severely beaten and incarcerated because of the message they were preaching.

An earthquake shakes the foundation of the prison, causing all doors to open.

Assuming the prisoners escaped, the guard draws his sword, preparing to take his own life. BUT, before he could follow through, one of the inmates shout: “Stop, don’t do it. We are still here.”

The guard did not take his own life. He instead decided to accept the message provided by the two men. His life was forever changed.

This story can be found in Acts 16.

I wonder about this prison guard. What had his life been like? What would it have felt like to blow the one responsibility I had? Would I have known that the consequence for the guard not fulfilling his duties would most likely be death?

Out of all people to encourage this hopeless man, it was an inmate who was beaten, chained, and thrown in prison. Without him, the guard would be dead. Why did the prisoner choose to do this?

He was paying forward what had been given to him.

People are suffering.

It’s easy to judge and let our opinions run rampant when we haven’t been in someone else’s shoes and don’t understand the “why’s.”

What if we started asking more questions and getting to know people’s stories? What if we were increasingly vulnerable about our struggles, decreasing feelings of loneliness and isolation? What if we viewed every single person as a child of God?

What we say and do matters. The way we treat people matters.

Unworthy is a belief of many in despair. If they only knew how cherished and loved they were.

Let us be His hands and feet.