This morning our speaker was our youth leader, Amanda Mackie. Below is the introduction to her sermon.
In our passage this morning, Jesus is talking about worry or anxiety. Anxiety is a fierce, often irrational pest. Its origins, I think, are in what we don’t know or what we don’t understand. And it is not just anxiety or worry, it is fear, doubt, shame, insecurity and so many other feelings and thoughts that try to control us. These words by themselves can sometimes make my heart beat faster. Sometimes you hear someone else sharing about their struggle with anxiety or you hear a pastor say that they will be preaching about one of these topics and you tense up and get a gulp in your through, your stomach churns, and a chill comes over you. Maybe it is just me, but I believe the battle with anxiety, fear, doubt, shame, and insecurity are not always known to those around us because we can hide it. Anxiety tells us that we should not talk about it because we are supposed to have it all together or that something is terribly wrong with us. And because of that we keep quiet, but when the subject gets mentioned everything inside of use shakes because we want to be free, but we do not know how or are afraid of the steps that need to be taken.
We all have a little fear tucked in the back of our minds into the “what if” section. But those who struggle with anxiety find that the “what if” section has grown too big; the unanswerable fears and questions are let loose, gripping their hands around our necks in a way that paralyzes us with fear. Questions about faith, about God, about ourselves, about suffering can plague the anxious soul, until it is difficult to think about anything else.
But it is not in the Lord’s nature to send us through trials in vain. He can use our struggles to draw us closer to Him. Such is the case with anxiety. In its ugly depths, I am finding treasures of hope and each day I can lay more and more of my anxiety, fears, doubts shame, and insecurity at His feet. It is a lesson about trust and love.