Our Anxious Wandering Minds

Our Anxious Wandering Minds

by David Brenneman 

"Listen to my prayer, God; And do not hide Yourself from my pleading.  Give Your attention to me and answer me; I am restless in my complaint and severely distracted," Psalm 55:1-2 NASB 

Oh how I can relate to this passage.  

Many times, many times a day even, my mind wanders from what God's put before me to do.

With a mind that I can tell He's enabled to figure things out, quite often the opposite happens.

I can also have multiple trains of thought going.  Some mistake this for me being angry or sad.

I really, probably, am neither, and am actually wanting a conversation to bring me back into the place, the room, that I'm in.   

The most attacked that we all will ever be in life is what we are.  Our identity.

For those pre-salvation, it's always about who they are.  It's as old as a few generations after Adam and Eve the identity crisis of even gender and marriage.  

Why identity?  Because God defined it, His enemy, Satan, wants to destroy it. 

It's funny how many will indeed agree on the definition of what is evil...an those definitions have their roots in the Bible...but will not agree with the rest of the Bible on what constitutes truth.

Little did I know or realize that my prayer for boldness would come out in my writings.  A prayer like that can be intimidating.  For certain it propels me out of my comfort zone like a jet engine. 

In the right circumstances I can indeed be very talkative.  

In the another set of circumstances I can be very quiet.

In my writing, I absolutely, and certainly want God to be glorified, to be magnified, among men and women who read it and find it.  To date, views of this blog have been recorded in 67 countries out of 194 known countries on the planet. Outside of what's been read on Facebook, and the less than 500 business cards with the website on it that have been given out to people, God's done all the work in global distribution.  102,000 plus views since it began.

It began, at least as far as my host server thinks about 4 years ago.  

How it truly began was decades ago.  But, my wandering mind, my thoughts of how God was going to accomplish His work in me, lead me to nearly 20 years in the wilderness until He brought me back around again.  

When you go about your day, do you include Jesus?

When you think about this or that, do you include Jesus?

When you desire something, have you thought of what Jesus thinks about it?

When you are inactive physically, are you at rest in Jesus?

That prayer passage in Psalms is a strong one.  It's great for those who deal with anxiety.  I know of missionaries and some pastors who deal with anxiety daily if not weekly.  We're human and humans, until they get a glorified body, will have to deal with it.  Denying it makes it worse.

What we also need to consider is there IS a root cause to it all.  That same battle mentioned about identity.  Satan wants the world to worship him.  Satan wants the angels of God to worship him.

Satan will attempt to destroy that which God values, that which God holds in high esteem.

Everything from gender to the sanctity of life.  Everything from food to medical care. 

Everything from what we see, we eat, we breathe, we own, we want.  If it's for God's purpose, we can count on there being attacks from Satan concerning them.  We can count on anxiety in moments of life if we are indeed saved in Christ Jesus.  

Growing in Christ will mean times of seeing growth in Him and not seeing growth in Him.

Growing in Christ will mean times of hearing from Him and times when His silence is deafening.

It doesn't mean He's not there.  It just means we need to trust Him in both ways.  

We heard today an old hymn. "Only Trust Him" 

Only trust Him, only trust Him, only trust Him now.

He will save you, He will save you, He will save you now."

We also heard "My Jesus I love thee, I know thou art mine. If ever I loved thee, my Jesus tis now".

I can't tell you how many times that second chorus calmed my heart and mind in those wilderness days.

When you are anxious, when your mind wanders, Jesus is there.

When you are at peace, when life seems good, Jesus is there.

When people say mean things, and criticize you, berate you, say all sorts of evil things about you, Jesus is there.

When you are alone and wonder what's next because it's completely unclear...Jesus is there.

That last one is where I am right now.  My last of the closest friends that I have had in this world, Jesus called home.  I am praying indeed for new friendships in this new hometown that God's brought us to.

It CAN be a source of anxiety for people like me.   I'm constantly reminded of a storm that Jesus pushed me through when we were in the process of moving.  I had no place to go to escape the anxiety of the several hours I was on the road.  Pressing on was what Jesus said I needed to do and was going to do.  Stopping was not an option.  I couldn't see even a car width to my right to find an exit.  I was given a semi truck to follow as well as the very faint white lines on the road to see.  I couldn't slow down due to the other traffic.  I had to trust Jesus to get me to our old home and not let up.

I know not what my future holds, but I know that the Bible says He holds my future in His very hands.

I know that the same goes for you my Dear Reader.  If every you wonder where those personal descriptions come from, that too is of God.  "Dear Reader" and "My Friend" are indicative of how God's Word is written for you. and to you. It's very personal because God wants to be very personal with each of you. 

He promised His peace to leave with us, not as the world leaves calls it, describes, it defines it.

Changing our identity to what the world says will make us happy, absolutely will end in ruin.

Living in the identity that we who are in Christ have in Christ, will set us apart, and will cause us to live like nobody else.