More Empty, Nagging, Unrest

Friend: Hey Christian, how have things been going since the last time we talked?

Christian: Quite a bit better, thanks.  I have been working on daily confession, and finding a lot more freedom.  

Friend: Great.

Christian: I have been enjoying the experience of a clean conscience through confession, it is an amazing thing.

Friend:  It really is.  It is worth chasing after.

Christian:  I agree.  And I find that I do have to chase it.  It doesn't just automatically stay.  

Friend:  Haha, no.  Our acceptance with God through Christ's blood never changes, but our experience and enjoyment of it seems to get eclipsed by unconfessed sin.

Christian: Yeah.  When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

Friend: Exactly.

Christian: Working on my soul like this has been really refreshing and eye-opening.  I find I am starting to sort out some of the things I feel but have tried to ignore.

Friend: Great.

Christian: It seems like there are other things at work in my unrest too.  There are things that bother me that are not directly my sin, but that trouble me.

Friend: Like what?

Christian: I guess they are things that are happening to me.  Things in my life that I worry about.  Situations where I don't know what to do?

Friend: What do you think the Bible calls what you are talking about?

Christian: Hmm.  That is a good question... I guess worry, and being anxious.

Friend: What kinds of things are you anxious about?

Christian: Different things at different times.  Sometimes my work.  Sometimes relationships with people I care about, or the future, or something else.

Friend: And what do you do with the anxiety?

Christian: I go around in circles in my mind about whatever it is, and don't really know how to get out.  I get nervous when I think about it, so I try to stop thinking about it.  I try to distract myself from it and ignore it.  I try to tell myself that worrying doesn't help, so I try to think about something else.  This puts me back in the constant search for a distraction, and the anxiety stays on the back burner with a constant faint nagging.

Friend: Is that what God says to do with your anxiety and worries?

Christian: No, he tells us not to worry, but I'm not sure how not to.

Friend: I know that he says not to worry, but I mean are you dealing with the temptation to anxiety in the way he tells you to?

Christian: Well, I am trying not to worry.  And I guess trying to think about other things.  Is that not right?

Friend: Well, think about what God calls you to do.  What does the Bible say about what to do with your cares and your anxiety?

Christian: Well, I remember "Cast all your cares upon him."  

Friend: That is a good one.  What do you think that means?

Christian: Not to worry.

Friend: I think it says more than that.  Think about what it says specifically.

Christian: Okay, I guess like throwing all our worries on God.  

Friend: Yeah.

Christian: So I guess like trusting in God.

Friend: Exactly that, but be careful you aren't reducing this to a Christian platitude.  How would you do that experientially?

Christian: I don't really know.  I guess by praying.

Friend: Okay, praying what?

Christian: I guess praying about the things I am worried about.

Friend: Yes.  Imagine a child trying to carry a backpack full of supplies that are too heavy for him.  He keeps trying, thinking that is what his dad wants him to do, but he is getting really tired.  He keeps stumbling and falling down.  Imagine his dad tells him to give all the stuff in the pack to him.  What should he do?  

Christian: He should give the stuff to his dad.

Friend: Right.  He should talk about it with his dad.  But he should also take off his pack, sit down, and put each individual item into his dad's pack.

Christian: Okay, so prayer is not enough?

Friend: I'm not saying that.  But I am saying God has more freedom for you than only talking to him about how heavy the pack is.  I am saying that - in prayer - you should sit down and unload your pack onto God.  You should sit quietly and ask yourself what is bothering you.  You should think about it, consider what it is, and then pass it off to your father.  

Christian: That sounds almost too good to be true.  Part of me feels like I need to be carrying the things I worry about.  Like it would be irresponsible to empty my pack.

Friend: Some of that is pride.  Have you ever noticed the first part of the verse you quoted to me?

Christian: I don't think so.

Friend: It says, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you."

Christian: Huh.  So casting my cares on him is part of humbling myself.

Friend: It is.  And you can see it now, right?  The kid who won't listen to his dad and unload his pack is thinking he can do it on his own when he clearly can't.  His father never asked him to.  Your Father never asked you to carry the weight of the world.  

Christian: Thankfully.

Friend: He carried it for you.  He took so much of your trouble on himself that it crushed him.  But he is not the kind of God that can stay crushed.  

Christian: And that is the last part of the verse: "because he cares for you."

Friend.  Yeah.  He really does.  So every day, like with confession, unload your pack on him.  Open your pack, see what is weighing you down, and give it to him.  Then you can run with endurance the race that is set before you.  

Christian: That sounds amazing.  I'm going to try that.  But I guess I have a lingering question, I don't want to be argumentative.

Friend: Ask.

Christian: Well, does this mean I don't do anything?  I mean, I am thinking about worries I have in a specific relationship.  Should I not try to make it better?  Should I not work at it?

Friend: That is a good question.  What do you think?

Christian: Well, it doesn't seem right to not try.  I mean, I love this person, I want to labor in love for their good.  Jesus loved me and gave himself up for me.  And I want to learn that.

Friend: That is beautiful.

Christian: But how does that fit with what you said?

Friend: Yeah, the backpack analogy maybe fails us a little at this point.  The supplies in the pack are not the things themselves, but our worry and anxiety about them.  We don't give up on life and on people, but we give our worry to God.

Christian: Okay...

Friend: I will tell you what I do when I am taking my own advice.  I get alone with God and I look at each thing I am worrying about.  I ask God what I can do in the situation.  Is there something I need to confess or repent of?  Is there something I can do to help that is within my reach?  I then commit to try to do that thing with God's help.  Then I ask God what part of the thing is out of my hands.  The answers generally seem pretty clear.  I entrust that to him, acknowledge to him that it is out of my hands, and spend some time praying that he will work good things in it for his kingdom and for righteousness.  And then I set it aside.  I do this until nothing else comes to mind, and my soul feels unburdened, and then I rejoice in God's care for me.  I rejoice that I have the kind of Father I have, and I enjoy the freedom and gladness of a child of God.

Christian: That sounds great.  Do you think if I regularly confess my sins and unload my worries on God I will be free from the empty, nagging unrest?  

Friend: Maybe.  It is a good place to start.  God promises that when you bring your requests to him with thankfulness, his peace will guard your heart and mind in Jesus in a way that is beyond what you can understand. 

Christian: I like the sound of that.