Midweek: Anxiety and the Test of Time

Have you ever taken a timed test? Perhaps you've played the game Perfection. You hear the clock ticking away, or you're imagining just how long you've been at it and how little time you have remaining. The closer it gets --or the closer you believe it is getting --to time running out, the faster your heart races, the more you begin to sweat and shake. Anxiety! But what if what we're measuring, speed, is not the thing that needs to be measured? What if those timed tests are more about you working diligently, thinking logically, staying focused? What if that silly little ticking game is more about manual dexterity and spatial acumen? What if it's not about beating the clock at all? Is it possible the anxiety we feel is because we are wrong about the purpose for the test?

James 1:2-8 says, 

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

The testing of your faith, "falling into" various trials, produces patience. Sure, there's a test; but it's not for the purposes of "pass-fail" or shaming us. It's a test --or many tests --to teach us patience. The testing of our ability to forgive when we are in the infancy of our walk with Christ should look much different from the testing of our ability to forgive years into our relationship with Jesus. And though the clock is ticking, we are not racing against it. There's no need to be anxious. If we are surrendered to God's means, the Holy Spirit does the work. Time merely reminds us just how far the Holy Spirit has brought us. All glory to God, once I was bitter and unforgiving, but look what He has done!

God, through James, continues: Let patience have her perfect work. Unto completion. Don't fight it. Don't panic. Don't worry. Don't fear. Trials are not wasted when we trust God is doing something through them; but we give anxiety free reign when we see our circumstances as purely random and out of control. Rather than keep our eyes on Jesus, we race toward a Finish Line we cannot see, plotting, planning, trying to figure it all out, anything to make it stop --now! The time will come for it to stop; but until then, sit with Him as He works. Let patience develop. Take a deep breath and hold on to the One who holds you.

And don't hesitate to ask. James says we are to ask for wisdom in these trials; those who ask in faith, without doubting God's answer, without seeking wisdom elsewhere "just in case" God doesn't respond quickly enough or to our liking, will receive. Mark 9, records the moment a man brought his sick child to Jesus' disciples. They were unable to help and, it seems, left the man a bit skeptical of Jesus and His ministry. Jesus, however, intervenes and says, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." The man responds with, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" A simple prayer: I don't believe as I want; help me! Or, this one, Help me take my eyes off of my circumstances and off of the clock, as I wait on You! 

Time is not the enemy, nor are the trials that come over time. In fact, those trials teach us better time management: laying more of our anxieties at the cross, and living for His glory as we wait on Him.