What Should We Do With Our Anxieties?

Every day “little burdens” trouble our souls and weigh down our hearts like a backpack strapped to our shoulders. One more struggle added to a medium-sized load causes a sigh to escape from our lips and our shoulders to droop.

I felt that way recently when I lost a small, costly and needed item…a hearing aid. The moment I realized it was missing, I gasped, sighed, and closed my eyes in disbelief. It had been a busy week serving the Lord, and this day had been especially full. When I realized the problem I was in a place where I could do nothing. I couldn’t get up and go search for it because we were at camp sitting in a service.

I had to do the most difficult thing – I had to sit and wait.

Just then the Spirit of God brought the passage I’d been teaching this summer to my mind – Matthew 11:28-30 Come unto me all that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. The context is salvation, but this invitation is extended to us all through our Christian lives. In every anxiety, in every stress, we must come to Jesus. At that moment in my heart, I went running to Him.

“Father, you know where this hearing aid is, and it seems impossible to find such a small thing on so many acres of property. I’ve been all over the place today and I don’t know where it is, but You do. I am choosing to rest in you. I’m coming to bring this burden to Your feet and I will trust in You.

Immediately following the service a search was made in all the places I had been, but nothing turned up. I realized I needed to let the office know I was missing a hearing aid, in case someone turned it in. What woman wants to look into the face of a young woman to admit she was missing a device that surely sealed her reputation as an old woman?! Not only was this a lesson in trust; it was also a lesson in humility, but I did it. I left a message with the staff, letting them know of my loss. I had one hearing aid, that’s better than nothing, but I needed the other one to balance my hearing properly.

We returned home to Tennessee, and only hearing well from my left ear, I made a call to my audiologist to schedule an appointment to replace the device. I grimaced at the thought of having to purchase something so expensive, and felt foolish for losing it.

A short while after making the appointment, I heard a song streaming through our house – Come unto Jesus, a new song by Laura Story. The lyrics were the very passage I’d been teaching every week to the female sponsors at camp. I had been saying to them…

“Do you want to learn from a hard thing you’re experiencing? Trust. Are you anxious? Trust. Come to Jesus with your burdens, just as you did at salvation. The song was giving the same admonition.

Just then my phone notified me just then that I had a text. The text message said, “Is this yours?” and with it was a picture – a picture of my hearing aid!” I was blown away at God’s care for me and at the timing of this message! This “little burden” wasn’t little to God. He heard my cries when I brought it to Him, and here was His provision for this small matter that was of huge importance to me.

I wept as I continued to listen to the song, and then I stopped to pray and thank the Lord for His loving care for this small servant of His. God proved His love for us when He sent His Son to die for us, but over and over again, He continues to prove His love for us. How?

• He hears our prayers.
• He meets our needs.
• He helps us in trials.
• He comforts us when we’re anxious.
• He reminds us of Truth when we’re fearful.
• He continues to invite us to come to Him with ALL our burdens – big and little.

What is tugging on your heart at this moment? What has you burdened and worried? Come to Jesus and leave it with Him. It’s not too little a care for Him to act upon.

I’m hearing a lot better today after having my hearing aid returned to me, but I pray that my spiritual ears will continue to hear Christ’s invitation each day to come to Him with every burden because He cares – even about the little tiny issues in our lives!