On Edge

You know the feeling; something is not right, is just a little off. Or something big is about to happen; you can sense it. Maybe a relationship is going sideways, and the excitement has given you butterflies in your stomach, and you wish they would stop chasing each other in circles. You’re on edge.
One of my favorite verses is Philippians 4:6, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done.”
I don’t know about you, but it is easy for me to get so wrapped up in what is going on, the events of life, the difficulties that I think are coming, that I forget I already have a way to deal with them. God in His divine wisdom provided a way for us to eliminate worry or anxiousness from our lives. That avenue is prayer. It is His desire that we would bring all those thoughts that have the ability to work us up or pull us down, to Him. He doesn’t just ask us to bring them to Him; He asks us to leave them with Him. So here is the complete thought. A relationship starts to go sideways or an event is spinning out of my control; God wants me to bring that to Him, explain what I know about it, tell Him why it makes me worry, and then hand over the outcome to Him. That doesn’t sound like much on the surface, but what is really happening is I am admitting to Him that these things are beyond my pay grade, and I can’t make them work out. So I am giving up the thought of control (that I don’t have) to the one who actually has control. Then I go from trying to make things happen to being thankful for what has already happened. When I do this I go from being on edge to being at ease.
What has you on edge? What are you trying to control? What do you need to bring and leave with Jesus in prayer? What have you missed being thankful for because you have been too anxious?

-Pastor Tim