My absolute favourite book right now is called Anxious For Nothing by Max Lucado. This book aims to solve a deeply rooted problem that has become more and more popular as we head further into the 21st century, anxiety.
The entire book was set on the well known verses Philippians 4:4-8.
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
Philippians 4:4-8
It was divided into 4 sections: Celebrate God’s Goodness (rejoice in the Lord always), Ask God For Help (let your requests be made known to God), Leave Your Concerns With Him (with thanksgiving), and Mediate on Good Things (think about things that are worthy of praise). Each section had valuable, and practical advice for handling your anxiety.
In my own story, anxiety has become more present over the last couple years. I’ve tried a lot of different strategies to try and tackle it and a lot of them have failed. This book helped me to realize that those strategies probably failed because I didn’t bring God into it.
I don’t know what your story looks like, but I do know that we all have these little (or not so little) things in our lives that we don’t allow God into. For me, for a long time, I didn’t allow God to move in my anxiety. I just thought that I was going to live like this so I may as well embrace it. It took me a long time to understand that God wants to be apart of every part of our lives, not just the posed and perfect parts. I thought that I could do it on my own but it became clear that I could not. Through this book, I was reminded that God wants all of me, and all of my mess. There are so many pieces of practical advise in this book!
Max Lucado draws you in with his expansive knowledge of anxiety. He makes you want more by drawing a dark narrative that’s easy to relate to. And then he sits you down and tells you the facts. He explains the hard things, he rejoices in the incredible things that God has for us, but most importantly he guides us along a journey of discovering what God has for us outside of our anxiety.
I want to leave you with one of my favourite quotes from the book:
“Life gives lemons to good people, bad people, old people, all people. Life comes with lemons. But we don’t have to suck on them”.
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