Why worry about it if you really can’t control it?
Table of Contents
- 1. Worry never accomplishes anything.
- 2. How God Talks
- 3. Worry and Control
- 4. Give up control and you will manage your anxiety and depression.
- 5. Give control to God
- 6. Don’t ride your white horse.
- 7. What does giving up control do?
1. Worry never accomplishes anything.
Worrying never accomplishes anything.
Right now I’m sitting on the porch of “La Cabinette”.
My she-shed sits about 40 ft from the main cabin. Both the cabin and the she-shed are tiny. The cabin, which we call “Teeny, Tiny Red Cabin” is now about seven hundred square feet because we just added a separate bedroom (there wasn’t one before); the she-shed is twelve by sixteen feet, smaller than many bedrooms. Both sit at the bottom of a hill about a block off the main road.
Trees block the two buildings, so most people never know we’re here. It’s’ quiet, except on the weekends when kayakers transport their kayaks to the river a mile down the road. This is my place of refuge and solace. It’s where I often hear God speak.
(For those new to my blog, I’ll give you pictures of the interior of the she-shed tomorrow. It’s over the top “girly” and I think you will love it and get some DIY inspiration.)
2. How God Talks
If you’ve studied God’s word, if you’ve asked for wisdom, then why wouldn’t you believe God can “speak”? The sheep know their shepherd’s voice. If we don’t recognize his voice, we don’t know the shepherd.
God speaks through many sources. Because I’ve had some isolated time to think, I heard what I think we might all need to hear now and then. It isn’t the least bit profound. It’s been said often and in countless ways. You’ve probably said something like it yourself. Here’s my version:
If you can’t control it, why are you worrying about it?
Nothing you haven’t heard before.
Right?
Nothing I haven’t heard before either. But sometimes we have to hear something many times before we finally get it before we change anything. We don’t want to give up any control. That’s human nature. But God says, give up control and I will take your worries on my shoulders.
3. Worry and Control
Anxiety and depression make us feel we are out of control so we try to control events even more. And if there ever was a time to worry because things are out of control, it’s now. We see things happening around us we can’t believe are happening. It keeps us unsettled.
I’ve been incredibly stubborn at times and thought I could change things by controlling them. When I try, it didn’t work, but I keep trying anyway. Some of us just don’t learn.
4. Give up control and you will manage your anxiety and depression.
We need to work with God. God is working behind the scenes to carry out his purpose, but he won’t twist anyone’s arms. People have a mind of their own. God knows that. He created people with choice. Our prayers can get someone to the door, but they have to open it. Somehow, we forget that.
I needed to be here, at Teeny Tiny Red Cabin, to be quiet enough to hear God speak, to give Him my concerns. I have quiet time every day at home, but here on my porch is where God reveals himself the most. Or maybe I should say that it’s here I get quiet enough to hear him.
5. Give control to God
Years ago I wrote this little song (based on II Corinthians 12:10) for a children’s group but its message is true for us grown/-up children as well.
“When I am weak, you make me strong. When I am strong, you make me weak. What a mystery, what a wonder, what a joy. So when I am weak, I won’t despair; my God is strong He’ll meet me there. What a mystery, what a wonder, oh, what a joy.”
6. Don’t ride your white horse.
There is nothing in our life that can send us over the edge the fastest like worry over relationship difficulties. Because it involves members of your immediate family, it’s even worse. I’m a peacekeeper by nature and I want everyone to get along. Consequently. I try to control difficult situations or conversations. Do I hear an amen?
One of my greatest struggles has been learning I can’t ride my white horse all the time. And to tell you the truth, I don’t want to anymore.
7. What does giving up control do?
Giving up control only means you are handing over the power to God, who should have had it right along.
Depression and anxiety can’t gain a foothold when you let God take control.
Giving up control frees you to direct your attention elsewhere because you’re not concentrating on your worry.
God bless and give God control.
PS. A reminder. The expanded version of my book is on sale for $.99 on Amazon for the entire month of May. I want to help as many as I can during Mental Health Awareness month. In case you are wondering why an expanded version is so soon. I self-published (kind of a combination the first time around ) so I could control the price of the book myself. I didn’t like the price the publisher came up with. As long as I don’t use their cover, they were OK with it.
Here is the new cover:
