Follow the Leader

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. (Psalm 139:23-24 NLT)

Know my anxious thoughts. Are you one of the many who actually get a little 'twitterpated' when life gets tough? No, the meaning of that word isn't 'upset', 'in a tizzy', or even anxious. It means that you are 'infatuated' or 'obsessed' with the 'toughness' of the moment. There aren't many of you out there that actually face 'anxious moments' with such enjoyment, but anyone who subjects themselves to those huge rollercoaster rides or those 'spin till you pass out' ones might just thrive on that level of anxiety. The rest of us don't actually face anxious moments with a sense of 'infatuation' with whatever is occurring!

The rest of the world faces those anxious moments with a little bit of fear, mistrust, or the initiation of the flight response. Anxious moments don't have to be our undoing, though. They can be the moments that propel us forward, or sadly, they can be the ones that sink us into deep despair. The greater the 'issue' that leads to the anxious moments, the harder it is for us to rise above them sometimes. The more we press into Jesus, the less those anxious moments should be our undoing, right? It might not be that easy, my friends. It might be that we are holding on so tight to the fear and mistrust that we don't really let go of it even when we are trying to draw closer to Jesus.

We have to know the source of our anxiety. Getting to the source of it is half the battle. Knowing how to get out from under it is where the work really begins. We have to make a whole lot of conscious effort to let go and adopt a new way of approaching whatever it is that has held us in so deep a place of anxiety, don't we? The way out of anxiety is more than just 'trusting Jesus' with the issue. Those are nice words, but those words must be backed up with very specific actions on our part. Jesus is working behind the scenes, but until we take steps forward in obedience to what he tells us to do, we will still be holding onto that anxiety.

Perhaps this is why our psalmist asks God to point out what offends him and then lead him along the right path. Leading is just that - it means we follow. We take the necessary steps to move down that path. Jesus starts out - we follow right behind. In other words, there will always be some 'work' on our part to get past those 'anxious moments'. Just sayin!