You must not let yourselves be distressed—you must hold on to your faith in God and to your faith in me. John 14:1 (PHILLIPS)
The day started off rather well. It was a bright morning, birds were singing and I was looking forward to accomplishing my tasks. Then, I remembered. I remembered a meeting I had that was not going to be fun. The knot grew in my stomach and I began to stress about it.
As I continued to ponder the possible outcomes, I got more anxious. Like, debilitating, can’t move forward anxious. And I thought, “This is going downhill fast. God, I need help.” Today’s verse popped into my head.
Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. (that version my mom made me memorize when I was little.)
The words “Let not” began to resonate. Let not. Don’t let. Fight the anxiety. But how? Honestly, I wasn’t sure how do to that but I decided to stay focused on those words. At least if I had something to focus on, no one would see the turmoil inside.
As I drove to the meeting, the knot grew I repeated the verse. “Let not your heart be troubled.” Trust me.
As I walked into the building.
“Let not your heart be troubled.”
As I stood at the elevator. Uh oh. The feeling is getting worse.
“Let not your heart be troubled.”
And after each agenda item was read before we got to me. “Let not your heart be troubled.” Honestly, there were moments I couldn’t remember the verse! I’d have to turn my brain off of worry and search for the verse in my head. But when I found it, I felt better.
Gradually, every time I repeated the verse I noticed that I felt a little calmer. Pretty soon, I was calm enough to remember that no matter how it turned out, I trusted God to have it.
We got through the meeting and while it wasn’t great, it was better than I expected. There are still some things to walk through but I now have my go-to.
Don’t let yourself forget who God is. What you are looking at is stressful but God will walk you through it every single step of the way.