{Monday Meditations} Anxiety and Blog Tag Idea

Hey guys,

I wanted to share some verses on anxiety since I've been facing that quite a bit as I'm adjusting to college life.

Philippians 4:6 "Be careful [anxious] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."


Rather than panic, worry, or freak out when you are afraid or uncertain about something, stop, drop and PRAY. Confess your fears and uncertainties to God. He already knows what you're going through and He knows how to help us. Instead of trying to push through it by yourself, allow God to help you carry your burdens.

Matthew 11:28 states, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." When you feel heavy with burdens and trials, go to the Mercy Seat and drop off your burdens to the Good Shepherd and He will help you carry them.

I don't know what you're going through and I know that it is SO easy to type this and tell others what to do and "it will be okay" or "it will get better" or "go to God" or "read some verses".

Look, I totally understand. On my second day of college classes, I literally called my mom FOUR different times throughout the day, always in tears. I hated it here and I wanted to come home. I only knew a few people and I felt so alone and I was overwhelmed with classes, I wasn't sleeping or eating well, I was a mess. My mom kept telling me that God could help me and I just need to pray and trust in Him. She kept telling me it would get better and I just couldn't believe her. 

However, here I am today, enjoying college, meeting new friends, my appetite is back, and I'm sleeping much better! I went to God, in tears I threw all my burdens at His feet and asked Him to help me carry them and guess what? He helped me carry them. 

God knows what we are all capable of and He never gives us more than we can bear. Of course, you could argue that God gives us more than we can bear so that we realize our weakness and His strength. That's one lesson I learned already here at college. I can't handle everything by myself but I can handle everything when I ask God to aid me. 

I also came across this verse. Proverbs 23:17 “Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.” The fear of the Lord needs to constantly be in us. It isn’t a “one and done” thing. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom according to the first chapter of Proverbs.

            Each day we need to wake with the fear of the Lord. We need to start our day by trusting in God. This has become something I desperately need out here at college. Some days, I picture myself as Peter.

            He bravely stepped into the water.

            I took the big step, leaving home and coming to college.

            He looked at Jesus and did well.

            The first week of college was fine for me.

            But Peter looked away to the things around him and began to drown.

            I looked at all my assignments and at the circumstances around me and I began to panic.

            He cried to the Lord and He rescued him.

            I cried to God and He calmed me.

            If I don’t trust in God, my days struggle. I get homesick and miss my family. I get overwhelmed with looking ahead at homework assignments. If I do trust God and meditate on Scripture, He calms me.

            Psalm 56:3 says “What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee.” When life gets rocky, there is nothing else we can do but go to God. I am learning this out here. Whenever I struggled at home, I would pray about it, but I could always go to my mom or my sister and talk about it. Out here, I don’t have that luxury of face-to-face conversation with my family. So instead, I go to God.

            Psalm 34:1 says “I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” Take time to thank God and really appreciate what He has done for you. As humans, we so easily get caught up in other things. Stop and count your blessings… “see what God hath done!”  I promise you’ll feel better after you’ve looked back at all God has done for you. 

That's where my blog tag idea comes in! I won't start it right now...I want some feedback before I officially do it. But a man was speaking at my church out here and he challenged us to wake up each day and praise God for a specific attribute of His. His grace, His mercy, His Righteousness, His omniscience. Then he told us to look back on the day before and thank God for a specific blessing that He gave you. THEN (only one more I promise haha) he challenged us to share that blessing with someone else so they can be encouraged too!

So here's my thoughts. Each day for a week, join me in this challenge. Praise a specific attribute of God, thank Him for a blessing, and share that blessing. Write all of this up in a post and at the end of the week, post it on your blog and tag at one or two people to take up the challenge and pass it on! What do you think? Would some of you be interested in this? If so, I'll do the first post and challenge some of you :)

Have a great week y'all. Thanks for checking in with me. Hopefully I'll have more O'Neals up soon.