Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you (I Peter 5:7).
Without realizing it, I had become a worryholic. Worry robs a soul of peace and joy. Deep depression alighted upon me, but I knew not the cause. Four times, I had failed to depend upon the Lord. I suffered four nervous breakdowns.
I can pronounce yield and trust without any problem, but it took me years to apply them.
My schedule filled up and I had no time to myself. I arose early to prepare breakfast for my husband. I spent all day homeschooling my daughter. "I have no time for a quiet time," I reasoned.
“Lynn, you're carrying around too many burdens,” my pastor said to me. “Get up at five o'clock before the family arises,” Bro. Taylor counseled me. “You can have your quiet time then.”
“My alarm clock will wake up my husband,” I argued. “He works hard and needs his rest.”
“Talk it over with him,” he urged. “Tell him you need this time with the Lord.”
“Okay,” I consented, knowing my weary body could not rise at that intolerable hour. However, Leon, my husband agreed with this plan. It pleased the Lord, too. He refreshed me so that I did not miss the extra sleep.
Lacking understanding, I called my anxieties "nerves" and continued to worry. After all, I reasoned, I cannot change them; they belong to me. Consequently, I lived a defeated life.
When God called my beloved husband home, it forced me to depend more upon the Lord. Soon afterwards, I spent a precious night of communion with my Lord. He released me from my “cage of nerves.” At that moment, God opened my understanding. What a fool I had been not to see my nerves, worries, burdens and cares all amounted to the same thing!
The following night my burdens glided into my territory again. “Lord, please take them away,” I pleaded. Again, my “nerves” took wing.
Although my life still has stress, the Lord keeps me from deep distress. My burdens no longer get me down. I trust under the shelter of the Lord's wings to keep from worry. He set me free from my cage of “nerves.” When I stay close to Him, I soar upwards as a bird.
O Lord, teach me to trust Thee more and to walk in Thy paths. Please take away my nerves. May I continue to cast them upon Thee. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Published by Penned from the Heart, C 1999, Lynn Wallace
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