High anxiety

‘Do not be afraid, my people!
You know that from ancient times until now
   I have predicted all that would happen,
   and you are my witnesses.
Is there any other god?
Is there some powerful god I never heard of?’
(verse 8)

Read Isaiah 44:6-8,21-23

The excruciating experience of anxiety is in epidemic proportions. It is one of the conditions that supplies general practitioners with a large proportion of their income. In our times, when medical science is getting on top of so many diseases of the body, the illnesses of the mind are on the increase. Life is so uncertain, nothing seems to hold together any more. At the heart of it all is the decline in our society of something solid to have faith in. So increasing numbers of people are getting the shakes.

Have we got a touch of the shakes too? Everyone does from time to time. The remedy is not a tablet but rather a rock. As the prophet Isaiah tells us so clearly, the more the world trembles, the more God is unmoving. He was there before the world began. He made everything. He is on our side. His love for us is unbounded. Being attached to him helps shed our anxiety altogether.

Lord, you are the rock, the strong centre in our shaking world. Teach us how to shed our anxieties and cling to you. Amen

adapted by Richard Fox from the devotion by Richard Hauser, in ‘Assurance for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2004)

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