What gives you anxiety?

Top 10 anxious triggers from Chat GPT:

Uncertainty of future Life change

Finances Trauma

Health concerns Fear of failure

Social situations Global events

Work stress Lack of control

What stands out to you?

Have you ever had an anxiety attack or felt like you might have one?

Anxiety is normal.

Anxiety is useful.

Anxiety will cause spiritual growth if we handle it the right way.

Genesis 28:10-17 

10 Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. 11 At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep. 12 As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway.

13 At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. 14 Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. 15 What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.”

16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” 17 But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!”

Anxiety shows up when we are unaware of God’s presence.

Have you ever seen a miracle?

There are thirty-seven sextillion biochemical reactions happening in your body every single second.

-  A sextillion is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

• Biochemical reactions occur within living organisms when two different atoms or molecules interact to form a new molecule or compound.

Every heartbeat pumps six quarts of blood through 60,000 miles of veins, arteries, and capillaries in your body.

- That is 2x the circumference of Earth.

If your double-helix DNA were laid end to end, it would reach to the moon and back nearly 150,000 times.

You are a miracle.

You are surrounded by miracles.

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as if nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is.” -Albert Einstein

If the earth were the size of a golf ball…

…the sun would be 15 feet in diameter.

…betelgeuse would be 6 Empire State Buildings high.

…Mu Cephei would be 2 Golden Gate Bridges end to end.

…Canis Majoris would be the height of Mount Everest.

Anxiety creeps in when our view of God is too small.

John 1:43-46

43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Come, follow me.” 44 Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter’s hometown.

45 Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the very person Moses[o] and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

46 “Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

When anxiety takes over it is because we have placed our parameters around who God is and what he can do.

John 1:46-51

“Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied.

47 As they approached, Jesus said, “Now here is a genuine son of Israel—a man of complete integrity.”

48 “How do you know about me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus replied, “I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.”

49 Then Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!”

50 Jesus asked him, “Do you believe this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” 51 Then he said, “I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.[p]”

Genesis 28:18-19

18 The next morning Jacob got up very early. He took the stone he had rested his head against, and he set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it. 19 He named that place Bethel (which means “house of God”), although it was previously called Luz.

If we never give up what is old, we can’t take hold of something new.

The old way of life is comfortable.

The Son of Man, the stairway between heaven and earth lives in you.

Galatians 2:20

20 My old self has been crucified with Christ.[e] It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Our relationship with Jesus should have a profound impact on our anxieties.

Surely, the Lord is in this place and we are aware of him.