Trust Issues

So today I was shown that I have trust issues that I didn't realize were in fact trust issues.

You see anxiety, fear, and inability to manage circumstances in healthy ways can often times be related to trust issues. Trust issues specifically where you don't trust the Lord with the outcome.

If you think about it. If you trusted God with the outcome you wouldn't be anxious would you? You wouldn't be afraid to the point of intense emotional strain. If you trusted God you'd have peace alongside the stress of a situation.

It's that lack of peace that is the clue.

The absence of something tells you something.

If you have all anxiety, all fear, all panic, all heartache, and no peace to go along with it... it might be time to check yourself. Are you absolutely not trusting the Lord with this situation? With this outcome? With this mess?

Of course you can swing to the opposite direction, the toxic direction to avoid the heartache and stress. You can just choose to not care. But that's not the same as having peace. It's either manufactored peace by lying to yourself. Or it's selfishness bordering on malice. And that is never a good place to be. Bad things will find you if you stay in that place too long...

But back to non-toxic land shall we?

How do you know you're trusting in a healthy way? Well it's kinda simple. Trusting in a healthy way is when you care, but you are not crushed by the situation.

Are you upset, or are you having a panic attack?
Are you worried, or are you freaking out?
Are you concerned, or are you deathly afraid?
Does your heart hurt for someone, or are you unable to sleep night after night?

When something starts to truly get to you do you have zero peace along side the stress? Is the stress and strain overwhelming you? Or are you managing despite the stress, worry, pain?

Next time that monster attacks take a moment and check...

The absence of something tells you something.

Now you might say "Ok yeah sure, but how do I do something about this!?".

Honestly you gotta rewire your head. There's no other way around it. You have to push yourself to change how you think. Personally I use a couple of thoughts or phrases I repeat to myself.

"Jesus is more important than [insert stressful problem here]."
or
"God knew this was coming, I gotta relax my emotional grip and let God do his thing."

As you can see the trick is to remind yourself that God is part of the situation. And from there things will start to slowly calm down. At least inside you. And that will enable you to survive the stress!