Fear & Anxiety
The thing I am most afraid of is completely out of my hands. I cannot influence the outcome at all and I still cannot stop turning it over. What do I do?
“O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.”
Jehoshaphat is facing three armies converging on Judah with no military option available to him. His public prayer ends with a sentence of unusual honesty: we have no might against this great company, neither do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. He does not manufacture a plan or claim confidence he does not have. Admitting there is nothing he can do is the actual content of the prayer.
“And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.”
The disciples ask the risen Jesus whether he is about to restore the kingdom, and his answer withholds the information: it is not for you to know the times or the seasons the Father has put in his own authority. He does not explain, and then immediately gives them something to do instead. Not knowing is treated as a normal permanent condition of following him, not a temporary problem to be solved.
A path forward
Write the situation down and draw a line between what you can act on and what you cannot. Then choose to act only on the first list this week.
Pray Jehoshaphat's sentence in your own words each morning: I do not know what to do, but my eyes are on you. Praying the powerlessness is better than pretending past it.
Give yourself one defined slot a day to think about it, and when the thought arrives outside that slot, note it and return to what you were doing.
Closing verse
“My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.”
- Psalm 31:15
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