Real Hope: Overcoming Stress and AnxietySample

Magnify the LORD

Years ago, I was ministering at a church camp in the Genting Highlands, Malaysia, and the whole church of about 200 people seemed to be excited about being in the meeting and responding to the message—except for four ladies at the back. Being the tactful, gentle soul that I am, I found them at lunch, asked to join them, asked who they were, and why they were so glum. Their response surprised me. "We are the church intercessors." "But why so glum?" I asked. "Because God is not answering our prayers," they replied.

I suggested as diplomatically as I could that one of the keys to answered prayer and deliverance from anxiety is prayer WITH thanksgiving—that you give thanks BEFORE you see the answer.

This seems to be the pattern for Old and New Testament believers. King David sang "Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name" (Psalm 103:1 NJKV). He was telling his soul to focus on God and recount God’s blessings. In Col. 2:7 Paul exhorts us to be "rooted and built up in Him (Christ), strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." 

For me, two things stand out in overcoming anxiety. One is that over-examination of the problem and constant rehearsing of how it happened won’t solve it. And, second, when I get my eyes off the problem and myself, and onto God’s promises, the new perspective gives me the way of escape from the problem and the anxiety. We are called to magnify the Lord, not to magnify the problem. 

Written by John Scott