GAD!

Generalized Anxiety Disorder is defined as “excessive uncontrollable worry about everyday things.” GAD is constant worry affecting daily functioning. Its physical symptoms include muscle tension, nausea, swallowing difficulty, irritability, uneasiness, stomach problems, and diarrhea. GAD is difficult to diagnose. It lacks some of the more dramatic symptoms such as unprovoked panic attacks. Most experts agree that for a diagnosis of GAD to be made, worry must be present more days than not for at least 6 months.

Sufferers shift worry between issues like job, finances, and health. Worry also includes mundane matters, such as chores, car repairs and simply being late. The worry is not in proper proportion to the issue. There may be no real reason for the worry at all. GAD affects performance and concentration. Sufferers complain of feeling on edge, tiring easily, and trouble sleeping.

GAD invaded my life at age 17, when I suffered my first anxiety attack. Later, personal failures and betrayals by close friends intensified my worry. I was diagnosed properly recently. Through treatment, counseling, and direct intervention of the Holy Spirit, I am better. I have good days and bad days. The good now seems to outweigh the bad. For some reason, God has chosen not to deliver me.

We all struggle. Our struggles are merely different. GAD keeps me close to God. It keeps me seeking his constant peace and presence. Learning to love better, and allowing others to love me, has lessened my fears.

Scripture encourages GAD suffers with statements like, "Be anxious for nothing", and “perfect love casts out all fear.”

The trick is learning to love perfectly and letting God have full control.

As a small child, I found myself extremely frustrated when I wasn’t allowed to do what I wanted to do. I often lost control. I expressed frustration through temper tantrums. At times, when I was very small, Mother could distract me with toys or other items. Later, she used spanking and “time-outs”; sometimes both. She had many ways of helping me control myself. She helped me learn that I couldn’t always have my way.

Mom also rewarded me when I calmed down. She gave me smiles, soft words, milk, and a cookie. Her kindness softened my angry heart. Her loving discipline helped me achieve self-control. Later, the Holy Spirit helped me in areas I couldn’t control myself.

Time outs can be effective. Good parents encourage good choices and punish bad choices. They apply appropriate consequences to help a child think before he acts. This helps the child learn to walk away instead of acting out frustration. Some parents remove items from a child’s room until they learn to control themselves. They reward good behavior by replacing those items, one at a time. This teaches them that society will isolate (imprison) them if they do not learn to control their anger and frustration.

Older children may also be reasoned with if adequate consequences are applied consistently early in life. Parents can encourage older children to “talk out” instead of “act out” frustration. Feelings should be examined and identified properly. A child can learn to distinguish disappointment from frustration and anger from rage.

Christian parents also help their children learn that the Holy Spirit produces self-control when our will is inadequate for controlling our passions. God resides in us to specifically help in areas we cannot control.

Thank you, Jesus, for good parents. Thank you, Jesus, for the fruit of self-control.

John 13:2 chronicles a defining moment in Judas’ life. He will lose everything this night. Nothing will ever be the same.

Judas had followed the Lord for nearly three years, but, evidently, still continued to give audience to the Devil. In that upper room, he obeys a prompting from the Devil to betray Jesus. It is a fatal error in judgment. Jesus later confessed to the Father, “I lost none you gave me, except one.”

Satan has real power. He can kill us, if we listen to him. He can destroy all our relationships. We must stay awake and aware of his power, his opposing voice.

If we accept that there is a resident evil power in this world, then we accept that there is a resident good in us; God in us, empowering us to do right; God in us, empowering us to refuse wrong.

Later that evening, Jesus promises not to abandon his children. He sends the Holy Spirit fifty days later. They are never the same. They go from frightful children to fearless witnesses. Their transformation is so complete that they reach the entire world with the gospel in one generation.

This is a testimony to God's power! It is a testimony to what we can accomplish with God in us, reigning over our hearts and lives. We can live and love like God. We can overcome our addictions and compulsions, sin and Satan.

“For He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world.”

A Christian wife tells me her preacher told her the Bible teaches that she must be obedient to her husband “in all things”. Her husband is a pot-smoking unbeliever that wants her to smoke dope and do other things she considers to be immoral. The preacher instructed her that when her husband asks her to participate with him in such things, she should say to her husband, “I am a Christian. I do not believe what you are asking me to do is right, but I will obey you since Christ commands me to be obedient to my husband in all things, and because I love Christ”. Huh?

The Bible tells wives to be in submission to husbands. This is correct, but the passage right above that one in Ephesians 5 also tells the wife AND HUSBAND to be in submission to one another!

The Bible commands children likewise to obey their parents, but it adds an important little phrase: “in the Lord.” This means that children (and by the same token wives) have NO obligation to be obedient in cases where they are asked to contradict the character and nature of Christ, or their consciences.

The Bible also teaches us to be obedient to those in places of authority, such as religious leaders and local government figures. In the first part of the book of Acts, Peter and John are preaching in the city of Jerusalem. The whole city is stirred up by their preaching. The legal authorities (Sanhedrin Court-Jewish religious and civic leaders combined into one office) call them in and command them to stop speaking and teaching in the name of Jesus. Peter’s response to them is that God commanded him and John to speak and teach in Jesus’ name. He told the court he could not stop speaking and teaching in Jesus’ name. He asked the court, “…you decide, should we obey God or men?” The obvious answer, for a Christian, is God!

We must obey God. We must remain obedient to our conscience and to the Holy Spirit placed in us by God. We must obey God-given authorities, but refuse when these authorities over step their office and attempt to place themselves over God.

Once more, truth and reason must prevail!

Some persons love to fight. Others hate to fight. The fact is that sometimes we need to fight. We must defend ourselves against those who would use us up for their own causes. We must take a stand for what we believe in and know is right.

To stand up for myself is not a selfish act. It is self-preservation. Jesus struck a crowd with blindness when they attempted to take him by force and make him a king. You must stand up for what you believe. You must stand up for what you legitimately need. You must stand up for who you are. It is expected of you. It is expected in healthy relationships.

My neighbor and I jointly own a fence running between our property. It is right on the property line. If I allow him to constantly move that fence and take my property, I would be telling him it is okay to take what is mine! I have a right to defend my property line.

It is also right (and expected) of me to defend myself. If not, others may use me up until I cease to exist. Each time I do not speak up in defense of myself, my energy, my money, my time, my ethics and my morals I am telling others these things are not important to me! I am also telling myself I am not important as a person. I tell others who I am by constantly defending my boundaries, my borders. That’s how I affirm to them and myself who I am! If I continually compromise who I am, I give away a piece of myself each time! I lose self-respect. I lose respect in the eyes of others.

I must stand for what I know is right. I must defend what is mine. It may cost me a fight, but there are some things worth fighting for. There are some things worth dying for. I am one of those precious things!

So are you!