The Pain Of Anxiety And Panic
By Phil Scovell
Something startled me awake. She was Gone and I knew it.
Still I felt around in the darkness for my wife. "She's dead," I
heard the voice say and a clammy damp cold blast of wind blew
across my body as if it were blowing right through me. My heart
began to pound in my chest and fear rose. Logically I reasoned
she was sleeping on the couch because she did that sometimes if
she began coughing in the night. Knowing that had been it, I lay
back down and tried to go back to sleep. My body trembled from
the fear that now was all around me and seemed to be inside of me
as well. I pushed at it and tried to force it down. I struggled
against the urge to get up and to go out and see if she was on
the couch or sitting up in the recliner so she could breathe
better. I forced myself not to move. I had to win, mentally
win, this battle but I somehow knew it would only get worse as
time went by.
I had been sleeping even more poorly since my wife's cancer
treatments had stopped. She was well and all her blood tests
showed she was progressively getting better. She had been doing
well for several months now, too. I, on the other hand, was
doing worse. That, in itself, was puzzling. During the year
long treatment of interferon shots three times a week, I felt
confident and had slept well nearly every night. Now, for
months, I had been waking up every single night and multiple
times each night. This time, however, was the first I had
awakened with the cold fear of anxiety washing over me.
I had become acquainted with anxiety attacks many years
earlier when the church folded that I was pastoring. I decided
then that I had failed the one thing in life I wanted more than
anything else. So if I had failed, I reasoned with a little
demonic help, well, with a lot of demonic help, then I failed my
wife and my family and others, too. I had no job now, after all,
I reasoned, and since I had failed, well, God probably wasn't
going to help me out any longer. More demonic suggestiveness.
So, that must mean, therefore, I had failed God. Being a failure
yourself is one thing but failing God? That's a biggy, folks.
You can't survive much longer once you've failed God. Additional
demonic influence on that one, too. Yes, you could say that I
became somewhat suicidal. Demons love encouraging Christians to
kill themselves because it is the only way they can once and for
all stop you from living out God's perfect will for your life.
They know you are going to Heaven even if, by this point, you
doubt it yourself. However, the real demonic plan isn't death
but it is to totally complicate your life so you hardly know your
own name. This way you can make your own life miserable and if
they have their way, they will be able to influence everybody who
is around you as well.
When you generate enough courage to counsel with your pastor
or his wife, and this assumes you haven't been burned before
along these lines in some church some where, the enemy is
delighted with your decision. Why? Well, this way, as you lay
out your heart's deepest feelings, which is another way of saying
you are dumping your garbage out for someone to inspect, this
will give the pastor, and or his wife, something to think about.
If they were honest, they would tell you, they have the same
fears and doubts and worries and concerns as you do. Chances are
pretty good, though, they won't be admitting to any such thing.
In which case, they will take the other avenue of counseling
techniques and that is, they will tell you that you just haven't
been thinking right. They may whip out a list of bible verses
for you to memorize, or perhaps read, several times each day.
Not a bad idea in itself, of course, but your problem, although
you don't know it at the time, doesn't have anything to do with
your lack of interest in the Bible. So you take the verses home
and follow the instructions.
For awhile it appears to help but the stupid voices haven't
gone away so something isn't right and you go back for more
counseling.
In this session, you admit you are having what the
professionals call anxiety episodes. You don't want to refer to
them as panic attacks yet because somehow panic attacks sounds
much worse than anxiety attacks. You read somewhere about
anxiety episodes and that even sounds less ominous as anxiety
attacks so you opt out and use the lesser of two evils, sort of
speak, and call how you feel, anxiety episodes. Your pastor
knows what anxiety is, it's fear, so he turns to his laptop
computer, dials up a list of verses on fear, flips on the
printer, and runs off a copy and hands it to you.
Because the pastor has been experiencing fear himself,
although he would never call it anxiety, he has just finished
reading a book on fear by some well known Christian author. He
hands the book to you. You thumb through the book as the pastor
talks and looking at the author's name, you realize you've never
even heard of the guy. No matter. The pastor says he is well
known so surely the author must be.
Your instructions are as follows. Keep reading and
memorizing the verses from the first time and add this new list
to the original list. Then read the book on fear. It is
probably called something like, Victory Over Fear, Freedom From
Fear, Fear Not, Facts On Fear, Living Without Fear, How to Cope
with Fear, Fear; The Opposite of Faith, or Things All Christians
Should Know About Fear. I don't know if any of those titles are
real or not; I just made them up as I went along. Anyhow, back
to your instructions for successful Christian living. Read the
Bible Verses, read the book, read your Bible every single day,
and never miss any church services. Oh, yes, and don't forget to
pray. You feel it a waste of time to point out that you read
your bible and pray every day already, not to mention that you
are a faithful church member and haven't missed any services for
years.
Going home, you follow the instructions. Sure enough, it
works, for awhile. You are still miserable and frightened and
fearful and lonely even though you have six kids and your life is
busy from the crack of dawn till midnight every night but somehow
the exercises, the Christian exercises that is, helps and you
don't feel as bad about feeling miserable and frightened and
fearful and lonely as you thought you did.
When another anxiety episode awakens you in the middle of
the night and your heart is pounding so hard, you can hardly
breathe, you figure something is still wrong so the next morning
you call and make another appointment.
In the third session, the pastor congratulates you for all
the progress you have been making. When you say you don't
understand because you still feel as lousy as you did before,
maybe even worse, he says, "Well, you haven't missed a single
service, I noticed. Did you read the book?" Your reply, at
first, is that you have indeed been reading your Bible every
single day just as you've been instructed. "No, no," the pastor
says, "I mean, have you read the book I loaned you on fear?"
"Oh," you say, "why, yes. I've read it three times."
the pastor says, "You didn't happen to bring it with you,
did you?"
You did, in fact, bring it with you and you hand over the
book to him.
""Good," he responds, "very good. I'm sure you've learned
much more from the book than anything I could ever tell you so
what can I do for you today."
so you describe how your days have been and the recent
experience of being awakened in the night with cold,
unadulterated, raw, freezing fear. His eyebrows nearly touch in
concentration and a puzzled look clouds his face. He drums his
fingers silently on the well polished desk he is seated behind
and then says softly, "Hum. That's strange. I wonder..." and
his voice trails off. You sit quietly and wait. Finally, the
silence is becoming uncomfortable and you, as casually as
possible, try and hint around about hearing voices."
"Voices!" the pastor booms; as though he was shot from a
canon. "What sort of voices? You mean just thoughts you think
in your own mind, don't you?"
"Well, no," you say, hesitantly; trying to figure out what
exactly you should say. "I guess I mean I hear real voices."
Then you quickly add, in hopes of softening the confession, "So I
guess they are thoughts in my mind," but in your heart, you know
you are hearing voices.
The silence lengthens between you and the finger drumming by
the pastor is now continuous as he thinks about what you've said.
He is stumped because the only thing that comes to mind,
Biblically speaking, when it comes to hearing voices, seems to be
something about demons. He hasn't read any books on demons,
well, none with which he agrees, and besides, he knows from the
one semester of psychology in seminary that people who hear
voices need professional treatment. Finally the pastor says,
"Have you, by any chance, spoken with your medical doctor about
this?"
"Oh, my, no," you reply. I'm afraid he might think I am
crazy."
this is, of course, exactly what your pastor is thinking,
too, but he doesn't think it is wise to say so at the moment. He
concludes the session with a strong suggestion that you indeed
see your family doctor and tell him that you are hearing voices.
He assures you that he and his wife are praying for you and to
keep him informed. This sounds somewhat final to you but then
you are already feeling paranoid enough the way it is so you
dismiss it as just one more thing wrong with you.
A week later you've been to the doctor and now have a few
pills to swallow each day. Your doctor informs you that some of
the pills take a minimum of three to four weeks to begin to take
effect and that to really get a good idea if they are working or
not, three months is better. You are thinking to yourself, how
am I going to last another three months like this. So you
mention the anxiety episodes. He assures you, the prescription
covers that but again reminds you of the three months. He
quickly adds, however, that three to four weeks is the minimum.
You think about mentioning the voices but that generates a wave
of fear so you, instead, explain you aren't sleeping very well
and keep waking up during the night. In fact, you find it almost
impossible to even fall to sleep and once you do, you are lucky
if you sleep for an hour before awaking. The doctor asks a
couple of questions and then scribbles another prescription and
says, "Take one of these at bed time every night. If one doesn't
work after a few nights of trying them, take two before bed time.
However, do not take more than two." You take the small piece of
paper and put it with the others he has given you and he
instructs you to make an appointment for a month from now to come
back to tell him how it is going. You really want to tell him
about hearing voices before leaving but under the circumstances,
perhaps you should wait and see what the medications can do for
you.
To your amazement, the pills seem to be working, and to
think you didn't even have to believe in them for them to work,
too. In fact, after the first one, you swear you felt better.
At least now you have been doing something about your condition.
You have taken up calling it a "condition" now because those with
whom you have spoken about your problems have called it that so
that sounds like it is ok to use that term. You worry, however,
that you are feeling better simply because you feel as if you are
doing something about your condition and there is that measure of
doubt that the pills haven't had time to start working as the
doctor said.
time passes and nothing different seems to happen. You've
taken on helping out as a Sunday school helper and you even ride
on the Sunday school bus to help out with keeping the
children occupied to and from the church.
One day, as you are peeling potatoes at the kitchen sink,
your oldest daughter, a girl of sixteen, comes home one day with
a tattoo of a butterfly. At least you think its a butterfly but
it looks more like a bat instead of a butterfly. You never would
have noticed it because it is normally where she wears her watch
but she had taken her watch off to wash her hands at the kitchen
sink. You dropped the potato peeler right into the sink when you
saw it and demanded to know where that came from while pointing
at it with your quivering index finger. You are informed that it
is her own body and she can do whatever she wants with her own
body. If you don't like it, you are told, you can take it up
with the ACLU. This pronouncement alarms you more than the
tattoo because of the ominous tone of your daughters voice. You
and your husband gave up spanking years ago after reading a
couple of good books on the subject of child behavior but you
wonder if your husband might change his mind when he gets home.
In the ensuing argument that occurs when dad gets home and
sees it for himself, all hell breaks loose. "I don't have to
take this," your daughter screams louder than anybody has ever
heard her before, and when she cuts loose with three or four
swear words, the show is over because your husband bans her to
her room.
That night you take three sleeping pills, instead of the
prescribed two, but they don't even work at all and you are awake
nearly the entire night; sick with worry and concern.
It's Sunday and you decide this Sunday you are going to go
forward during the altar call and ask for prayer. To your
amazement, the sermon is on faith. You brighten a little because
maybe this is exactly what you need.
The tears come to your eyes as the sermon progresses because
somehow the subject of not trusting the Lord with your problems
and depending upon medications to meet your needs becomes the
focal point of the entire sermon. You cry for your daughter who
has run away. You found her at a friend's house and her parents
say it is alright for her to stay for a few days until things get
worked out. You cry for your husband who doesn't know what to do
for the first time in his life. Plus, he came home from work
Friday and announced he had been told that the company might
close down within six months and he will be without a job. You
cry for yourself, too, because you aren't the Christian you want
to be and nothing, not even the Bible, is working for you now.
You've read at least 50 Christian books in the last few months
and some of them you read two and three times. They didn't help
either.
You stumble forward in your grief to the front, someone
prays for you but you can't even remember the words. Life
somehow just doesn't seem worth it any more. You leave the
church feeling even worse than when you came and feeling that
nobody cares.
Since your husband has lost his job, you don't have the
money needed for the counseling so you ask your parents for a
loan. Your parents have come to stay with the children as you
and your husband drive the 1200 miles to a large Christian
counseling ministry, which has a national radio program, where
you will spend a week. This is your last hope. If this doesn't
work, you aren't sure what is going to happen. Your husband has
become as depressed and disturbed as you by this point and he,
too, is on medication. Your family insurance ran out last week
so neither of you know what you are going to do to pay for the
medications because there is no way you can afford buying them
without your insurance coverage. Your husband doesn't talk any
more and the entire 1200 mile trip is done in silence. No one
has seen or heard from your daughter since she ran away for the
second time. The only thing that has kept you out of the
hospital is the knowledge you have no insurance coverage any
more. Crying doesn't even help relieve any of the stress and
pressure as it once did. As the car moves down the highway, you
ponder if you should admit to these counselors about the voices
in your thoughts.
Arriving home, your parents anxiously ask if any good came
from your trip. "They told me I was manic depressant and to keep
taking my medications," you reply with weariness clearly in your
voice.
"But the pills haven't been doing you any good," your mother
says with some alarm to her voice.
"I know it mother; I know it."
"What about Bill?" your father asks. "What did they say
about him?"
"They just said he was depressed about losing his job and if
he gets another job, he'll snap out of it."
"Another job!" your father replies. The plant was the
highest paying job in the county." "I don't mean to be negative,
Honey, but he'll never make that much money again; not in this
town anyway."
"I know it, dad," you reply. "We'll both have to go to work
or something."
"but what about your marriage?" your mother says; concern
strong in her voice.
You don't answer because you don't know what to say.
When your husband has his first heart attack, the panic
attacks begin.
This story is common among Christians today. Some find help
but most do not. In my case, if I had gone to my pastor with
what I was facing, he would not have been able to touch my
problems with a ten foot pole nor would he have wanted to address
them in any way, shape, or form. Why? Because my problems would
have not only stirred up similar emotional woundedness in his own
life but he would have had no idea of how to work with what I was
facing. Additionally, I had a fair amount of demonic activity in
my thoughts. My pastor only knew that you should pray and cast
them out. If they didn't go, well, then, this was a case for the
medical profession because you weren't demonized; you were
mentally ill. This attitude among Bible Believers is incredibly
sad. The very people that should be able to help the most, are
those who only seem able to do the least for those who need it
the most.
What is the difference between anxiety attacks and panic
attacks? Do you want a clinical explanation or a personal? Here
is a Phil Scovell personal explanation.
Severity for starters indicates the difference between forms
of anxiety and panic. Anxiety can be mild and is general in
response to things historical, current, or futuristic. For
example, my father died when I was eleven years old. I thought,
throughout my entire life, I had passed through that experience
with minimal drag on my spiritual life. I was fifty years of age
before I discovered how wrong I had been. That, I learned, was
one of many historical events where woundedness occurred which,
in later years, created pain that seemed to have no origin.
Current events quickly translate into futuristic concerns
and worries. For example, If you missed paying your rent or
house or car payment one month but got it caught up, then the
next month, when the bill comes due, it isn't uncommon to
experience some level of fear. If the current event is traumatic
or protracted, that is, repetitive in nature, even when the
problem goes away, the past can come back to afflict you. In
this example of not being able to make a rent or house or car
payment, thirty years later, even after many years of success and
financial blessings, you may write a check some day to pay a
mortgage payment and all of the sudden, from nowhere, you break
out into a cold clammy fear and you have no idea why. You have
forgotten the original event from many years ago but your
emotions have not forgotten how they felt.
Fear is anxiety. This is best explained by someone who has
had a heart attack. The anniversary date of the original heart
attack often produces a degree of anxiety. "Will it happen
again? Will I die this time? What if I'm alone when it happens?
Will I be able to call for help?" Anxiety always produces
questions we cannot answer. It is used by the enemy to take us
away from daily Lordship and to invalidate His eternal Words of
promise. "According as his divine power hath given unto us all
things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the
knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises:
that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust," (2
Peter 1:3-4).
Futuristic anxiety is quite simple. You attempt projecting
into the future and you say, "I'll never make it that far." Why?
"I've tried it before and failed." That particular trail always,
absolutely always, has an origin which is easily healed by the
True Lord Jesus Christ through intercessory prayer. Why is it
easily healed? Because the origin is always a lie.
Increased levels of anxiety can produce all sorts of
problems. A very identifiable characteristic of severe anxiety
is not being able to project into the future. This means, we
simply look forward, and what used to be nothing more than a
challenge, now becomes not only impossible, but totally hopeless
and desperate. The fear level has just jumped to the top of the
scale. If allowed to continue, the body will naturally respond.
Respond how? You name it. Headaches, poor sleeping habits,
nightmares, back aches, heart conditions, and just about any
physical ailment you might name, including hearing voices.
The voices normally begin by taking on the form of
suggestiveness. "You aren't good enough. If you were a better
person, this wouldn't be happening. If you were a more spiritual
Christian, you wouldn't have these symptoms. You were born this
way so nothing can ever be done about it." These are all lies
implanted by the enemy but we never recognize them as such. In
fact, we normally are deceived to the point that we believe the
thoughts we are having are the real truth about us. Even when
the suggestive thoughts take on the form of audibility, and
sometimes definite persona, we still refuse to identify them for
what they really are. Yes, doctors can proscribed medications
for just about everything. Will they work? Yes, for the most
part, they can help. They cannot cure the real pain, however,
because the source of the pain cannot be targeted by medication;
the symptoms of the pain alone can be treated with
pharmaceuticals.
How many people experience various forms of anxiety?
Certainly not Christians, do they? If you sit down and make a
list of everyone you know, and I mean everyone, and if you could
call each of these people and get them to be honest, they would
all have to admit various levels of anxiety in their life. Then
why don't we deal with it as a church? People, and this includes
pastors, missionaries, Sunday school teachers, deacons, elders,
ushers, youth pastors, assistant pastors, Christian school
teachers, and anybody else you can name in church ministry, have
their own anxieties stirred up whenever dealing with someone who
has come for prayer, or healing, related to anxiety. So, you can
see how reluctant people are when it comes to assisting others.
In short, they don't want their own emotional feelings of anxiety
stirred up. This forces those of us facing such things in our
life to turn to our own medical doctor in our desperation, and to
radio and television ministries that make us feel better, and to
books authored by those who can accomplish a level of well being
even if it is temporary. Something is better than nothing when
it comes to the one suffering from acute anxiety and depression.
Medically speaking, anxiety is treated by tranquillizing the
patient, or in some cases, antianxiety drugs may be recommended.
Such antidepressant and antianxiety drugs deal with attempting to
balance serotonin levels in the brain. In other words, the
doctor assumes there is a chemical imbalance in the brain causing
the anxiety. If more severe levels of anxiety and panic are
experienced over prolonged periods of time, such a chemical
imbalance is very likely. If emotional healing, on the other
hand, is experience through intercessory prayer, the chemical
imbalance will not occur or if it already has, it will assist in
reducing and correcting the imbalance simply by removing the
cause of the fear.
Let's talk about panic attacks. Are they different than
anxiety attacks and if so, how? Frankly, although the
psychiatric community may define them somehow differently, the
truth is, they are the same. The big difference is simply the
intensity.
Anxiety can be prolonged by focusing on what one thinks
might happen. For example, if your mom might die in the next
five to ten years, although she could live even longer, anxiety
says, "She is going to die tomorrow or the next day and you
aren't ready for that." On the surface, panic displays no such
origin of thought.
Panic can occur out of the clear blue for no reason, at
least, no reason you are aware of consciously. Panic attacks
often display much more severe physical attributes. I know
people who have had such violent panic attacks, they would stop
breathing and pass out from the generated fear. Some people
report they feel as if hands are choking their throat. I have,
for example, had that one happen to me and believe me, it is
scary when it happens. One anxiety attack I had was so severe, I
felt as if a huge wide belt had wrapped around my body at chest
level and was literally squeezing the life out of me. I got some
help during that attack and without that help, I honestly believe
it would have escalated into something severe.
People having panic attacks can forget their name, address,
or where they live. They can become paralyzed, unable to move,
due to the power of the fear they are facing. Panic attacks can
generate powerful heart palpitations until you think your heart
is literally going to explode. Your speech can become slurred,
your skin clammy, or you may suddenly become freezing cold or
burning hot. Your hearing may go haywire and normal sounds may
change to something totally abnormal. vision may blur and
disorientation and dizziness are quite common. These are also
just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to severe panic
attacks. It is even somewhat common for panic attack cases to
become agoraphobic. This is basically a fear of being outdoors.
The reasoning is, if I stay inside, nothing will happen to me.
This is a lie, of course, because the panic doesn't go away on
its own even by remaining indoors.
As with anxiety, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, bipolar
disorder, anorexia, bulimia, OCD, Dissociative Identity Disorder,
Tourette Syndrome, panic disorders, and just about anything else
you want to name, there will always be an origin. If the enemy
is involved, he likewise may have implanted a lie in the original
event which is the cause of the level of fear one is suffering.
Strange as it may seem, what is happening at the moment with
anxiety or panic attacks, most likely have very little to do with
the current event. The anxiety or panic is often, but not
always, a direct result of an implanted lie by the enemy. It
could be a lie planted last week, last month, a year ago, or
dozens of years ago. Many lies are most easily planted during
childhood because the child does not have the ability to process
the information without assistance. An adult, on the other hand,
would recognize it as a lie immediately. Unfortunately, even an
adult may indeed believe the lie, due to the deceptive power the
enemy possesses, and the process becomes complete, (I.E. the
person is trapped).
Something easily overlooked with any disorder or syndrome is
the pain being suffered. What we are experiencing externally is
only a covering, a mask, or a shield to keep others from seeing
the true pain being suffered deep inside. Anger, for example, is
an excellent shield that most of us use. Anger wards off anyone
from probing too deeply into our personal life. Most people,
unless called to intercessory prayer ministry, will immediately
back away from any displayed anger. Thus, the person suffering
deep pain from some emotional trauma is unhelped.
Pain is also often masked by pride. You will never find a
person with the issue of pride without there being a painful
event which has not been uncovered. Sometimes, unfortunately, we
identify egotism, arrogance, and conceit, as desirable character
traits. If not desirable, secretly admired because we think it
is the outcome of a strong will to succeed. Sometimes even self
control and self esteem are actual demonstrations of pride in
order that something can be left uncovered and undiscovered in a
person's life.
When our emotions become destablized it doesn't mean we are
mentally ill or emotionally ill; it means we spiritually need
repair through the renewing of the mind. This is easily
accomplished through the ministry of intercessory prayer. The
problem eventually becomes some form of manifested fear. Fear
helps protect the pain. Why? Because pain hurts and nobody
wants to suffer pain. The only way, however, for the symptoms to
be alleviated and removed totally, is through the healing power
of the True Lord Jesus Christ and the ministry of intercessory
prayer used as a tool. Can it be done on your own? Of course.
I have done it dozens of times. If, however, the symptoms do not
atrophy, you will need someone to pray with you in order that the
power of agreement can be applied. "See Matthew 18:19).
Finally, the greatest need in the church today, in my
opinion, is accountability. No other verse in the Bible so
graphically illustrates this than Ephesians 5:21: Submitting
yourselves one to another in the fear of God. This verse is in
the context of maintaining the Spirit filled life. Yet, in my
experience, this form of accountability is rarely available in
most churches today. Keep in mind that I am not referring to
calling your pastor or an elder or someone in the church to pray
for you when facing a problem because that should be a natural
outcome of inner church relationships. If it isn't, your church
is spiritually dead regardless of the attendance, music, drama
plays, Christmas programs, evangelistic outreach, radio and
television ministries, membership roles, invited guest speakers,
or the number of missionaries the church supports. Why? Because
every local New Testament church has its first priority to its
own people. If it doesn't, the church is dead or dying. For
proof of this statement, read the New Testament once and see if
it doesn't clearly teach this form of personal accountability in
the church.
I have already mentioned one example of what accountability
is not. Perhaps I should expand upon this in order to explain
what accountability is. Accountability is not going forward
after a service and requesting prayer. Accountability is not how
good of friends you become with the pastor and his wife. It is
not how much money you give, how many services a week you attend,
and it is not the office you may hold in the church.
Accountability begins, and is propagated, on a one-to-one
bases. Group sessions can be employed as well but most find it
easier to be accountable to another individually than
collectively.
What kind of a relationship is accountability? Simply, it
is truth between two people. Yes, it can be things you share
between you and your pastor or his wife. It can be things shared
between you and a Christian counselor. It works best, however,
between people who care for each other and have established a
friendship. It is conducted in the "fear of God." This implies
respect of confidentiality. Such accountability goes deep and
personal but most importantly, by those trained in intercessory
prayer, it goes to the depth of healing that only the True Lord
Jesus Christ can do. Sunday morning altar calls are nothing more
than temporary fixes yet I am not suggesting we for sake them. I
am suggesting we experience healing for ourself first and then
learn how to become intercessors in order to minister to other
hurting people.
Where do we begin? We begin and end with prayer but with a
form of prayer called intercession. This form of highly focused
intercessory prayer is a tool used to allow the Lord Jesus to be
seen and heard in a way which discovers the darkness by employing
the light of His eternal Word. When Jesus, therefore, speaks the
truth, we are set free and our lives change. The result of this
freedom is a maintenance free walk with the Lord.
Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and
learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find
rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is
light," (Matthew 11:28-30).
Several years ago, I was working in my office in my home. I
was praying silently to myself as I worked duplicating cassette
tapes for churches. Well, some might call what I was doing
complaining but it was really prayer; there is no doubt about
that. I was telling the Lord how heavy my own burdens were and
that I just couldn't carry them any longer. I demanded, well,
recommended, but it sounded like demanding even to myself, He
drop everything and do something about it. I very clearly heard
the Holy Spirit speak in my thoughts. "If your burdens are that
heavy, then you are carrying something other than that of the
Lord's because His are light." Quite simply, therefore, if your
pain is so deep, and your fear is so strong, and your confusion
is too acute, it isn't the Lord's doing. The problem then
becomes, how do I get help. You just found it. Call the
intercessory prayer line below and make a telephone appointment
for your first prayer session. It's free.
Phone: 303-507-5175
Mountain Time Zone
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