“Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,’ Even the darkness is not dark to You, and the night is as bright as the day Darkness and light are alike to You.”
Psalm 139:6-12
God not only sees and understands your anxious, racing thoughts – he cares. And because he cares, he is constantly on guard: protecting you, guiding you, watching over you.
When you are struck with anxiety, it is easy to think that you are beyond God’s reach. That God doesn’t know where you are, and perhaps doesn’t care. Or that God has withdrawn himself from you and abandoned you.
The above verses proclaim such thoughts a lie. The truth is that God is always with you: if your thoughts are great – he is with you. If your thoughts are terrible – he is by your side. If your racing thoughts take you far and wide – he is watching over you. If you are terrified that you are falling into the blackest darkness – he is guiding you through.
No matter how fast and how far your thoughts race, you cannot race faster or farther than God’s hand, and you are never outside of the love of his heart.
What does it mean to you to know that God is all around you, protecting you on every side, even when you cannot “sense” his presence?
The psalmist affirms that no matter where he goes, God is with him: leading him, guiding him, and laying hold of him. Think about the worst your thoughts and anxieties have ever been – and then realize that God was there with you at that very moment, leading you through. How does this change your perception of those dark times?
Anxiety is suffocating and dark. In these verses, the psalmist affirms that though we cry out in fear that we are drowning in the darkness, our deepest darkness is not dark to God. He sees clearly all the time. What hope does this give you?
**The above is an excerpt from the book “Fire in My Mind” available here as a free download.
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