Life is so busy that we often find it hard to stop and reflect on how we can grow closer to the Lord Jesus.
This book contains fifty-two short reflections on various aspects of our spiritual life. With only about 600 words, each one can be read in just two or three minutes.
The following extract from chapter 6 "Be Anxious for Nothing" will give you a good idea of the style of the book.
"EVERYONE feels anxious from time to time. It is a normal response to stressful situations.
However, for some people, anxiety can become severe and prolonged. According to recent research, as many as one in ten people in the UK suffer anxiety to such a degree that it interferes with their everyday lives. Excessive anxiety is often associated with other psychiatric conditions, such as depression, and is rapidly becoming a problem of epidemic proportions.
The word “anxious” is derived from a Greek verb that means ‘to be divided’ or ‘distracted’. In Latin, the same word is translated anxius, which carries the notion of choking or strangling. The word also appears in German as wurgen, from which we derive our English word ‘worry’.
So, anxiety is a terrible menace. It threatens to divide and break up its victims, to strangle all breath out of its sufferers, leaving them for dead!
The Master spoke about anxiety in his Parable of the Sower. Regarding the seed sown among thorns, Jesus said, “the anxieties of this age … entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful” (Mark 4:19, Young’s Literal Translation). Anxiety grows up around us like thorns that will eventually choke our spiritual lives if left unmanaged and neglected.
Chiefly, anxiety is related to what may – or may not – happen in the future, whether pending or distant. And it has three principal drivers which further exasperate the suffering: insecurity, helplessness, and isolation. Insecurity is a feeling of lack of confidence, helplessness of having no help or protection, and isolation of being alone and cut-off."
Now is the time to pause what we’re doing for a moment, ponder our lives and prepare for the coming of our Lord.