I live in a house with other humans plus one adorable dog named Ace. On most nights, all are sleeping peacefully and the house is quiet. Sure, you can hear the growns of the heating system if you really listen.
Still, things are typically quiet.
Occasionally, one of us is up in the night, breaking that silence with a trip to the bathroom or worse, waking from a nightmare. At other times, you simply can’t sleep due to anxiety.
I was listening to a recent episode of Divine Intimacy with Dan and Stephanie Burke. His new book deals with the reality that many of us face- increased worry in our everyday lives. Why are we so anxious about so many things?
This is when you can’t breath. This is when you wake in the middle of the night.
My wife and I commute an hour to work three times a week on a major interstate. On any given day, you can find yourself in the middle lane. On the right might be a tractor-trailer truck and on the left, a logging rig. You have no place to go and nothing to do except to hope that breathing room presents itself. And, thankfully, it almost always does.
“In order to succeed in prayer, it should be done when we first awaken, when our whole being is calm and recollected. We need to make our meditation before anything else.
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As with our anxiety, there’s almost always breathing room on the other side of things. This “other side” might be five minutes later or 55 minutes later. It might show up a week later but it always does show up.
How does this happen? How do we make our way through anxiety? While prayer is no silver bullet, it surely plays a part.
When you feel anxious, try to pause and add prayer to your worry. Lord, I’m anxious right now. There it is again. I’ve been here before. I know that you’re with me right now. I know that you sense my anxiety. You’re here and that helps.
If you can make it through this stage (and good news, you can!), you might take things even further into prayer. Lord, why do I feel anxious? Is there one cause of this or several? Can you help me get to the bottom of it? What’s really going on here?
Naturally, there might be several further stages of prayer that can be applied when you have anxiety. It’s not a straight line. Rather, it’s a curvy road and sometimes, unfortunately, your tires may veer.
The key- the Lord is very much present in and through your anxiety. He wants to be there with you, redeeming your worry into trust and confidence in His love. He will provide breathing room and can walk you through whatever is getting you up in the middle of the night.