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A spirit of fear, bordering on hysteria and paranoia is sweeping mercilessly across America.
Fear-mongering by some has caused others to feel a sense of hysteria, panic, confusion and uncertainty during these challenging times. The hysteria is affecting people spiritually as well as emotionally, mentally and relationally. . Daily Breaking News bombards our citizens over-stimulated brains with Covid 19. Social, emotional and relational distancing, economic slowdown and shutdown, unemployment, hateful rhetoric, violent, life-threatening civil unrest, political elections and who knows what else is pressuring Americans to push the proverbial panic button. According to Webster, to be hysterical means “unmanageable fear, emotional excitability, emotional excess, highly emotional, explosive.”. To be hysterical means that emotions are out of control. Run-a-way fear is calling the shots in life. So what are folks supposed to do? /Especially Christians who confess that they trust in the Lord during trying, troubling times to take care of our life? Sometimes a word or phrase strikes deep in our soul. Christian author Oswald Chambers coined a two-word thought that struck a chord in my spirit. In his devotional My Utmost For His Highest (which every Christian should read) he said “Wait on God and He will work, but don’t wait in spiritual sulks because you cannot see an inch in front of you! Are we detached enough from our spiritual hysterics to wait on God? To wait is not to sit with folded hand, but to learn to do what we are told.” “Spiritual hysterics”. What a vivid picture. Looking back, I can see myself coming unglued, acting hysterical at times. Life happens, as it will, and hysteria takes over. You and I panic, aimlessly pacing back and forth as worry, doubt and fear race through our heart and mind. We sulk, sucking our spiritual thumbs as we whine “Woe is me!” The Word of God comes to the rescue when hysteria is knocking on our heart’s door. David provides a scriptural remedy for spiritual hysteria. “My soul waits in silence for God only, from Him is my salvation; He only is my rock, and my salvation, my stronghold: I shall not be greatly shaken.” Psalm 62:1-2 David (note the use of the personal pronouns I and my six times) declares he waited on God, God only, with a silent soul. He personally confessed, smack dab in the middle of spiritual upheaval, that God alone was his rock, his salvation, his stronghold. Therefore, no need to be shaken! The key word for David is “my soul waits in silence”. How about you and me? Do we know how to be silent before the Lord? To wait on Him without being hysterical? To settle down, take a deep spiritual/emotional breath before the Lord? Maybe waiting in silence looks something like this: Sit down. Shut up. Be quiet. Settle down. Chill out. Stop throwing a hissy fit. Quit sucking your thumb. Stop dragging your pity-poor-me blankie around. Stop expecting people to hold your pitiful little hand while you whine and lament over your situation. Get real. Face facts with faith. Buck up. Suck it up. Grow up. Stop acting like a spiritual baby. Quit falling apart at the seams. Life is not over. Wait without sulking. Pull up your spiritual bootstraps. Wait on the Lord with a calm, cool, collected disposition. Waiting on God Without Being Hysterical
Bottom line: There is no room for spiritual hysteria when our faith is grounded in Almighty God. So how do you wait on the Lord…hysterically or quietly and calmly? Be honest with yourself. If you are prone to panic and hysteria, rebuke it, reject it, release it and resolve to wait on the Lord with a silent spirit when troubles arise. Heavenly Father, please forgive us, your blood-bought children when we act hysterically instead of calmly. “Be still (cease striving KJV) and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10 A Word For Your Week: Wait before the Lord without acting hysterical. |
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