When My Anxious Thoughts Multiply Within Me

Psalm 94

When I am tossed to and fro with various reasonings, distractions, questions, and forebodings, I will fly to my true rest, for thy comforts delight my soul.

Spurgeon

This morning, when you woke up, where did your thoughts immediately go? If you woke during the night, what kept you from sleeping? As you drove into work, what thoughts occupied your mind? For many of us, the thoughts that fill our minds at these moments are the things that concern us, the cares of our heart. When the cares of your heart are many, what do you do? When your anxious thoughts multiply, where do you turn?

The seemingly endless swirl of anxious thoughts and the ways we cope with them can be exhausting and futile. Psalm 94 declares, “When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.” the NASB says it this way, “When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul” (94:19). God’s comfort for the anxious heart can be found in Psalm 94. On Psalm 94, David Powlison, who served for a number of years as the executive director of CCEF says,“These are words that are meant to get up off this page and to walk inside your life.” Powlison, in his sermon Handling Anxiety, gives six steps in dealing with anxious thoughts.

1. Name your cares. What are those things that cause your anxious thoughts to arise? Make a list. Write them down. Identify what it is that has increased the concern of your heart.

2. Listen to the God who cares. What promise from God’s Word can comfort you as you face these concerns? There are a number of comforting truths just from Psalm 94.

The Lord hears and He sees. Our sufferings are not hidden from Him. We may feel unseen or forgotten, but our God sees and hears and cares (94:9).
He gives rest to the weary. If you feel downtrodden, our Lord is a rest-giver (94:13).
He will never forsake us or abandon us. Perhaps you feel forgotten because you have been enduring your trial for a long time, but He will never leave you or forsake you (94:14).
He is our help. Each time you feel you have reached the end of your rope, He is still there helping and upholding (94:17).
His steadfast love holds us up. In the slippery places of life, His love is there holding and carrying us through (94:18).

Which of these comforts or consolations will cheer your heart in the face of your concerns?

3. Bring the first 2 together in prayer. This could simply look like, “Lord, You know the anxieties that are in my heart today, specifically _________. But I know You are my help (Psalm 94:17) and You will help me face today by Your grace and give me wisdom for this situation.”

4. Be thankful. Philippians 4:6-7 encourages us to bring all of our cares to the Lord in prayer and to be thankful, and the promise is that His peace will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Thankfulness helps us remember all the good the Lord has already done for us and it reorients our heart to worship.

5. Remember the things that most matter. Our anxieties matter, but “what most matters is who God is” and He is the God of consolations. Where will we choose to set our minds? Our anxieties will not just go away, we must continue to fight against our anxieties and to set our minds on what matters most (Philippians 4:8).

6. Do what you can do today. On your original list of anxieties, there are probably quite a few that you have no control over. But there might be one or two that you can do something about today. Powlison gives the example of worrying over how your children will turn out. While we have no control over that, we can be a loving parent today. Do what you can do today. Elizabeth Elliot helped make famous the quote “Do the next thing,” which came from this poem:

From an old English parsonage down by the sea
There came in the twilight a message to me;
Its quaint Saxon legend, deeply engraven,
Hath, it seems to me, teaching from Heaven.
And on through the doors the quiet words ring
Like a low inspiration: “DO THE NEXT THING.”

Many a questioning, many a fear,
Many a doubt, hath its quieting here.
Moment by moment, let down from Heaven,
Time, opportunity, and guidance are given.
Fear not tomorrows, child of the King,
Trust them with Jesus, do the next thing

Do it immediately, do it with prayer;
Do it reliantly, casting all care;
Do it with reverence, tracing His hand
Who placed it before thee with earnest command.
Stayed on Omnipotence, safe ‘neath His wing,
Leave all results, do the next thing.

Looking for Jesus, ever serener,
Working or suffering, be thy demeanor;
In His dear presence, the rest of His calm,
The light of His countenance be thy psalm,
Strong in His faithfulness, praise and sing.
Then, as He beckons thee, do the next thing.

The last thing that I would add to help you in your fight against your own anxieties, encourage and pray for someone else. Encouraging someone with the truth and praying for the things that concern them will strengthen your own heart and help ease the burden of your brother or sister in Christ.

Pray through Psalm 94 when your anxious thoughts multiply within you and the cares of your heart are many.

Resources:

David Powlison’s sermon Handling Anxiety

O Lord, rise up

94:1-7 O Lord, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth! Rise up, O judge of the earth; repay to the proud what they deserve! O Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult? They pour out their arrogant words; all the evildoers boast. They crush your people, O Lord, and afflict your heritage. They kill the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless; and they say, “The Lord does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.”

Lord, I pray:

▫️You see the reasons for my anxiousness, specifically _______, please rise up today and give me Your comfort. Rise up for my help, and in Your wisdom deal with the issues I face and deal with my own anxious heart.

▫️When my concerns and anxieties weigh heavily on my heart, shine forth with Your truth. When I feel I am sitting in darkness, shine Your light and dispel the darkness of my anxious thoughts.

▫️These anxious thoughts feel crushing at times, ease the burden, Lord. Lift the heaviness that I feel. Dispel the dark thoughts that bombard me. Give me a way to escape this temptation to be anxious.

▫️Lord, I cannot control ________, but You are in control. Help me to trust in You.

▫️Rise up and protect me as with a shield. The enemy of my soul would love for me continue to be overwhelmed by my cares, protect me, Lord.

He hears. He sees.

94:8-11 Understand, O dullest of the people! Fools, when will you be wise? He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see? He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke? He who teaches man knowledge— the Lord—knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath.

Lord, I pray:

▫️I thank You that You hear me when I call to You. You are not deaf to my cries. You hear even my faintest call for help. Hear me now, Lord, and carry these cares for me (1 Peter 5:7).

▫️Lord, You see every detail of ______ that is filling my thoughts. You see the end from the beginning. Help me to leave this in Your hands and to do only what I can do today.

▫️Teach me Your knowledge. Teach me what I need to know about You, about myself, and about my thoughts and anxieties that would help me to honor You through this. When You show me Your truth, help me to value it and not be stubborn and hard hearted to just continue in my own way.

He will not abandon

94:12-15 Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law, to give him rest from days of trouble, until a pit is dug for the wicked. For the Lord will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage; for justice will return to the righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it.

Lord, I pray:

▫️You say I am blessed to be disciplined by You and taught from Your Word. Help me to not draw back from Your discipline and Your teaching, but to submit myself under Your loving hand for my good.

▫️Give me rest from these troubled thoughts. I want to fight and I want to resist these overwhelming concerns, but I need Your help. Give me rest from the perpetual anxiousness regarding ________.

▫️Thank you, Lord, that You will not forsake me or abandon me. You will be with me as I face these circumstances. You will strengthen me and uphold me with Your righteous right hand.

Your consolations cheer my soul

94:16-23 Who rises up for me against the wicked? Who stands up for me against evildoers? If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. When I thought, “My foot slips,” your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up. When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul. Can wicked rulers be allied with you, those who frame injustice by statute? They band together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death. But the Lord has become my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge. He will bring back on them their iniquity and wipe them out for their wickedness; the Lord our God will wipe them out.

Lord, I pray:

▫️You would rise up for me and stand up for me. I would be able to lay aside these worries because I know You will be for me.

▫️If You had not been my help thus far, my soul would have lived in the land of silence. Thank you for sustaining me. Continue to be the helper and upholder of my life.

▫️When I thought my foot was slipping, Your steadfast love held me up. What a comfort to know You are holding me up, especially in the midst of ________.

▫️The cares of my heart are many. My anxious thoughts multiply within me. But let Your consolations and Your comforts delight my soul. While my concerns are important, give me the strength to think most on what matters most: You.

▫️Establish Yourself as my stronghold, the rock of my refuge. When these anxious thoughts come again or continue, remind me and prod me to come again to You as my stronghold and rock of refuge.

May the Lord do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, for His glory and our good. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Photo credit to anniespratt

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