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Archives: June 2010
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Archives: June 2010
Under house arrest
By Nathalie Saunders
‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.’ - Philippians 4:6 (NIV)
This Bible verse has come up time and time again throughout my journey so far as a Christian, and I’ve read it and listened to it many times, yet I still don’t really get it. ‘Do not be anxious about anything’ Does God really expect me to do that? I’m a 16 year old girl, and being a teenager is stereotypically stressful; I’m going to be anxious about something!
For instance these days it seems like everyone wants my undivided attention: school are pressing in hard about upcoming GCSEs and expect me to devote my life to revision; family complain about me not being in the house; and I have other commitments with my church and my friends. It may just sound like life, something all teenagers have to deal with, but why does it have to stress us out so much?
Stress has become a word that I use daily. Something, or someone, always seems to be ‘stressing me out’ and it’s been the cause of some of the lowest parts of my Christian journey. I know being a Christian isn’t about being stress free; that’s something I’ve had to come to terms with the past year and half since I’ve been following Jesus. However, what I have found is that being a Christian gives you someone to trust with your stress. The verse in Philippians is saying ‘give it all to God’, and we have the privilege of doing that! We are loved children of God, and God gives us permission to hand it all over.
I have to admit, I’m pretty awful at giving everything over to God... I’m a control freak. When a tricky situation arises, I immediately look for a practical solution that I can get to work on straight away. God doesn’t really come into the equation until everything I do seems to fail. Then I find myself in tears over the smallest things, and that’s when I finally realise I might need some help. So taking time out to give things to God is really hard for me.
I love to be busy -when I have a packed week and get loads done, I feel great- and sometimes that’s brilliant for school! However before Easter I was behind on coursework, I had my final drama assessment and I seemed to be busy every day after school and at the weekend. The word ‘rest’ had officially been erased from my vocabulary. All of this stress led to me breaking down at school -which I don’t suggest doing!- and just wanting to crawl into bed and sleep the week away. I was definitely looking forward to a long break at Easter.
Then Easter turned out to be quite busy and when I was free, rest was the last thing on my mind! I wanted to be out and about! I was planning as many days out as possible and then I somehow caught a stomach bug. I was under house arrest for a couple of days. It was horrible! I found myself with time to think, and I hated that; I dwelt on things that I would prefer to sweep under the carpet and I felt hopeless.
However, when I finally gave up on doing things on my terms, it turned into time with God. I found myself sitting in my room playing worship songs on my guitar all day and praying. The verse ‘ but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God’ seemed so relevant for that time as I found myself giving up and presenting everything to God, and even with thanksgiving, which can be the most difficult part of the command.What was doomed to be a horrible couple of days, became days full of praise and joy and I found myself relaxing.
The thing I found the hardest -rest and giving up time to God- had become one of the easiest things.
God had put peace, joy and hope in my heart and the impending doom of GCSEs and all the other stresses seemed less. I’ve found that sometimes the moments where you relinquish everything in complete defeat can be the most uplifting and life changing moments. Sometimes it takes a couple of days under house arrest. Sometimes it takes a heart breaking situation. Sometimes it just takes the realisation that you’re not the ruler of the universe. Whatever it takes, God will help you find those moments where you can give things up to him. You can de-stress with God and your mind will be refreshed and ready to deal with the world.
God wants us to rely on him and give our lives to him, and during the difficult times of school and teenage life, this can be the way to help us get through it all. The times of quiet, of prayer and worship have become so precious to me, and if I didn’t have those moments now, my head would explode! I still find the verse really hard to understand, but I’m slowly learning the true meaning of it. So I’m going to try to rely on God and trust in his peace more, and hopefully I’ll manage to get through my GCSEs and whatever else the world throws at me.
About the author
Nathalie is 16 and doing her GCSEs in Godalming, Surrey. She loves singing, worshiping, reading and watching movies.
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