Reading Respectable Sins

I've been reading Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges.  More than once.  A group of women in our church are doing a study this summer with it.  Talk about conviction!  If you ever doubt that you are a sinner, read this book!  If you ever think you're not too bad, read this book!

This last week it was about anxiety, worry, frustration, and discontentment.  Enough said!  Right?

Some points from the book are:

Anxiety (worry) is a distrust in God and lack of acceptance of God's providence in our lives.

We focus on the immediate causes of our anxiety (and fret and fume) rather than remembering that those immediate causes are under the sovereign control of God.

A specific anxiety is over the future, short-term or long-term.

Just like Jesus, we need to pray, "Not my will but as you will" (Matthew 26:39), confidently accepting and submitting with confidence that whatever the outcome, God's will is better than our plans and desires.

Frustration involves being upset or even angry at whatever is blocking our plans or desires.

Psalm 139:16 says:
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
    the days that were formed for me,
    when as yet there was none of them.

So once again, we need to trust the One (God) who wrote out our days before they even started.

Remember, He calls us to humbly "cast" all our anxieties on Him (1 Peter 5:6-7) because He cares for us.  And Jesus know completely what we're feeling (Hebrews 4).

Discontentment arises from ongoing and unchanging circumstances that we can do nothing about.

It can lead to bitterness or resentment towards God or other people.

Amy Carmichael writes:
He said, "I will accept the breaking sorrow
Which God to-morrow
Will to His son explain."
Then did the turmoil deep within him cease,
Not vain the word; not vain:
For in Acceptance lieth peace.

Acceptance means that you accept your circumstances from God, trusting that He unerringly knows what is best for you and that in His love, He purposes only that which is best and that He will use your difficult circumstances to glorify Him (Phil. 4:11).

There is such importance in a firm belief that God is sovereign, wise, and good in all the circumstances of our life.