Set on Repeat

Do you ever wake up and just lay in bed running over and over in your mind the challenges that you’re going to face that day? You get more and more anxious as you keep playing them out in numerous different ways. Maybe you’re thinking about the ones that you faced the day before or last year. You beat yourself up over saying what you said or doing what you did. I don’t know about you, but I feel like I have my troubles and challenges set on repeat. It’s like I store these short clips of my life on a shelf for easy access so I can watch, re-watch, and re-hash them again and again. I analyze them from every possible angle.

Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we put ourselves through the agony, anxiety, guilt, and regret? Why re-live or re-anticipate these difficult times in our lives? I don’t think God wants this for us. We are only meant to live through these times once not over and over. Reliving them only serves to multiply our suffering. Instead, we need to learn what we can from them and then offer them to God to be used for His purposes. God can use the rough and terrible times in our lives for good. He wants us to lay our burdens before him and be freed from the thoughts that bring us down. Jesus told us this in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” When we turn them over to Jesus, he gives us rest for our weary minds.

Here’s one of my favorite songs that reminds me what I need to do with my troubles!