Check Your Spiritual Alarm System

           Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)

          But, the stupid weather forecast was wrong. I planted my babies and now it’s getting down into the thirties again! I’m going to have to plant new basil seeds. But, the COVID-19 pandemic. But, the consequences of the stupid responses to the pandemic. But no summer job because of the pandemic. But, how am I to market my book during lockdown? But, I have taxes to do. But, I haven’t figured out what to eat for dinner on Saturday yet. But, I am not prepared for any emergency yet. But, I don’t know what to do to get my story going. OK, not all of those are sources of anxiety at the moment, but they could be, have been, and will likely be. 
          I don’t know what your list of anxieties and potential anxieties looks like, but chances are good that it’s there. Chances are that at least some of the items in you list focus on finances, family members, politics, the pandemic, and projects in which you’ve invested your self, your time, and your money. And then there are those areas of personal failure. It’s curious how they boil down to fs and ps. I’m sure it’s coincidence, but our anxiety tends to come from areas of fear and pride, so I’ll go with it for now. 
          The thing is, most of us don’t get up in the morning thinking, “OK, let’s see what I can be anxious about this morning.”  It just happens. One minute, we’re fine. The next, we’re fuming. We move from comparative peace to at least minor panic in the blink of an eye, except we don’t tend to notice the shift until it’s been  eating away at us for a while. We take a wrong turn, and it’s a few miles before it suddenly hits us. It’s morning. I’m driving west. So why is the sun in my eyes? 
          The Bible doesn’t say anxiety won’t come calling. It does tell us to respond differently. We’re to take everything, every source of anxiety to God. Everything. In every situation, by prayer and supplication. Every situation is easily understood, even if it’s not easily done, but what’s with prayer and supplication? I think the difference is the difference between the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples: give…forgive…lead…deliver, and the prayer He prayed at Gethsemane, when he sweated, as it were, drops of blood and asked three times that the cup be taken from Him, “but not my will, but thine be done.” 
          And a big part of what needs to be done is to take our lives off autopilot or installing a better alarm system. I love my autopilot. It lets me function for most of the day without having to pay attention to what is going on in my soul. I even bulk cook and plan when I’ll eat what for my dinner, so I don’t have to think about it on a daily basis. I suspect you like your autopilot, too. So maybe the better option is the alarm system.
          Most of us can get emergency alerts over our cellphones. I don’t like my cell-phone and don’t want to pay for a better one, so it’s likely to be misplaced, or the battery run down. I probably need to buy a new card to replenish the minutes on it. I’ve supplemented it with a weather-alert radio that looks like a walkie-talkie. It’s portable, which is good, but runs on batteries, which is expensive. The idea is that when the weather turns nasty or some other emergency takes place, it sets off an alarm. I can then switch to the radio and hear what’s going on. Another basic guideline for safety is to have smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in your home. They also run on batteries. 
          Our spiritual emergency alarms are powered by the Spirit, but they need to be turned on. The two ways that come to mind to keep them on and in working order are to spend time in the Word, and to pray.