Life beyond Anxiety

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7 May, 2021Pastor Mark SchultzLife Pulse

Have you ever watched the spin cycle on the front loader of a washing machine? It starts off slow, builds in speed and intensity as the clothes are forced to the edge of the drum, ultimately all wrung out. That's anxiety in a nutshell…or guilt…or shame. It starts with a simple thought that goes round and round, spinning faster and faster, leaving you in a tight, on edge, wrung out knot! Sometimes the weight of that anxiety is so much, the whole machine of your body begins to shake, shudder and makes noise because it is so off kilter. Whatever spin cycle you are in right now – anxiety about the state of your world/lives, shame that you aren’t who you are supposed to be according to some exacting standard, guilt that in this instance or that circumstance you messed up, let your guard down or let someone else down - Jesus wants you to know that he is not ashamed of you, disappointed in you or out to make an example of you. He knows you completely and loves you unceasingly, assuring you of his grace that is larger than your need and more abundant that all your fears. Come to Jesus and receive that life and experience that life today…a life beyond anxiety, guilt and shame.

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John 4:4-26; 39-42

Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

17 “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.

42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.”

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” John 4:10

Jesus knows everything about you and still loves you. He come to free you from the patterns and habits that keep you living as anxious people and create a new cycle that is life giving, life renewing and life sustaining

  1. What’s one thing in the last year that has left you feeling like you are in a never-ending spin?
  2. What’s one thing you really need that you have not asked God for? Why is that?
  3. What’s one thing you heard today that can help you live beyond anxiety?

Read this week's Weekly News here

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