My Jaw: My Anxiety Barometer

It doesn’t matter how close we get to God, our enemies will always be after us. While we’re on this earth, there is no “I’ve arrived” in the Christian life. 

Isn’t it great that God gives us anxiety barometers so we know when we are drifting from Him?

Mine is my jaw. In fact, at first, it was so bad that I had to have my dentist make a mouth guard so I wouldn’t break my teeth. But as my relationship with God has become stronger, I need it less. But I can always tell when I drift because I find that I wake up and my jaw is aching. Just the other morning I woke up and my jaw was so sore that I had to massage it with lavender to make the pain go away. Ugh!

We all have different ways of “wearing” our anxiety—jaw clenching is mine. When I fall back into trying to do things—like run my law practice, help my family or friends, and run GoFaithStrong ministry on my own—I’m not engaging in the first BE-attitude of realizing that I can do nothing without God. If I don’t immediately begin to give it all to God, it spreads and slowly paralyzes the great adventure God has planned for my life. Or, if I get back into the habit of filling my mind with stinky stuff, like the kind of entertainment that is not good for my soul, I begin to feel the loss of peace God means for us to experience in His presence. 

God’s presence is my only source of absolute peace!

The Bible very compassionately gives us the endgame for when choose to live WITHOUT a strong sense of God’s presence:

“What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest [in fact we clench our jaw even in our sleep 🥴]…A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? 

To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” 

Ecclesiastes 2:22-26

The story of our life will be TRAGIC if we choose to live WITHOUT a strong sense of God’s presence. We will always be anxiously gathering more of what we can’t keep and anxiously guarding what will someday belong to someone else—while we’re throwing out, with the garbage—all the golden opportunities God provides in His presence. 

God offers a life of joy, wisdom, strength, and love from the blessings of His generous presence. 

When my jaw begins to ache, it’s like a storm barometer reminding me I’m sailing without Him. I must backtrack and see where I departed from a strong sense of His presence. Did I neglect His Word? Is there a behavior I’ve engaged in that has led me back into the ghetto of sin? Ah, the experience of God’s presence has led me to experience the stark contrast between a meaningless life and a meaningful life! I NEVER want to live in anything less than the best God has promised. I’m no longer willing to hang onto any sinful behavior OR neglect any good habit to forfeit the blessings of His presence. 

God’s presence is the only cure for anxiety because—He is NEVER anxious.