In Life -- Look for the Teachable Moments
A Gentle Answer Ministries Online
A Gentle Answer Ministries Online
WASHING MACHINE MIND
Practical Tips For Stopping the Worry Cycle
by Adrianne Lonsinger
Let go and let God. Give it to God and go to sleep. Cast your cares on Him.(1)
These sayings are all good advice. They are even scriptural! They are a great thing to know and they look super cute in calligraphy on a canvas on the wall.
But if you’re anything like me, you read that and think, “That’s nice. But how?”
I am incredibly rude when it comes to placing my problems in God’s hands. No sooner have I handed it over that I greedily snatch it back! I know it’s not the right way to handle it, I know God is in control, I know what I should do, and yet I sneak the problem back into my mind to re-examine, dissect, and obsess.
You see, I have an anxiety prone mind. I may not struggle as much with some external temptations, but the devil attacks me with what I believe at the moment are my own thoughts. As they say, knowing is half the battle, and having this type of thought pattern my entire life has allowed God to work in me in this area.
Let’s say you are struggling with an issue you really can’t do much about.
— Perhaps it does not personally involve you, but someone you care about is involved.
— Possibly it’s something that happened a long time ago, but you are still dwelling on it.
— Maybe it’s a situation where the ball is currently in the other person’s court, and it’s simply not your move right now.
Whatever it is, it’s bothering you, upsetting you, stressing you out, and you just can’t seem to let. it. go!
When a problem’s solution feels just beyond our reach, we worry. Tossing the issue around over and over again in our mind — like laundry in a washing machine — makes us feel like we’re helping to find the solution. We want to believe, like the washing machine, we are cleaning the issue, and eventually, after enough cycles, the problems will all be washed away.
You probably sort your clothes before you wash them. This is kind of like the way we analyze the situation. We try to divide it up in our minds into smaller, more manageable loads. I’m a big fan of pro-con lists, because it frees me from the responsibility of having to make a decision - the list makes it for me! There’s nothing inherently wrong with a pro-con list, I just need to ensure that my personal pros and cons align with God’s and that I’m sorting according to God’s direction, not my own.
We might ask advice from friends and loved ones, a way of pretreating the stain, hoping that this extra stain fighter will remove the problem for good. It can be a great thing to seek wise counsel. I have received wonderful Spirit led advice from many a Godly friend or family member. Just be sure seeking the Lord’s counsel is your first pre-treatment, not second, or last.
Possibly, you even turn to another vice to help you cope, an extra rinse cycle if you will, just to make sure all of that dirt is long forgotten. This can be a substance, a toxic relationship, or simply a so-called guilty pleasure. And yet despite all that extra rinsing, those really stubborn stains always seem to reappear, don’t they? The tough problems simply won’t go away either, unless you allow the Savior to make them clean, as only He can.
This is where that great advice about letting go comes in. You pray about the problem and ask God to take over. Then, hours later, you realize
— you’ve been re-analyzing the last conversation you had with that person
— you’ve been trying to come up with better ways they could have handled something
— you’ve been imagining reasons you haven’t heard anything
You feel stuck. It’s as though you can’t think of anything else, even though you desperately want to. You’re in the midst of a dark downward spiral or a crashing overwhelming wave of emotion. Your spiritual washing machine hose drain is clogged!
This is where I want to reach out and place a gentle hand on your shoulder.
God has not let you go, but at this moment, your heart is so wrapped up in worry --
you. can’t. hear. Him.
You need to steady your heart enough to get to a place where you can be open to prayer.(2) When I’m in this whirlwind, as I have often been, the following steps have helped me to that place.
- Stop the Spin Cycle
Switch up your scenery. It doesn’t have to be a drastic alteration, it can simply be a move to another room in your house or out to your own yard.
God often drew people away from where they were physically to draw them close to Him spiritually.
Abraham was called to Moriah,(3) Moses was called up the mountain,(4) the disciples were simply asked to drop their nets on the other side of the boat.(5) Jesus frequently went someplace different when He needed focused alone time with His Father.(6) As you can see, it can be a very small change.
If you are pacing, try sitting down. If you are sitting, try taking a stroll. Do a stretch. Getting into nature always seems to help ground me, to settle the spinning. Kneeling is a great position to prepare your heart to come before Him.
Whatever adjustment you make, the modification in movement can be just the jump start needed to interrupt the slew of consuming troubled thoughts. This is not about completely moving the problem from the washer to the dryer yet, this is just getting the spin cycle to pause. Your thoughts may still feel heavy with the weight of all that anguish you’ve been washing them in. That’s okay, God is near you, and He’s ready to help you with your load.
2. Use God’s Word to Untwist your Undies
Alright, draw your sword! Your Sword of the Spirit, that is. The Bible says the armor of God allows you to take your stand against the devil’s schemes.(7) The devil wants to keep you from giving this problem to God, so he’s going to do whatever it takes to get you to hold on to it. You may have tried to move this issue to the dryer — getting it over to God — only to find that your wet, soggy clothes were in a mangled, twisted knot, and now you’re stuck.
With the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, you can cut through the strings of thoughts that are keeping you tangled in this problem.
It’s times like these when it’s very helpful to have a few key verses of scripture memorized. Let’s face it, when you are fixated on a problem, you aren’t going to be able to absorb a lot, or any, new information. When you can pull from information that is already there, you are utilizing neural pathways that are already created, and therefore more easily switch from the worry pathways.
God’s Word has true power; Hebrews 4:12 tells you the Word of God is alive and active, and we know it is able to build you up from Acts 20:32. If you don’t have any scripture memorized, don’t worry. Just read the Bible, aloud if possible, as there is added blessing in hearing the Word of God spoken.(8) Many Bible apps have a feature that will play the Bible in audio. Psalms is a great place to start, as it’s written as a prayer and is full of strong imagery, which can be especially helpful in carving new neural pathways. As you read or recite, allow God’s calming presence to wring out the worry and untangle your stresses.
3. Tumble Dry with God on High
Time to Pray, Repent, and then Proceed! Now that your heart is calm and open, it’s time for designated specific prayer. Be sure to acknowledge the sin of holding onto your problem and try to identify your personal reasons for doing so. Perhaps you love to be in control and selfishly want to keep the control for yourself.
Maybe you are fearful and are not trusting God to handle the problem the way you would like it to be handled.
The cause could be you feel God is ‘too busy’ for your problem because you doubt His love for you.
Your reason is going to look a bit different than mine, perhaps, but if you can get to the basis of it, you will soon see the sin within your reason.
Ask for forgiveness.
Once you have, take 1 John 1:9 to heart: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Going forward, you will likely need to be on guard against taking the problem back. Even clothes that are completely dry will still get wrinkled if left in the stopped dryer too long. You have to keep running the wrinkle release cycle to keep the wrinkles at bay. We have to constantly stay in the Word of God, and continually repent, to keep “sin wrinkles” in our life from setting.
If you are able, Start each day with God’s Word. There are some apps perfect for this, such as First5, or a daily devotional works great as well. Begin, or continue, to memorize scripture. Tell a trusted friend and have them help hold you accountable. If you are not already in a biblically sound church, find a church to attend. Being in the Christian community designed by God Himself is very important.
But wait, there’s more!
Like an infomercial for the latest, greatest laundry detergent, I’ve saved the best for last. You have some tools for how to follow 1 Peter 5:7, which tells you to cast your worries upon Him. But here’s the most important part —
— the rest of the verse says, “For He cares for you.”
When you have an anxiety prone mind, giving up your worries can feel as never ending as, well, laundry! But God hasn’t left you to clean off the mud and the muck on your own.
He has fully equipped you for this battle, and asks for your issues, not because He wants you to struggle, but because he wants the best for you! He asks it for your gain, because He truly loves you.
He knows everything about your problem. He knows the smallest detail you haven’t told anyone yet, He knows the part that even you don’t know about, and He knows the good He is working out through this situation for His believers.(9)
It may be hard to see right now, but never doubt - He cares for you beyond measure.
Each time I do a load of laundry, I know there is only more to come.
I also know I will continue to encounter trouble in my life.
Yet, with God’s help, I will allow Him to handle it just a little bit sooner than I did the last time. We are all works in progress, but He is our faithful Creator, and will continue His good work in us until His return. And then — no more laundry and NO MORE WORRY CYCLE!
1 - 1 Peter 5:7 4 - Exo 19:3 7 - Eph 6:11
2 - Matt 5:8 5 - John 20:6 8 - Rev 1:3
3 - Gen 22:2 6 - Luke 5:16 9 - Rom 8:28
2 - Matt 5:8 5 - John 20:6 8 - Rev 1:3
3 - Gen 22:2 6 - Luke 5:16 9 - Rom 8:28
We would like to thank Adrianne for sharing this Teachable Moment with our readers.
Adrianne is an Interior Designer, wife, mother of two, student of the Bible, journal keeper and loves the art of list making!
Adrianne is an Interior Designer, wife, mother of two, student of the Bible, journal keeper and loves the art of list making!
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