As the women begin their book study this week, reading and discussing "Calm My Anxious Heart" by Linda Dillow, I thought it would be profitable for us all to consider the (sometimes hidden) sins of anxiety and discontentment in our own lives. In his book, "Respectable Sins", in his chapter on Anxiety and Frustration, Jerry Bridges quotes John Newton on the subject. Take the time to process and understand this quote...it's well worth it.

“[One of the marks of Christian Maturity which a believer should seek is] an acquiescence in the Lord’s will founded in a persuasion of His wisdom, holiness, sovereignty and goodness.…So far as we can attain this, we are secure from disappointment. Our own limited views, and shortsighted purposes and desires, may be, and will be, often over-ruled; but then our main and leading desire, that the will of the Lord be done, must be accomplished. How highly does it become us, both as creatures and as sinners, to submit to the appointment of our maker! and how necessary is it to our peace! This great attainment is too often unthought of, and over looked; we are prone to fix our attention upon the second causes and immediate instruments of events; forgetting that whatever befalls us is according to his purpose, and therefore must be right and seasonable in itself, and shall in the issue be productive of good. From hence arise impatience, resentment, and secret repinings [i.e., complaining], which are not only sinful but tormenting; whereas, if all things are in his hand, if the very hairs of our head are numbered; if every event, great and small, is under the direction of his providence and purpose; and if he has a wise, holy, and gracious end in view, to which everything that happens is subordinate and subservient;-then we have nothing to do, but with patience and humility to follow as he leads, and cheerfully to expect a happy issue....How happy are they who can resign all to Him, see His hand in every dispensation and believe that He chooses better for them than they possibly could for themselves!”

John Newton, an excert from a letter to a friend