About managing anxiety, some wag has said, "Don't sweat the small stuff...And everything is small stuff." Easier said than done. We Christians have an advantage when it comes to managing anxiety, because all the big stuff is covered by someone else. God, our heavenly Father, has seen to what is most important. He has offered His own precious Son, delivering Him up to death for us all. Death, sin, and hell have all been taken care of, and all the rest is little stuff. We needn't fret about the big stuff, but also the little stuff. If our heavenly Father has taken care of the big stuff for us, why would we not also conclude that He is capable of taking care of the little stuff. If a major league pitcher can strike out the finely tuned athletes who stand in the batter's box against him, couldn't he also very easily strike out Little Leaguers if he took the mound against them? Of course, they would be terribly overmatched. If he could take care of the big hitters he would mow down the little hitters too. So it is with God. Since He has taken care of the big things in the death of His own precious Son, He is also able to care of all our tiniest needs. There is nothing to sweat.

How easily we reclaim our anxiety about everything. This is especially true of Lutherans, who despite the teaching of divine monergism, think they need to have everything in their own control. Yes, we might admit notionally that God can do everything and promises to do so, but practically speaking, we are quite certain He needs our help. He couldn't possibly manage without us. But He can, you know. He actually will send you Job-like trials to prove His ability to take care of things and to force you to trust Him. God often knocks the props out from under us to prove to us that we can't take care of things and that we have no choice but to let God be who He is: the One who graciously gives us all things (Rm 8:32).