Stress?!

Oh my goodness, LORD—I’m really fighting stress right now. (As You know, of course. You see me sitting in the computer lab—skipping class cause I’m freaking out—with moisture flooding my eyes, feeling so weak and small, frightened of the future and helplessly inept to control my body in the present.) I’m just realizing how much is coming up in my classes soon as far as group projects and papers…oh I’m scared of what’s to come, because it’s unknown to me and thus I don’t know if I can handle it or if I’ll end up getting my butt kicked and letting people down.
What do YOU say, LORD Almighty, God of the Ages? I don’t claim Your majestic titles out of jest but with weak hands feebly offering up the names that may seem empty but I am certain hold great, unforeseeably wondrous power. For Your divine power has given me everything I need for life and godliness through my knowledge of You Who called us by Your own glory and goodness. Through these You have given me Your very great and precious promises, so that through them we may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption of the world caused by evil desires. (2 Peter 1:3-4)
“But you, [wo]man of God, flee from all [lust for riches], and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the sight of God, Who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, Who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in His own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, Who alone is immortal and Who lives in unapproachable light, Whom no one has seen or can see. To Him be honor and might forever. Amen.
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, Who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” (1 Timothy 6:11-19)
God, please gently pluck the future and control struggles I’m facing. I know that Paul was writing in regards to addictive desires for wealth, but I see the same principle holding true for other earthly riches such as academic success, physical health, secure future plans. ENOUGH with that stuff!? I have already received the key to all I could ever ask or imagine. I have already been born again into a new family, stripped of my old ways and form and made a new creation, given new birth into a living hope that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for us, who through faith are shielded by Your power until the coming of salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this, let me greatly rejoice, though now for a little while I may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials…I know that they have come so that my faith—OF GREATER WORTH THAN GOLD—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though I don’t see You (like I see the deadlines approaching and snapping at me from the pages of my planner! How miniscule and finite they are in light of Your supremacy…), I LOVE YOU, and though I don’t see You now I believe in You and am filled with an INEXPRESSIBLE AND GLORIOUS JOY, for I am receiving the end result of my faith, the salvation of my soul! (1 Peter 1:3-9)
Because of this enlightening reality, renew my mind and give me the mind of Christ and make me alert and fully sober, setting my hope FULLY on the grace to be brought to me when Jesus Christ is revealed at Your coming. God, I can’t be holy in all that I do when I’m living in irreverent fear; pluck out my heart of stone and implant a heart of flesh that beats for what’s truly important, beating from my allegiance to the precious blood of Christ. I can’t love anyone (even myself) without Your grace and peace to be imparted to me. God, I don’t want to live one more second with this wrong way of thinking and worldly fear clouding my battle vision. Let not the threats of the kingdom of this world bind me and restrain me from living in the freedom which You bought me on the cross, for which You liberated me such that I might live a life worthy of the calling I’ve received. God, let me give not an ounce of fear, honor, respect, service, or love to nothing and nobody but YOU and You alone.
God, would you please make me worthy of Your calling, and by Your power please bring to fruition my every desire for goodness and my every deed prompted by faith. I pray this so that the Name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in us, and us in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thess 1:11-12)
Let me not make myself the focus of this fight, this life, or this hope—but You, O Great Father and Precious Lamb. To You be the glory, honor and praise, now and forevermore. Amen.