Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 4:6-7 NIV)
I had the jitters.
I don’t know why.
One thing about having dementia, you are easily bothered by things—pain, changes to routines, someone yelling at you, hunger, etc.—but you usually can’t identify what it is that is bothering you!
As a result, I was restless and agitated, and no one knew why! I was yelling at my workers, turning furniture upside down, bothering the other residents, and I couldn’t be redirected.
It had been going on for about two— weeks, and the poor people who were trying to care for me were at their wit’s end. Some of them, one in particular, lost all patience with me. She began yelling at me and being rough with me. Of course, this didn’t help me at all! I just became even more agitated!
The doctor suggested a small dose of a new medication. Not knowing what else to do, my wife approved the change on what she called a “trial basis”, and the new drug was begun.
Day 1: No change. I was as agitated as ever.
Day 2: I fell asleep over lunch, but when I woke up, those jitters were five times worse than ever. The phone report my wife received later that afternoon wasn’t pretty. Even she didn’t know what to do with me!
No, she didn’t know what to do, but she did know who to turn to. She started to pray. She also reached out to our international prayer team and asked for prayer coverage, and the next day, Day 3, as she was leaving the online women’s conference she had signed up for to come out and check on me, the other conference attendees gathered around her and prayed for me.
Day 3: I won’t say I was feeling “great” when my wife arrived on that third day of this new medication, but those “jitters” were only about half as bad as they had been. Even my charge nurse reported that I had been, “a lot calmer”!
Day 4: The “jitters” were only about 25% what they had been. I was feeling a lot better.
This was written on Day 4, so I can’t yet tell you what happened after that. The interesting thing is, although the original reason for these jitters might never be known, the introduction of the new medication upset my chemical balance, causing the jitters to become even worse. I am happy that my medical staff had the wisdom not to withdraw the medication. I am also happy my wife decided on allowing the medical staff to continue, even though she wanted very badly to withdraw the medication. Instead, the decision was made to continue to monitor the situation until my body had time to adapt.
But the point I want to make with all of this is as follows:
Sometimes we feel upset—jittery, agitated. And we don’t know why! Oh, there is always a reason for this, and sometimes we even know what that reason is. Sometimes it is someone who is impatient with us. Sometimes it is an infection or some trial we are going through. But the reason may actually not be within our conscious awareness. Sometimes it is something as hidden from us as a chemical imbalance. My wife often talks about getting this jittery feeling in her stomach when she needs to pray for someone, though often she doesn’t know who she is supposed to pray for!
What do we do?
We do what my wife did when I had my recent bout of the jitters: We start to pray. We ask others for prayer. We reach out to God, thanking Him for His miracles of the past and praising Him for what He is about to do, and because all we are doing for the situation is praying, we actually don’t even always need to know what is causing that jittery feeling! God knows—and our prayers will unleash His miracles of calmness! They might even unleash the reason behind that jittery feeling, but even if they don’t, our prayers work to right what is wrong.
Got that anxious feeling in your gut?
Turn it over to God in prayer! “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7 NIV)!
Inspired by Rob Chaffart
Founder, Answers2Prayer Ministries