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Anxiety

Whether you call it being worried, fearful, or fretful, anxiety robs us of health, sleep, and peace. Unchecked, anxiety creates mental and physical issues that grow over time and take root in us as disease, pain, and systemic discouragement. Worse than all these, anxiety is a sin, for our Lord forbids it.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6-7). He said: “Do not worry about your life” (Matt. 6:24); and, “Do not worry about tomorrow” (Matt. 6:34). One of his most common commands is: “Do not be afraid” (Matt. 14:27; 17:7; 28:10; Mark 5:36; Luke 5:10; John 14:27).

                As with all sins, however, we can be tempted to be anxious without committing the sin of worry or anxiety. There are many occasions for hurt, fear, pain, and trauma. These are not necessarily the result of direct sin in our lives, although they are part the curse, which is due to our sin. Sin results when we yield to the temptation to be fearful and anxious, which our Lord forbids.

                Do not underestimate the strength of this temptation – for then we shall devalue the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in overcoming it. These trials can be severe, beyond all human endurance. Some live with 10-scale pain constantly – or 10-scale soul pain of broken relationships, loneliness, and persecution. In giving the command “do not be afraid” and “do not worry,” our Lord never dismisses our pain and suffering. He cannot. He knows. He cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

                Therefore, his commands are against the backdrop of his own sorrows, spoken by One who knows the absolute bottom of the pit of despair, the disappointment of betrayal, the horror of hell, and the pain of brutal death. Far worse than his earthly sufferings, He stood before the just Judge in heaven and suffered the full blow due to man for his sins. He has been cursed – not cursed with man’s words  but subjected to the shame and curse of holiness being crucified for filth, the innocent struck down for the guilty. And he did all this willingly. We can never say that our Savior or the faith he confirmed downplays suffering. If we have any heart-sympathy with the One who endured our hell, we, too, must be filled with sympathy for the suffering of sinners.

                But this is different from justifying fear and anxiety because of our circumstances. It is actually very empowering and gospel good news that anxiety and fear and worry are sinful responses to trauma. It means we are not victims of our circumstances, helpless against forces aligned against us, or betrayed by our brains. Sin can be identified clearly, resisted, fought against despite the weariness of the battle, and overcome by the power of Christ. One reason sinners do not like to hear that anxiety is sinful is that the cure, therefore, is not immediate. We may feel better with pills or therapy, but this does not handle anxiety, only its symptoms. Sinners prefer symptom management rather than mortification, patience, sowing in righteousness, and walking in the Spirit’s power.

                Our Lord in his Word gives very different ways to fight against the temptation to be anxious, fretful, or fearful. Even in the command not to be anxious, there is an implied warning that we must be on guard against them. His warning assumes that there is grace sufficient to obey his command. This helps us understand that the anxious or fearful responses to our circumstances are not a mysterious, indefinable conjunction of external crises and neurological stimuli that can only be identified and cured by mental health experts and chemical medications. This is a very recent faith. The old faith is better.

As we desire to obey our Lord, trust him, and fight against anxiety temptations, let us remember, first, that feeding all our fears are small views of God – a God we forget, a God who cannot or will not help us, a God whom we do not know and trust, a God who has become a stranger to us on account of our neglect. He is not small, of course, but is always working all things according to the counsel of his own will (Eph. 1:11). But if we do not believe in him, forget he is working every moment, or stop walking by faith, he becomes to us small and disinterested. Or, if we have choked out his word by not abiding in it (living by it, meditating upon it, obeying it), his promises seems much smaller than our circumstances.

Then, the gerbil wheel of our puny minds begins spinning on the axle of hopelessness, doubt, and fear. Unchecked by repentance and fighting to be renewed in our minds (Eph. 4:22-24), fear or anxiety becomes a settled spiritual principle that dominates our minds and hearts. It can alter our heart rhythms, our sleep patterns, and our mental state. It is enslaving. Various medications and therapies may dull these effects and even seem to cure us, but this is not a permanent or a desirable solution, even if it helps us function better in the interim.

Second, obedient thoughts play a huge role in our anxieties and fears. We are to love and obey God with our minds. Our Savior said so (Matt. 22:37). More than anything else, loving God with trusting thoughts is vital to overcoming anxious moments and the temptation to full-blown anxiety. The command to “bring every thought captive to Christ” and to “be renewed in the spirit of our minds/thinking” (Eph. 4:23) assumes that we are thinking, intelligent creatures, whose minds or thoughts processes are critical to our whole being and wellbeing.

If our typical pattern is not to think about God and his promises, to love his thoughts more than we love our own (Ps. 139:17), then life’s troubles will overflow us like a tsunami – and the temptation to fear and worry will be impossible to resist. As we develop the settled habit of thinking about God’s promises – e.g., “I will never leave you or forsake you” – then we are building upon the wise man’s foundation. Anxiety’s storms will still blow fiercely, but we can meet the storm with the shield of faith in God’s promises.

Third, this is all by Christ’s strength, which he gives as we walk in communion with him. It is union and communion with our Savior that makes our response to life’s fearful moments different. We meet them with more than the “power of positive thinking.” We meet them in honest realization that the winds are howling and the little ship of our life will capsize – but he is with us in the boat! He is raised, reigning, interceding, and present by his Spirit to help us. Thus, he says honestly to us as he did to the disciples that fearful moment: “It is I; be not afraid.” Do we believe in the great I AM – the Lord Jesus Christ! He is stronger than our occasions for fear and anxiety. Draw near to him, believer, and fear and anxiety will draw back – quickly, over time, after a great battle – but he is the great destroyer of fear and anxiety.

He works, fourth, by the Spirit, the omnipotent conqueror of anxiety. In our temptations to be afraid and to fall into full blown worry, we have the Spirit of holiness to comfort us. To have faith in God also includes putting our faith in the Holy Spirit – that his comforts and encouragements are far stronger than our fears. To enjoy his comforting work, we must “walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:16) – place ourselves in the circle of his teaching, sanctifying, interceding, and fruit-bearing work in us.

Thus, when the occasions and temptations to be afraid, to become anxious, and to be overcome by worry confront us, we must love God with our minds by remembering his promises. The Father’s sovereign love and wisdom overcomes our fears. We must bring our thoughts captive to Christ and walk in his fellowship. The Savior’s living power and fellowship overcomes our fears. We must walk in the Spirit, for the Spirit’s comfort overcomes our fears. There is a pattern here – the triune God is the great overcomer of our fears and anxieties. In him, we are more than conquerors.

The battle against anxiety is long and wearisome – or, fear’s pressure can suddenly concentrate into one volcanic eruption – disease, death, and other trials. The Lord tests us, so he does not give relief all at once. He does, however, fifth, place us in the body of Christ. He does not call us to face our battles like lone soldiers on a faraway battlefield. We are to “weep with those who weep” and “bear one another’s burdens.” We are to pray for one another. This assumes that we are honest with one another. We face and overcome anxiety as “members one of another.” Live in community and fight anxiety back to back, with faces toward the Lord and his promises, cheering one another on to victory in Jesus!

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