Anxiety

Posted on December 15th, 2011 by Pastor Koby Orr

Anxiety. Sleepless nights. Distracted evenings. Consumed thoughts. Lack of appetite. Lack of relaxation. Depression. All of these may apply to you, or none of them may. Different people experience and deal with anxiety many different ways and on many different levels. Me, I struggle with anxiety. I always have as long as I can remember, and it has been an ongoing process in my walk with God in how to deal with stress and anxiety in a biblical way and I thought that since I’m not the only person on earth to deal with this issue, that it could be beneficial to share here.

At its root, I know that anxiety is really anchored in my sin of unbelief. When I am anxious or nervous, I am essentially saying that I do not believe that God is big enough or strong enough to handle my situation. This is sin.--pure and simple. I like to be in control of my surroundings. I like to feel like everything is in order and going exactly the way that it should, and when the situation begins to go sideways, or takes an unexpected left turn, I panic as my perceived control begins to slip away and I sink into a state of anxious worry.

I don’t know if anything I just said resonates with you in any way, but for those of us who struggle with worry, the question has to be asked...what do we do?

Two verses come to mind that I have committed to memory and they have become my first line of defense when I begin to slip into this sin. The first is Matthew 6:33-34 which says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow ill be anxious for itself, sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”  The second verse is Philippians 4:6-7 which says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” 

I love this verse in Philippians, because not only does it command us to not be anxious (which implies that if we are anxious, we are disobeying a command, which means we are sinning), but it comes with a promise attached to the command. God invites us to cast our cares upon him. We are to lay our worries at his feet with thanksgiving and the promise that follows is that God will grant us peace that surpasses all understanding that will guard our hearts and minds. God says that if we will trust him with our lives and our concerns, he will grant us peace, which is what we need. So what do we do? When we worry we cast our cares upon God and he will grant us peace. 1 Peter 5:6-7 says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” When faced with worry and anxiety, when given the choice in any situation to either trust God with our circumstances, or sin by worrying, we are call to cast all our anxieties on him, because HE CARES for us.

I find so much joy, peace, and hope in the knowledge that I serve a God who cares for me, and I hope you will to. We need to remember the faithfulness of God, we need to look back on our lives and gratefully remember how he has cared for us over and over again, and with those memories, trust God with our future, because our God is an unchanging God who is just as powerful today as he was when he parted the Red Sea before the people of Israel. He is just as powerful today as he was when he healed the blind, healed the deaf, and cast demons out of people. He is just as powerful today as he was when he raised Jesus Christ from the dead three days after his execution. The God who breathed the sun, moon, earth and stars into existence is the loving God who cares for us and he promises to never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5) and he is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). I hope this encourages you as it does me.

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