Written by Michele Hanson
Anxiety. It’s a dirty word as far as I’m concerned. It likes to mimic concern. Worry is like anxiety’s less aggressive cousin. Somehow, it’s socially ok to say you worry about something or someone, if you say you have concern, well then, you just sound more mature. To be concerned is not bad as long as we are carrying that burden to the Lord. It’s like wrestling an alligator. Even the little ones will bite you.
One of my all-time favorite go-to scriptures on the subject of worry and anxiety is out of Philippians 4. This whole passage of scripture is a road map for combating worry. Obviously, the Lord felt it necessary to tell us how to combat worry, because, well, we worry…a lot. We can get anxiety to the point of panic and in some cases, complete shutdown, isolation, physical illness and a host of other maladies that can wreck us. It’s quite an effective tool of the enemy to cripple believers. We can often feel like things will never get better. We dream of a day when our mind will stop racing and thinking disaster is around every corner.
Even if.
Can we actually live in a quite peaceful place of “even if?” God knows how hard it is for us to let go of our supposed control. That’s what worry is. The fear of losing control.
Ok, we can control some things. But the stuff we worry about is stuff we can’t control anyway you look at it. It almost always involves other people. We cannot control other people even though we constantly try to. Our need to be ok is what drives us to try to make others be ok so we can be ok, but then nobody is ok…ok?
So how does Philippians 4 say we should handle anxiety? Philippians 4 starts with two ladies in the church who are not getting along. Paul is writing this letter to the church in Philippi and these two ladies have a disagreement. They are believers and so are admonished to settle the disagreement.
See? The upheaval in life always happens because there are always people involved.
How do we handle the spinning out that happens when there is discord and disunity…Rejoice!!! Be joyful! (No, not yippie-skippy, oblivious, wacky-do silliness.) It is the joy of the Lord. That joy is not dependent on circumstances or feelings. This is a joy based on the reality of our risen Savior who died to make us free from this stuff. Focus on the Lord.
Then pray. And not just pray but pray about everything…all of it…all the gory details, the stuff that you think is trivial, the stuff that’s breaking your heart, the stuff that makes no sense whatsoever…all of it. Everything. Of course, God knows everything, but He wants you to talk to Him about it so that in praying, our spirits are open to Him and in that sacred space, we can get His heavenly perspective…cause we need His truth, not our idea of what the truth is.
As we submit and rest in that sacred space with Him, we are ministered to in ways we can’t comprehend and receive peace that we can’t comprehend.
As we fix our minds on things above, our perspective is changed and our hearts are changed and our circumstances…well, they may not change, but we will. We can’t help but change as we allow ourselves to be infused with the grace and love of our Heavenly Father.
It usually doesn’t happen overnight, but it can. Our circumstances might get worse, and we might really be in a very hard place, but the word of God is sure and certain. (That’s the definition of hope in Hebrews 11:1) He is not a man that He should lie. (Numbers 23:19) If God said it then it’s true.
As humanity, we are naturally bent toward emotional reactions. We don’t naturally wait on the Lord. We have to learn how to rest, wait, trust and surrender to God and His timing. It takes diligent submission to the authority of God. We must not allow our humanity to run roughshod over our spirit. It’s called crucifying the flesh.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20 (NIV)
The way to freedom from anxiety and worry is through knowing the Lord and His word. When we tuck His grace and goodness deep into our hearts, it changes us. The more we know Him, the more we want to know Him. The more we soak in His word the deeper our relationship with Him goes. There is no room for fear, worry, doubt, when we are full up on His word and prayed up in our spirits. Its just the truth of it.
I am not making light of the very serious reality of mental health. I have first-hand knowledge, and I have people in my life who I love, who struggle with very intense anxiety, needing medication. My experience with anxiety has honestly been a battle. It’s not a flip statement that if we “just trust God, we would be fine.” That is not exactly true. What is true is that Jesus came to set us free from everything that is broken in this world, and as humans, we will battle our humanity till we go to be with Him.
Jesus came to set us free from all the things in this broken world that keep us from being a true representation of our King. This life is the only chance we have to make the decision to follow Him and to be that ambassador to the world that glorifies God and offers salvation through Christ to His creation.
