Anxiety

Part 1 of 25 – Anxiety

Okay, before we start digging biblically, we need to understand what anxiety actually means! By doing so, we have a better understanding of what the Bible is trying to say to us when it speaks directly on anxiousness and indirectly on the topic as well! Anxiety is defined as (in my Microsoft Word dictionary) – “A feeling of worry”, or “Extreme apprehension”. Other words for anxiety include: Concern, unease, apprehension, worry, angst, or fear.

I think we can agree that anxiety seems to be a way the devil attacks us. For if we were truly, wholeheartedly, 100% reliant on God, we would not be filled with this day after day in our life. Am I right?

Our scripture comes out of Philippians 4:4-7 which says “⁴Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. ⁵Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; ⁶do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” ESV.

First off, let’s get some context of this verse so there is no case of misunderstanding! Paul is writing to a church in Philippi, to the Philippians, and he is speaking about two women who have helped spread the gospel (yes, some women did that in Biblical days if you didn’t know) with him, but have developed a quarrel amongst themselves. Thus, he is pleading with the church to urge them to settle it immediately. (Why don’t we see this in our churches today? Just something to think about.)

Now that we have laid the groundwork for understanding what the Bible says about anxiety, let’s get out the shovels and start digging into this verse!

The very first word in this scripture “Rejoice” just screams at me! Paul immediately realizes the anxiety that has surrounded this people and he tells them to put it all behind them and “Rejoice”, but not only that, he tells them to “Rejoice in the Lord always”. What exactly does that look like? Is it possible? Is it fathomable to rejoice in the Lord always? I think so. Need I quote Matthew 19:26? It says, “But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Now granted, that IS taken out of context BUT when we look at what it says, Jesus says regardless of what ever you can think of “with God all things are possible.” Therefore, there is no need to give context simply because the word “all” covers anything and everything.

With this, I can say with confidence that we can rejoice in the Lord always! We can do it with God’s help! Here, Paul is not speaking on a happiness that is based off of the circumstances the Philippians are in. He is speaking of trust in the sovereign, living God, which is available to us always. Even in times of trial, like when we feel the anxiety rush through our body.

Reasonableness (in verse 5) is important when one desires to maintain community. Paul says we must let our reasonableness be known to everyone. Meaning we must be natured to seek what is best for everyone, and not just ourselves! Paul emphasizes Jesus’ return and judgment when he says, “The Lord is at hand”. He knows when Jesus returns, God will hold those accountable for their deeds.

In verses 6 and 7, we see him speak directly on anxiety! Where have we heard about anxiety before in the NT? In Matthew 6:25-34 of course! Here, Jesus speaks about the birds of the air and how they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet God feeds them. Don’t you think we are much more valuable to God than birds? Even when we get to Heaven, we will be placed above the angels in priority! Will God not provide for us, then? However, there are stipulations. Paul gives us a clear definition on how we achieve the peace of God in our lives. He says with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, we are to make our requests known to God, then we shall receive the peace of God! It is this attitude of thanksgiving that directly contributes to our inward peace given to us from God.

This peace of God, which surpasses all human ability to comprehend, Paul says, will guard our hearts and minds. The absolute first thing that comes to my mind when the Bible speaks of the heart and mind is the fact that they are things of the flesh. Anything of the flesh is not good (1 John 2:16).

I listened to a sermon by the amazing Irish preacher David Legge, and he showed me with biblical evidence, what exactly the heart and mind were. I’m not quoting the same scripture as him, so bear with me here. But the mind is what I like to call “world conscience”. In Romans 12:2, Paul says “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” So here we see that the mind can be easily manipulated by the world, and we are called not to be conformed to it! We have to guard our minds with the peace of God in Christ Jesus!

As for the heart, the heart is what I like to call “flesh conscience”. Proverbs 27:19 says, “As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man.” This explains to us that when you look directly upon a face of water, you see your face, something common to all of us. However, the heart, each individual heart, reflects the man/woman inside us all. This is not common for us, meaning, not everyone else can see it like they do a reflection in the water. Our hearts are only transparent before God!

When we look at what Paul says in verse 7, we see that our hearts and minds do, indeed, need to be guarded by the peace of God! What would happen if God took his protective arms away from us? Do you ever think about that? At any moment, God could remove himself from our presence, and let the devil absolutely tear into our bodies, killing us instantly.

So, after all this, do we really need to be anxious? Is it possible to remove completely anxiety from our lives? Indeed friend, it is. Rejoice, because you are not in the darkness, and you are in the light… always!

Some verses that go along with this topic that I did not expound on: Isaiah 41:10, Psalm 16:8-11, and Psalm 23.

Thank you so much for reading my first topic post! I hope you enjoyed it and I pray you will be blessed by it! Next weeks topic is “broken heartedness” so be sure and tune in!

Grace and peace to you always,

L. R. Hughes