6 Biblical Truths for the Anxious
Introduction
Anxiety is crippling. For many people, especially so in the modern world, living with constant and debilitating anxiety has become the norm rather than the exception. Panic attacks, sleepless nights, eating disorders; anxiety is a life altering mental, emotional, and spiritual state that even Christians find themselves drowning within.
Even for those who don’t struggle with chronic and constant anxiety, an overcoming sense of fear and worry can alter the way that we live our lives. Fear of failure, fear of the future, fear of commitment, fear of rejection, or fear of the unknown can cause us to miss out on immeasurable blessings in life, not to mention causing us to walk apart from that which God has called us to.
The culture around us relegates anxiety, fear, and worry to the corner of uncontrollable mental illnesses that require medication. Or better yet, we “normalize” drowning out our anxious thoughts with substances and distractions. Nervous? Here’s another drink. Dreading tomorrow? Here’s another Netflix special. Numb the pain and don’t think.
We know that these solutions aren't working, but what do we do? Is there more to overcoming worry than what the world has to offer? Are Christians any better off? What kind of hope does the Gospel provide for the anxious of heart?
Jesus gives us a comforting command when he encourages His disciples to “fear not” (Luke 12:7), an imperative that Paul reiterates when he calls us to “be anxious for nothing” (Philippians 4:6). If Jesus and Paul both call us to walk out of the oppression of our anxious worry, then there must be a way out, a path of freedom from anxious fear.
The Bible is full of encouragement for the anxious, but here are just a few foundational truths to cling to when the worry begins to overwhelm.
The Holy Spirit is your Helper
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever” -John 14:16
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” -Romans 15:14
One of our greatest sources of hope in our battle against anxious worry is the nearness of God through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised His disciples before He left the earth that He would not leave them “as orphans” (John 14:18), and spoke of an even better Helper who would abide with and in His people.
Many Christians live their lives without a thought to the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is the third person of the Trinity. He is completely God, and works on behalf of the will of God the Father to glorify God the Son in and through His people. It is by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that we have become temples of God; God Himself dwelling within us (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).
This great, mind-bending mystery must not be fully comprehended to be gladly grasped. The power that we live in here and now is not the mustering of our own strength, but the power of the Spirit working in us. This is not only true of our Christian service toward God, but also of our daily struggle in the battle against anxious worry.
We can remember, even in our deepest struggles, that God Himself has chosen to dwell with us. He hasn't left us, and He empowers us to live the abundant life that He has destined for us to walk in. The freedom that we seek from our anxious worry is found not in ourselves, but in the power of the Spirit as He works through us to bring us into true joy (2 Corinthians 3:17).
God is Your Father
This truth has been key in my personal battle against anxious worry. It is a principle that Jesus returns to time and time again when reminding His disciples of the vanity of anxiety. In a single, beautiful teaching to His disciples, Jesus opens our eyes to the love and care of God the Father toward us:
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?... Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.” -Luke 12:22-31
In reminding us of the fatherhood of God, Jesus is reorienting our perspective. We often tend to think of God as distant and calculating, or busy and aloof, or cold and vindictive. If this is our view of God, then we can have no hope of His goodness toward us. But Jesus wants His people to think of God rightly, as a Father who loves his children.
When we begin to ponder the future in terms of the fatherhood of God toward us, our worries become smaller and smaller. If our Father, who loves us, has power over all things, how could we worry about what tomorrow will bring? Will He not give us everything we need? Will He not bring us through the future, which cannot surprise Him, with His love and grace surrounding us?
If you have trusted in Christ, God has adopted you as His child (Ephesians 1:5). You can rest in the knowledge that God will provide everything that His children need.
The Throne of Grace is Open to You
We all have our confidants, people that we run to when we need advice or help. In our ever-isolating society, we often turn to online friends and relationships to bring us comfort in our times of great anxiety. In our hurry to bring our concerns to others, however, we can often overlook the openness of God to our worries and fears.
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” - Hebrews 4:15-16
Notice a few things about how God is described in this passage. First, God understands our weaknesses. He is not so far beyond us that He cannot fathom our pain. Rather, Jesus came into the world to experience the pain, worry, sorrow, anxiety, and fear that we experience every day. We have a God who knows what it is like to be human, and therefore He can sympathize with us in our weaknesses.
Second, notice how God’s throne is described. When you think of a throne, you think of power or majesty. A judge sits on a seat of justice and righteousness. And to be sure, God rules with all of these attributes. But for those who have surrendered to Jesus, God’s primary disposition toward us is one of grace. When you approach your Heavenly Father, His primary attitude toward you is not one of anger, or wrath, or disappointment, or apathy, or carelessness, but He looks at you with love, ready to pour His grace and mercy out upon you.
If we believed this to the core of our being, how would this change our response to our feelings of anxiety? Who would we run to first if we truly believed that God is seated on a throne of grace? Do you have access to this throne through the blood of Christ, sacrificed on your behalf? If so, do you approach Him in prayer, ready to receive His grace for your worry and fear?
Your Eternity is Secure
For those who trust in Christ, we are never promised that life would be easy. Jesus Himself said that we would have tribulation and trials (John 16:33). Many Christians can testify from experience that being a follower of Jesus doesn’t exempt you from pain, grief, sickness, or loss. For many believers throughout history, their tribulations come precisely because they are followers of Christ.
It is key that we understand this truth because it causes us to remember that our hope is not in the comfort of this world, as fickle as it is. Rather, our comfort is in the eternal faithfulness of God toward all who believe in Jesus. Jesus describes the security that we have for all of eternity:
“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” -John 10:28-29
In Romans chapter 8, Paul argues for the eternal faithfulness of God toward us by describing what has become known as the “Golden Chain of Salvation”:
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” -Romans 8:28-30
Paul argues that God is the initiator of our salvation; that He has “predestined” us before all of eternity to belong to Himself. For Paul, it is God’s choosing of us that secures our future. If God chose us before the world began, then called us from death to life, and then justified us by forgiving all of our sin, then how could he not finish His work by eternally glorifying us in His presence? In other words; if God chose you, God will be sure to have you for all of eternity.
This is why Paul says that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed through us” (Romans 8:18). No matter what is taken from you in this life, we dwell secure in the next. If everything goes wrong here and now, nothing can go wrong with your future in the kingdom. We may worry about tomorrow, but a day will come when we will not worry about any of our tomorrows.
Nothing is Beyond His Power
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” -Ephesians 3:20-21
In our moments of anxious worry, we can often lose our perspective in regard to the size of the obstacle in front of us. We have a tendency, in our weakness, to overestimate the weight of our worry, and to underestimate the ability of our God.
The Bible sets out to remind us time and time again that God is bigger than our greatest struggles. Even in our passage from Luke 12, we see a striking image of God’s complete power over all of creation. Jesus points His followers to look at the sparrows, and points out that God’s utter sovereign control even extends to the length of their lives.
The point He makes is this: if God governs every facet of the universe, do you think that He has forgotten about you? If He knows every detail, even the number of the hairs on your head, do you think that your future escapes His mind? Not only is God a father to us, and not only is the Holy Spirit with us, and not only is our eternal future secure, but the God that we serve cannot be defeated by that which worries us.
He is bigger than our greatest fear and deepest worry. Far beyond any recession or job loss. Far more powerful than any government or authority. God is big, and that is good news.
His Love is Unending
Finally I want to impress upon you a basic, yet deeply profound truth. You may have heard it a million times before, and surely you have memorized John 3:16. Nonetheless, we cannot let the commonality of the phrase keep us from the power held within it. The phrase is this: God loves you.
We use the word love far too much in our culture. We love cheeseburgers, movies, friends, co-workers, and chocolate milkshakes. We tell people on Facebook that we love them, and every high-school sweetheart writes love letters to their crush of choice. But when we ponder true love, biblical love, Godly love, we see a much deeper attitude of commitment and care.
Biblical, Christ-like love is this: desiring and pursuing what is best for the loved person. This is God’s position toward us. When I say that God loves you, what I mean is this; that God desires and pursues what is absolutely best for you in every facet of your life. He has shown us the depth and passion of His love in the most striking way possible; by giving us His only son.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” -Romans 5:6-8
If God loves you this much, to die for you before you ever turned toward Him, then you can be sure that He is pursuing your good even in the midst of your deepest worry. Whatever causes you to lose sleep, you can know that God is for you. And better yet, there is nothing in all of creation that can separate you from His love (Romans 8:37-39), not even your own sinfulness.
Preach To Yourself
These truths provide a foundation of belief that has the power to change the way we view our lives. When we embed each of them into our hearts, we slowly remake the way that we approach our feelings and emotions. The Bible reminds us that it is our heart, or the core of what we believe, that determines the course of our lives (Proverbs 4:23). So how do we change the contents of our hearts? How do we reorient the core beliefs that guide how we think and act? By preaching truth to ourselves.
No one preaches to you more than you do. The voice we hear most often is our own. If we tell ourselves, over and over again, that the things we face are overwhelming, then we will begin to skew our perspective toward anxiety and fear. On the other hand, if we preach these biblical truths to ourselves consistently, and surround ourselves with people who remind us of them, they will slowly begin to transform our hearts and minds. This is what the Bible means by being “transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). What we believe determines what we think, what we think determines what we do, and what we do determines who we will become.
So in your battle against anxiety remember; the Holy Spirit is your helper, the throne of grace is open to you, God is your father, your eternity is secure, and He loves you with an unending love. If we hold these truths and preach them to our wandering hearts, we will find that our anxiety is overcome by a divine peace that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7).
