Help, I’m Anxious! (Part 2)

Articles

Dec 11

In part 1, I asked two questions: “What are you anxious about?” and “Why are you anxious?” The first question has many answers; anxiety is common to all of us. The second question also has a multitude of answers, but in Matthew 6:25–34, Jesus gives two reasons:

We are anxious because we think we are in control.
We are anxious because we think God doesn’t care for us.

What does our anxieties reveal about our belief in God? When we are anxious, we believe that God is not all that powerful and is not all that loving. What! How can a Christian believe such blasphemies? And yet, by our anxiety, we betray our sin. Surely we are in need of a course correction.

The God of All Power

God is the One in control of all things, the One ultimately responsible for all things, and He is never anxious.

Every morning He says to the sun, “Rise in the East!” And every evening He says, “Set in the West.” The winds blow and rush because of Him. The waves roar and crash because of Him. Nations rise and fall because of Him. He “feeds [the birds]” (Matthew 6:26) and “clothes the grass of the field [with flowers]” (6:30). From the first day of creation all the way to today, God has never failed—period. He’s got the whole world in His hands. Nothing ever happens apart from His good plan. Nothing is outside of His power. In every detail, in every plant, in every animal, in every person, in every nation, in every planet, in every galaxy, in all the universe, He is doing His will. Psalm 115:3 says, “But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.” Daniel 4:35 says, “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; …”

God is the great King over all the Earth. All power rests within His hands. Every single day He works out the story of His glory, in every detail. God is in control over our work, over our churches, over the fact that you are reading this post! He has authority over our work, our families, our futures, our everything. God never leaves anything on His checklist undone. God never forgets to do something. God is never late. God never oversleeps. God never makes a mistake. God never over-promises and never under-delivers. He says exactly what He will do and does exactly what He says.

Is this your God? Is your God a great King? Has your God planned every single day of the history of the world, even every single day of your life? Is He strong enough to keep His promises, to accomplish everything He wants? Is He big enough to carry the whole world on His shoulders?

The true God made “the heavens and the earth by His great power. Nothing is too hard for Him” (Jeremiah 32:17). He upholds all things by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:2). “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:36).

Dear Christian, you do not need to be anxious. You are not God; you are not in control—and that’s a wonderful thing. Your God is the King over everything; you can rest in Him.

But He is not just the big God. He is also a good God.

The God of All Compassion

God cares for the birds and feeds them. He cares for the weeds and clothes them with flowers. And God “…your heavenly Father knows that you need [food, drink, clothing]” and everything else necessary for life. Tell me, who does God care more for, His children or the birds? Who does God care more for, His children or weeds? You! He cares for you.

God knows that things are hard right now. He knows your worries. He knows your anxieties. He knows the answers to “What if…” questions you ask. He knows you’re getting pummeled at work. He knows you miss church. Our heavenly Father knows.

Christians call God “Heavenly Father”. That is because He has loved us and adopted us as His own children. Dear Christian, He is your perfect Father, the fountain of love and compassion and grace. He is never indifferent to your suffering. He is never cold towards your anxieties. He is never tempted to stop loving you. This is your God! He is a God compassionate enough to walk with you through the valley of the shadow of death. He is a God gracious and kind to deal with the worst of sinners, even you. He is our Shepherd King, tender to seek after the weakest of His sheep-children. He is our God, close enough to hear our tears and fears, our worries and anxieties. He gave us Jesus, His best; He will without a doubt give us everything good by His grace (Ro 8:32). Nothing can separate us from His love (Ro 8:39).

Dear Christian, you do not need to be anxious. You are not alone in this world, left to care for yourself. Your God is full of love and He cares for you; you can rest in Him.

Good News For Anxious People

Maybe you read this and want to believe it, but you are asking, “How do I really know it’s true?” It’s a good question. The answer is this: the gospel of Jesus Christ. Romans 5:8 says, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

“But” is in contrast to what was written previous, namely that the best of us would maybe die for a good person. But who does God love? Not good people; there are no good people! Instead He came for the ungodly and sinners, the wretched and the wicked—namely, us. God “shows”—present tense, continually—shows “His love for us.” God did not start loving us at some point in time; He has loved us from before the foundation of the world and continues to demonstrate that eternal love. When did God love us? When we were good? While we were righteous? No, while we were still sinners. How does God show his love for us? In a once-for-all, definitive, perfect event: Christ died for us. It is an indisputable fact, an objective reality, a sure and steady foundation: “Christ died for us”.

Do you want to really know that God is in control? Look at the cross of Christ. God’s grand plan from before the world began was to crucify His own Son. Think of it! By one death, He defeated death forever. Jesus died because we are sinners. God hates our sin, and we deserve to die and be punished forever in hell for our sin. But Jesus took the punishment of our hell. He died; the Son of God died! And having fully paid that price, He rose in triumph over death, never to die again. He is alive, and reigns as King in heaven. No one is as strong as God. He has death-crushing power, resurrection power, sin-destroying, eternal, glorious power.

Do you want to really know that God cares for you? Look at the cross of Christ. God crucified His own Son in love for you. It was not a backup plan. It was a plan of love of rescue, of salvation, for you—for any sinner who would believe. This is a great love, a wondrous love, an incomparable love. And you didn’t earn one drop of it. God loves sinners! If God’s love were an ocean, we would never reach the shore. If God’s love were a well, we would never reach the bottom. This is an magnificent, everlasting, wonderful love. Ephesians 3:18–19 says that the “breadth and length and height and depth” of the “love of Christ…surpasses knowledge.” In 1 John 3:1, it says, “Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children. And we are!”

This is the gospel message. And this message not only saves us from sin, but also leads us on the Christian walk. We can trust God, not only to save us from our sins forever, but also to help us stop sinning, to help us stop being anxious. God is in control, and that’s so much better than you trying to be in control. God cares for you, and that’s so much better than you caring for yourself. You can trust Him. And when you do, your anxiety melts to peace and joy in Christ.

How will you respond to God about your anxiety?

Now, let’s look at our anxiety through God’s lens by asking this question: “How will you respond to God about your anxiety?”

Usually we think of being anxious as a suffering to be healed—and that’s right. I hope that is what you’ve heard so far—a tender, compassionate, helpful voice. But anxiety is also a sin to be repented of.

1. The Sin of Not Trusting God

When we’re anxious, we don’t trust God. That’s why Jesus rebukes us in Matthew 6:30, “O you of little faith.” In other words, “O you of little trust. O you of little dependence. O you of little prayer. O you with little confidence in God.” We doubt the most trustworthy Being. We say, “He can’t be trusted.” And we are wrong.

2. The Sin of Taking Control

When we take control, we are saying, “God, You’re not a good God! So I’ll be God! I’ll control my life, achieve my future, and get what I want.” We proverbially kick God off His throne and say, “I think I’d do a better job!”

3. The Sin of Not Receiving God’s Love

When we are anxious, we doubt God’s love and act as if the cross of Jesus Christ means nothing. We say that His blood didn’t really change anything. We act as if God hasn’t met our every need in Him.

What shall we do with such sins? Knowing that God cares for us, we can confess to Him.

I’m anxious—again! Help! I know you’re in control, but it doesn’t feel like it. I know you love me, but I’m struggling to believe it. Forgive me Lord. Help me to trust You always. Jesus died for me; I will put my trust in You.

Sin always strives to takes us away from God, but in Christ, we can bring our sin to God. When you’re anxious, take your anxiety to Him.

In Matthew 6:31–32 and 34, Jesus says:

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles [unbelievers] seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. …Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

To our context, Jesus says, “Don’t be anxious about your exams. Don’t worry about your work. Don’t fret about your future. You are not in control; I am, and I care for you. God knows you need all these things. God knows. You don’t have to be anxious about tomorrow; tomorrow is quite capable of worrying about itself. Today has enough trouble. Trust God with that!” This is the voice of our Lord. Cast your anxieties upon your heavenly Father, because He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7).

In verse 33, Jesus says,

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

The highest priority of a Christian is to seek God’s kingdom and righteousness, which basically means your greatest desire is for God. Why? Because you know Him and trust Him. You trust Him with food, drink, clothing, work, school, friends, health, etc. You live for the King. You trust that because He is a good King, He knows how to take care of His sons and daughters. He gave His Son; what more proof could you want? He is all we have; He is all we need.

Hope for the Future

Anxiety is a hard sin to overcome. We know what we ought to believe, and yet we struggle to truly believe it. But that’s part of the beauty of being a Christian; we depend upon God to give us grace for salvation, and grace to grow with respect to our salvation. We are works in progress, and He Himself is the Worker (Ephesians 2:10).

What will you do with your anxieties? Step by step, inch by inch, in faith, we can—we must—give our anxieties to the God who cares for us. Walking, flailing, falling, flopping, crawling towards Christ, we grow, all by His grace.

By His grace, we fight anxiety. We pray and sing in the midst of our worries. We say “No!” to faithlessness and fear and “Yes!” to trusting in our gracious God. We are courageous to confront the deep, dark roots of our fears. We bring our anxieties to God without shame, confident that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. We persevere, eyes up and not downcast, loving our church, serving our friends, and putting our anxieties to death.

We will never be perfect Christians, but we must be fighting Christians—Christians who fight to trust the Lord of love more and more, Christians who grow in faithful courage more and more, Christians who meditate more and more upon how much we need the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, dear anxious Christian, dwell in the shelter of the Most High God; rest in the shadow of the Almighty (Ps 91:1). Say to your Lord, You are “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust” (Ps 91:2). As Isaiah 26:3–4 promises,

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.
Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.