Two nights ago at our Wednesday evening Bible study on anxiety and depression, we thought about the Biblical distinction between anxiety/worry and concern. There is an appropriate and legitimate concern and regard and care that we are to have as good stewards of the life and circumstances the Lord in His providence gives us. But to be anxious and worried is to act and think and feel in a manner contrary and displeasing to the holy will of God. This truth is established primarily by the fact that God commands us not to be anxious in Philippians 4:4-7; I Peter 5:6-7; Matthew 6:25-34; and Psalm 37:1, 8, among other passages. Jesus died on the cross to bear God’s punishment against our sin of worry and anxiety, and He died to redeem us from this lawlessness (I Peter 2:24; Titus 2:14). Therefore we are to confess our anxiety to God as sin, repent of it, and put it to death by the indwelling Holy Spirit (Romans 8:13). But how do we put to death something that perhaps seems to us so natural, a state to which our hearts are oft inclined? Here are some of the things we considered Wednesday night:
Take your requests to the Lord. Paul is explicit in Philippians 4:6, as is Peter in I Peter 5:7 - we are to replace anxiety and worry (self-focused responses) with prayer (a God-centered response). Every request represents a legitimate concern, some distressing, troubling, and just plain hard circumstance that overwhelms us, typically something that we are called as stewards to have regard for and pay attention to and care about. We are to cast these cares upon the Lord with all our might, with thanksgiving for God’s provision even in the midst of them, and with submission to God’s sovereign and good plan. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane was greatly distressed and trouble (Mark 14:33) - but He was not anxious, He did not worry. He was not sinning in the Garden, though He was suffering. His distress and trouble were an appropriate response to the agony of the cross that lay before Him, and His fervent prayer and submission was a righteous act of dependence that models for us what we are to do with our cares and concerns. So often, worry replaces prayer, even counterfeits prayer. But God calls us to replace worry with genuine and heartfelt prayer - to throw ourselves upon and into His everlasting arms - for He is the God who daily bears our burdens (Psalm 68:19).
Meditate on God’s word and promises. “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad” (Proverbs 12:25). What word is better than the word of God? God consoles us through His word and promises, and as Psalm 94:19 reminds us, “When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul.” When overwhelmed and attacked by anxiety and panic, speak to yourself the truth of God’s word: that He is near (Philippians 4:5); that He cares for you (I Peter 5:7); that you are of more value than the birds of the sky, whom your heavenly Father feeds (Matthew 6:26); that He has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32); that He knows what we need (Matthew 6:32); that He will freely and sovereignly add to us all things that we need in His perfect timing (Matthew 6:33); that He is wise, sovereign, and good, and can be trusted implicitly.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones has stated our desperate need memorably: “The main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression [and anxiety] in a sense is this, that we allow our self to talk to us instead of talking to our self. Am I just trying to be deliberately paradoxical? Far from it. This is the very essence of wisdom in this matter. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problem of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in Psalm 42] was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself, ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been repressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you’. Do you know what I mean? If you do not, you have but little experience. The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’–what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’–instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet priase Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God’.” (Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures, 20-21).
Not only must we speak the truth to our heart, but we need to put ourselves around people who will speak this truth to us, who will do for and say to us according to Isaiah 35:3-4, “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”
Search your heart for the sin beneath the sin. Lurking beneath the sin of anxiety is a host of other, deeper sins. The sin of fear (of man, of death, of losing a loved one, of sickness, of suffering, of being poor, of being alone, etc.) is so often a root sin of anxiety. Likewise pride - we seek to control what only God can control, and when we are unable to control it, when we are out of control, our heart grows anxious. We assume that we know what is best for us, and when it is best for us. Anxiety flows from a trust in ourselves and our own strength or wisdom rather than the Lord. Is it any wonder then that Peter tells us to humble ourselves just before telling us to cast our cares upon the Lord? Often an idol of comfort lies at the root of our anxiety, or a joyless discontentment or envy that is upset the Lord is not giving us what we we think we deserve, or what others have. Most of all, anxiety flows from an unbelief in the goodness, power, wisdom, and love of God. All these root sins bear the sinful fruit of anxiety, and anxiety feeds and strengthens those roots. As God searches our hearts and knows our anxious thoughts (Psalm 139:23-24), He will till up these deep roots and by His Spirit will enable us to put the Roundup of grace upon them as well.
Focus on what you can and should be concerned with, and leave the rest with God. The opposite extreme from anxiety is apathy, laziness, carelessness. In calling us to put off worry, God is not calling us to put on indifference. Rather, He wants us to be free from the care that is anxiety, so that we can have the care that is righteous and appropriate stewardship. We must pray for our daily bread, but if we do not work, if we do not sow, reap, gather, toil, and spin, then we will not eat (Matthew 6:11, 26, 28; II Thessalonians 3:10-12). We are not to make genuine concerns ultimate concerns, but we are to be concerned with the things God calls us to be concerned with. Whether with regard to our finances, our health, our house, our family, our job, our education, our vehicles, our futures - it it right to do what we need to do, always attending to these things in submission to our chief aim: the kingdom of God, the glory of God, and our glorious Savior Jesus Christ (Matthew 6:33; I Corinthians 10:31; Luke 10:41). Nehemiah 4:9 shows the beautiful twin graces of dependence and diligence: “But we prayed to our God, and because of [our adversaries] we set up a guard against them day and night.” Trust God and keep your powder dry. Be anxious for nothing, but be concerned for all that God calls you to be concerned for. Trust Him, wait on Him, submit to His will. And know that He will cause all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.