The Truth About Anxiety: Finding Peace in a Broken World

I was 13 months old when my mother, my older brother, my twin sister, and I were out on our daily walk. It was an average, unassuming morning until we were struck by a negligent driver carrying a tractor trailer full of concrete. My siblings and I were left lodged upside down in a ditch, battered and bruised in our stroller. My mother was killed instantly after taking the brunt of the force to protect us. This horrible tragedy changed the way my young mind processed the world and set my life on a trajectory that would forever be underscored by one word: anxiety.

Whether you have experienced trauma, navigated the storms of grief, lived with a diagnosis or chemical imbalance, or looked ahead to something worrisome, we have all experienced anxiety in one form or another. In all its forms, be they clinical or purely emotional, anxiety has a way of placing deep roots into every area of our lives if we are not careful to address it. However, this is much easier for us to say than to actually do. So, the question is, “How can we be free from our anxiety?”

What is Anxiety?
First, we must address a common misconception. Anxiety is not the same as fear. Fear is a short-term, distressing emotion that acts as a natural response to an imminent or pressing danger. Anxiety, on the other hand, is less predictable. The American Psychological Association defines anxiety as “an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes like increased blood pressure…it is considered a future-oriented, long-acting response broadly focused on a diffuse threat”. In other words, it is often a persistent sense of worry or dread about the future, particularly about things that are outside of our control. Anxiety has a wide array of physical and emotional manifestations that can be different for everyone. However, one thing is for certain. Anxiety is not something we can afford to take lightly because God takes it seriously.


What the Bible Does NOT Say
Before we go any further, I feel the need to address what the Bible does not say about this sensitive topic. It is imperative for us to understand that there is a common grace for things like medication, therapy and counseling, or even holistic care. You are not less of a Christian or more disappointing to God if you need to utilize these resources for the sake of your mental health and overall well-being. These things are gifts from God, provided for us from the hands and minds of people that He created with a purpose. For example, we would never tell a brother or sister that they did not have enough faith if they used a sling to heal a broken wrist. In the same way, we need to stop the harmful narrative and incomplete theology that is evident when we condemn people who need physical solutions for their anxiety.

In my case, I have been saved since I was five years old. I have always attended church regularly and served in a variety of ministries. I have led small groups, studied the Bible extensively, prayed as a daily practice, and tried to make worship the aim of my life. Heck, I am even married to a minister! However, despite all of these things, I still deal with the heavy burden of anxiety due to the traumas I have experienced. As a young Christian, I struggled with this constantly. Since I was “doing all of the right things”, I thought that I should be able to muster up enough faith within myself to overcome my problem. I believed that if I just prayed hard enough or served faithfully enough or knew enough about the character and heart of God, then I would be cured. When it ultimately did not work, I spiraled into feelings of failure and worthlessness. I would ask myself, “Am I a defective Christian?” “Do these feelings make me a fraud?” “Is God angry with me for still struggling this way?” However, over time, the crux of the matter became abundantly clear. All of my strategies for overcoming my anxiety were focused on my abilities and my strengths rather than God’s perfect sovereignty.

But how do we reconcile this truth with the teachings on anxiety in the Bible? After all, Scripture does teach that anxiety–or worry–is caused by a lack of faith. However, I would wager that this is not the same “anxiety” that doctors clinically diagnose. When Jesus teaches in Matthew 6 about worry, I believe he is addressing the kind of worry that we consciously know is rooted in sin and therefore can be healed by a commitment to repentance. It is important to differentiate between these two types of “anxiety” to bring hope and deliverance to Christians who rightly desire to repent of their sin but also need to seek the benefits of medicine or treatment to preserve their mental health.

It is also important to note that medication cannot cure unbelief or worry. The only solution for that kind of heart issue in our fallen world is faith. Medication is merely a conduit through which God sometimes lessens the severity of certain uncontrollable physiological or psychological symptoms when they go beyond the scope of our volition. With that being said, I have experienced and still do experience both of these kinds of anxiety. So, what does the Bible tell us about the kind of anxiety that we can control? It all boils down to where we find our ultimate security.

Where Do We Place Our Hope?
For many of us in our present-day American society, we live in one of the most prosperous and “secure” ages the world has ever seen. Even if we do not make over $100,000 a year (I certainly don’t as a teacher!), we have access to things that our fellow Christians in the early church could never have imagined. We have cars to take us to work, grocery stores with hundreds of options for the same product, access to medical care, choices for education, and a Constitution that provides us with basic human rights. These are all wonderful blessings from the Lord, but there is a flip side to this prosperity. It often causes us to fall for the lie that our lives belong to us and that we are in charge of our futures. 
Some of us knowingly or even unknowingly place our hope in a 401K or retirement plan, a premium health insurance policy, the clout that comes with a degree, the safety of a superior job title, or a belief in the policies and leaders of our nation. Others of us place our hope in a Godly marriage, the legacy of our children, our personal accomplishments, or any number of other things that tend to take the place of God in our hearts.

Matthew 6: 19-21 tackles this sinful tendency head on when Jesus says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Treasures on earth are easy enough to understand, but what are these treasures in heaven? Simply stated, being rich in heaven means to be rich in God. Treasuring God, in the fullness of His supreme nature and worthiness, is the key to breaking our addiction to worldly items and ideologies. 
Furthermore, this joyful pursuit of God and radical freedom does not come from our own works or strength, but by the Holy Spirit who the Father uses to conform us to the image of His glorious Son as we walk in obedience to Him (Romans 8). We can only properly understand the rest of Matthew 6 when we view it in light of its full context. In fact, when we see the “Therefore” in verse 25, we should ask, “What is the therefore there for?” and go back to read the chapter in its entirety. We can obey Jesus’s call to “Do not be anxious…” because He has already completed the work to become our ultimate security. Revelation 1 echoes the heart of Matthew 6 when Christ, in His resurrected form, implores the apostle John (and us!) saying, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

He holds the keys! He is the source of our hope and our healing! Amen and Amen!
The end of Matthew 6, especially verse 33, sums up the solution and the action steps we can take when we experience the forms of worry or anxiety that call us to repentance. Jesus says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” So when our feelings of doubt, worry, or anxiety begin to fester in us once again, we can preach the Gospel to ourselves and ask, “Am I seeking the kingdom first in this situation?” “Is God and His righteousness at the forefront of my mind and the epicenter of my heart?” If our answer to these questions is “Yes”, then we can let these feelings roll through us and choose to embrace His peace instead.


A Steady God in a Fickle World
If you are currently struggling with a season of anxiety, please know that you are not alone. It is important to remember that the Christian walk and the process of sanctification does not take place overnight. Instead, like Pastor Michael so often says, it is “a long obedience in the same direction”. Whether the Lord is calling you to repent of a sinful worry, reach out for help from a Biblical mentor or counselor, schedule a doctor’s appointment for your mental health, or even get honest and vulnerable with a trusted loved one, I urge you to respond and embrace the steady hand of God in our often dark, unpredictable, and fickle world.

 I am cheering you on in faith and praying with and for you the words of the apostle Paul to the Philippians when he wrote, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:4-7).