Emotions

Anxiety

The jitters, the shakes, that queasy feeling in the stomach, the tension that overtakes you in times of stress—whatever label you give it, it's called anxiety. Even the person who seems the most confident and daring has moments of uneasiness.

The Minirth-Meier book Worry-Free Living, gives this definition: "[Anxiety] is an emotion that a person experiences in the face of a perceived threat or a danger. We say 'perceived' because the danger can be real or imagined.

"If the danger is real, anxiety can serve as a positive warning . . . If the danger is imagined, anxiety is negative baggage that weighs a person down, saps his energy, and leaves him ineffective. In either case, whether the danger is real or imagined, the anxiety and all of its symptoms are absolutely real . . .

"Over a period of time these feelings can burden the body until insomnia, lack of concentration, pain, and other problems result. Sometimes the anxious person senses pending misfortune or disaster and suffers the double dilemma of depression and anxiety because of it."

Think back to a particularly worrisome crisis in your own life. Do you remember the sense of relief you felt after you passed through those circumstances? Your anxiety probably was produced by an unknown in the future, an uncertainty about outcome. However, you need to realize that most of your imagined fears never come to pass.

God did not design you to be anxious or uptight. Your physical system may suffer many consequences when anxiety is prolonged, but more importantly, you suffer in your spirit. Read carefully what Jesus said to the eager crowds as part of the Sermon on the Mount:

". . . [D]o not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?

"Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? . . . Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin . . .

"But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith? . . .

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" (Matthew 6:25-34).

All of us at one time have worried about the basics of life; in fact, when most of our anxieties are reduced to their lowest terms, they all involve fundamental things—where you live, what food you buy, what clothes to wear, what friends you have, what others think about you. In all these concerns, the issue for those who trust Jesus as their Savior is one of trust.

Do you believe that you are the one in charge of your life, or do you acknowledge that God is the One doing the directing and providing along the way? Your answer to this question has everything to do with your anxiety level. In their book Telling Yourself The Truth, William Backus and Marie Chapian explain an underlying cause of this mistrust of God:

"The central theme running through the [error] of anxiety is that what others think about me is of such crucial importance that I must anticipate it in advance of all my actions. I must do all I can in order to prevent others from thinking badly of me . . . It would be terrible.

"Nearly all anxious people believe and tell themselves that they are in danger of other people's reactions to them. These words, like all misbeliefs, are lies from the enemy. While we are certainly glad if others think well of us and love us, we can still live very well if we don't have the affection and approval of other people . . .

"The Bible does not teach us to please everybody on earth. It does not tell us to work overtime trying to get people to love us. Jesus never told us to go out and take a course on how to get people to like us. He told us to love Him, trust Him, have faith in Him, glorify Him, and to genuinely care about others. The price an anxious person pays to please people is too great."

Have you ever watched a mouse running inside a wheel? The faster he runs, the faster the wheel moves, but he doesn't make the slightest progress. He does not even have the mouse-sense to get off the wheel. That is what anxiety does to you. You run faster and faster, trying harder and harder to meet the demands or prevent disaster, and you still do not have control over your circumstances. Something does not go quite right, and the frustration level continues to mount.

There is a way off the wheel, however. God created you. He knows your deepest needs. (Psalm 68:19) He longs for you to end the anxiety cycle and let Him lead. (Matthew 11:28)1 Peter 5:6-7says: "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you."

The word casting here comes from the same Greek verb that is used in Luke 19:35, when the people on Palm Sunday threw their garments onto the colt for Jesus to ride. The motion described is the same, a deliberate action of setting something down and, more importantly, leaving it there. Jesus wants you to throw your cares on Him. They are too heavy for you, and nothing is too much for Jesus.

Notice what comes before the casting, the act of humbling yourself before the Lord. Godly humility is a recognition that you are not self-sufficient. You are dependent on Him for life itself, and the chief way you acknowledge this reliant relationship is by saying, "Here, Jesus. Take my problems. You have the answers. I trust You to show me what to do and to take care of the consequences."

Philippians 4:6-7 gives you this assurance: "Be anxious for nothing, 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 comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

The key is communication with God. When you tell Him what is on your heart, He literally guards your heart with His supernatural peace. The circumstances or problems that stimulate your anxiety may not change; He often chooses to let them remain. Yet at the same time He gives you the peace to go through the difficulty.

Ron Hutchcraft tells about his experience with anxiety in the book Peaceful Living In A Stressful World: "From the first day that I discovered, 'Seek peace and pursue it' (Psalm 34:14)in the Scriptures, I hoped that my life would slow down. It hasn't, but I have . . .

". . . Personal peace is not the elimination of stress . . . In pursuing peace, I am trying to eliminate the stress that I cause and to control that which others cause. What's left is the stress that God Himself either causes or allows . . .

"It's the wrong kind of pressure that can crush or weaken or kill. That is where my 'gerbil-wheel' life had created an overload . . . While the weight is as much as ever, it just doesn't seem as heavy. God may send a load—but never an overload."

What is the anxiety level in your life? Even in the middle of a whirlwind of activity, remember you belong to God. You do not have to be controlled by problems, pressures, and fears. You can trust God with today and tomorrow because you have a promised inheritance of peace in Jesus Christ.