ARMED AND READY
FOR 2017
Anxiety can be a debilitating monster. T.S. Eliot once
said that anxiety led to creativity. But if you know anxiety as a disorder, you
know that it inhibits creativity.
Anxiety
is a type of fear. It is the paralyzing “what if” that we think lurks around
the corner. It is the fear that something we dread might come true.
There is
only one solution to anxiety: the assurance that everything is going to be
okay. But the world gives no such assurances. We are reminded constantly of things
we ought to fear by our media. It is no wonder that psychiatrists say that
anxiety is the most common mental disorder they encounter at clinics across the
country.[i]
What do
you feel anxious about? Finances? How can we make ends meet
when prices keeping going up? What if my car breaks down? What if I lose my
job? How will we put our kids through college? Can we save enough for
retirement?
What
about your health? What if I get cancer or Alzheimer’s? What if you become
disabled and have to go to a nursing home? What if you have a heart attack?
What about your aging parents? How will you take care of them?
Are you
anxious about your children? Will they turn out okay? Will they avoid drugs and
sexual immorality? Will they marry a godly partner? Will they have a good
paying job and have a happy home? What kind of world will they live in?
Anxiety
takes these concerns and sends your imagination wheeling through countless
“what ifs” that you really can’t control. And as you stand on “day one” of a
new year how will you face potential anxieties that arise? How will you deal
with the anxieties that come with you from 2016?
As you
and I face 2017, I want to remind you of the biblical perspective on anxiety
beginning with Philippians 4. Paul gives us four words (three commands and a
promise) that can arm you with the right attitude regarding your present and
your future in Christ Jesus.
Be Glad!
The first word that Paul gives in defense against anxiety
is “rejoice.” It is a word that pops up several times in the letter to the
Philippians, which is why we think of it as a letter of “Joy.” Paul is very
emphatic about joy here specifically:
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will
say, rejoice” (4:4). He repeats the command to rejoice giving it a
heightened importance. Rejoice; be glad! And not just when things are going
well – always!
The
context of Paul’s command will seem ironic. He is in prison awaiting the
outcome of his trial. He will likely receive a death sentence. But here he is
exhorting other Christians to rejoice always in all circumstances.
Now Paul
is not asking us to be happy idiots who smile when bad things happen. If your
car does break down inconvenience and cost will not make you happy – it really
shouldn’t. And I don’t think you need to find the silver lining (especially if
there isn’t one).
I read a
story this week about a dad who came home to his very sad four-year-old
daughter. Her pet turtle had died that day and she cried and cried. Nothing her
dad did could console her. She was so sad. Finally, the dad said, “What if we
give your turtle a funeral. We’ll have cake and ice cream and invite all your
friends.” The little girl stopped crying and embraced the idea
enthusiastically. Then…the turtle moved. The little girl quietly said to her
dad, “Let’s kill it.”
The key
to Paul’s command is to rejoice “in the Lord.” The Lord is either the object of
their rejoicing or the grounds for their joy. We do not need to rejoice in our
tragedies, but that the Lord is our God, and that he knows your name.
Rejoicing
is a distinguishing mark and characteristic of the kingdom of God. We rejoice
that God the Son stepped into this dangerous, demonic world, where our best
efforts to ensure safety are ultimately defeated by death. Jesus came into this
world and declared that for every person who believes in him, everything is
going to be ultimately, gloriously, eternally, inexpressibly, wonderfully okay.
Jesus promised us eternal life if we believe in him (John 3:16) and said “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever
believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and
believes in me shall never die” (Jn 11:25-26). And we know this to be true
because he defeated death on the cross and rose again. That is why we can and
must rejoice.
Be Cool!
The second word that Paul gives in defense against anxiety
is “Be cool!” What he actually said was “Let
your reasonableness be known to everyone” (4:5). But I think that “be cool”
has a certain modernity to it.
I need
to explain my term. This is not a reference to the “lukewarm” analogy of
Revelation 3; this is a term that illustrates a state of mind. We don’t want to
be cold – as in “indifferent.” We don’t want to be hot – as in “temperamental”
or “easily angered.” Paul says “be cool bro,’” take the Christian version of
the chill pill. To be cool means to be “even keeled; balanced; chilled in
regards to anxious thoughts.” This reasonableness Paul speaks of comes from a
humble and patient attitude that can submit to injustice and disgrace.
The
secret of this chill attitude comes from the next line: “The Lord is at hand.”
There are two ways of understanding this line, both are correct. The first is
that the Lord is near as in close by; he is able to help because he is near.
Psalm 34:18 says, “The LORD is near to
the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” The second way to
understand the Lord’s nearness is that he is coming soon. Both understandings
aid us in our fight against anxiety. Either we find comfort in our Lord’s
ability to right all wrongs, or we find satisfaction in his second coming when
he will deliver us from all earthly cares. Both encourage cool heads, cool
responses to what we consider potential trouble.
Be Confident!
When I say “be confident” I want you to know what I mean.
I wanted a word that was the antithesis of anxiety (the opposite). There is a
great difference between self-confidence and what has been called
“God-confidence.” In the Bible we are called to be confident in God, not in our
own abilities, or righteousness, or power.
In this
context, Paul urges us “do not be anxious
about anything…” (4:6). We come to the main internal enemy of our hearts
and minds – anxiety itself.
“Do not
be anxious” seems like an impossible command. Jesus taught on the mountainside
“Be anxious for nothing” and made it clear that anxiety stems from a lack of
faith and from a wrong focus on the things of this world instead of on God
(Matt 6:25-34). But the reality is that we find it hard to give up control
(even if we don’t have it) of our circumstances or the circumstances of those
we love.
Anxiety
out-of-control, a mental disorder, can wrap itself around you like powerful,
constricting arms. Your anxieties talk to you. They disguise themselves in our
imaginations. They feel like real scenarios and are emotionally compelling.
More
than a dozen years ago, I battled an anxiety disorder. Every time I stepped
into the pulpit, I felt my lungs seize up in panic. I pushed the words out but
it did not come easy. My imagination told me that I would faint, have a heart
attack or soil myself. Fear grew to paralyzing heights. One writer said “Don’t
talk to your anxieties. Talk to God.”[ii]
He was partly right. I discovered a one-step method that practically cured me
of anxiety. The method says to tell the anxious thought “Go ahead.” Whatever your
imagination conjures up, tell it “Go ahead.” My anxious thoughts never followed
through on their threats.
The part
that the writer got right was to talk to God. In addition to telling my
anxieties off, I “cast them” onto the Lord in prayer. This is the only way we
can fulfill this command to “be anxious for nothing.” “The way to be anxious
about nothing is to be prayerful about everything.”[iii]
Prayer,
supplication and thanksgiving are synonyms for prayer. This triad of nouns for
petitionary prayer emphasizes the importance in the Christian life of placing
great confidence in the Lord Jesus in expectant prayer. We acknowledge our
total dependence on God when we lay out our troubles before him.
In his
sermon on the mount, Jesus is quite blunt about anxiety over food, clothing,
health and wealth. He said that those anxieties are marks of the pagan world
and show a lack of confidence in God’s care for his children. And God does care
for his children. Be confident of that…
And the Peace of God…
There are two critical words in this thought: “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 minds in Christ Jesus.”
Paul’s
third command “do not be anxious” comes with a corrective to anxiety: Prayer.
The contrast is made between anxiety and prayer by the “but.” Don’t do this,
but rather do this – is the sense.
If you
replace anxiety with the act of praying to God about everything, Paul promises
a satisfying result. Here’s the “and” – giving the anxious burdens of your
heart to God will result in peace. “And the peace of God…”
Whether your
petitions are granted or not, God’s amazing peace will stand guard over your
heart and mind. God’s peace is not about answered prayers, but about the work
of God in your life.
God’s
peace can be understood in at least two ways: 1) His peace accomplishes more
than any human effort, therapy, or psychology, and is more effective in
removing anxiety than any reasoning power. 2) God’s peace is completely beyond
the power of human comprehension. Human reasoning only goes so far as we try to
logically quiet the fears we have about our futures. God’s peace effectively
stifles the voice of worry when we submit to the truth that the Lord is near.
Jesus
promised his followers, “Peace I leave
with you; my peace I give you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not
your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (Jn 14:27). The God of
peace is also the God of power, for it is the God of peace who brought back
from the dead our Lord Jesus (Heb 13:20). The peace that Jesus gives us then is
a powerful gift that encompasses our salvation and ultimate victory.
This
peace guards your heart and mind. The heart is the source of our thinking, our
will, our emotions and conscience. The mind is the outflow of the heart in
terms of plans and imaginations. Paul uses the picture of a garrison to
illustrate how strongly God guards our hearts and minds. He places a
battalion-like force over us to ensure our peace through Christ.
But we
must not limit this peace to “feelings” of peace. Paul likely has in mind the
OT sense of peace: shalom. Shalom refers to a wholeness of the fulfilled
person. Feelings can be so fickly and unpredictable. I don’t always feel peace, but I can know peace through the work of Christ in
my life (sounds like an oxymoron but it is true).
Feeling
peace and knowing peace can come together in a moment of prayer. Recently I
faced an anxious situation and every time I went to my knees in prayer I felt
like there was no better place to be, and I knew that God – the God who created
all things – had this thing in his sights. He is in control.
Life gives us plenty of cause for anxiety. But we don’t
have to embrace the anxiety. For four hours David Page held the cylinder,
waiting for rescue or an immediate death. After digging up what appeared to be
an unexploded WWI bomb, Page held on to it, afraid that letting go would
detonate the device.
While
holding the bomb, the terrified 40-year-old from Norfolk, England, called an
emergency operator on his cell phone. He even used the call to issue his last
words for his family. "The woman police operator kept saying it would be
okay," said Page, "but I kept saying to her, ’You’re not the one
holding the bomb.’"
First
responders rushed to the work-yard in eastern England, and army bomb disposal
experts finally arrived. But the drama came to an abrupt end when the
"bomb" was identified. It was part of the hydraulic suspension system
from a Citroen, a popular European car.
There
are times we find ourselves frozen
with irrational fear. We know that the one who is in us is greater than the one
who is in the world, but we forget the strength of our Protector while
clutching our fear. Let it go. It’s
not a bomb, and you’re going to be okay![iv]
Be
glad…Be Cool…Be Confident in the Lord…And the peace of God which surpasses all
understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus!
AMEN
I will face my anxieties in 2017 armed with the attitude
that God’s peace can and will guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
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