Free from Anxiety

Early in my Christian life, I had several periods of deep and sometimes prolonged anxiety. In each case, someone else pointed me to God and His faithfulness and how to trust Him. In every case, my anxiety ended, and God answered my need.

God cares for us. The more we think about God the way God thinks about Himself, the happier our lives will be. As long as we think of Him according to our accusative thoughts which are not true, we will adjust our lives based upon those lies. We think that God has characteristics that He does not have. We think He is unkind, intolerant, impatient, waiting for us to step out of line so He can swat us. That is not true. He is the opposite: He is kind, faithful, and caring.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matt. 6:25–34).

There are several biblical preventions for anxiety. They are joy, thanksgiving, and casting our anxiety on the Lord. “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice” (Phil. 4:4). If you are rejoicing, you cannot be anxious.

It is possible to rejoice always because God gave us the fruit of the Spirit called joy. That happened when we received Christ. Joy is not related to your environment or to events. That is happiness, and it is circumstantial. Joy is related to a constant—the Lord and His salvation. Because He is constant, your joy in Him can be constant, too.

We see this joy in several Scriptures. The first passage describes a state that would be a strong temptation to anxiety.

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (Hab. 3:17–18). 

“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing” (Zeph. 3:17).

“The seventy-two returned with joy and said, ‘Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.’ He replied, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven’” (Luke 10:17–20).

“In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10).

“Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you” (Psalm 51:12–13). 

What if you cannot rejoice? There is only one biblical reason for losing your joy. It is the chastening of the Lord. “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:11). When you respond to discipline from God, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness, which is joy in the Lord.

Thanksgiving is a means of being free from anxiety. “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:18). This verse tells us to thank God in every circumstance. It is hard to be anxious while you are giving thanks.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:6-7).

Hope is a promise of God. Anxiety is a lie of Satan. The solution for anxiety is to rejoice in the Lord always (Phil. 4:4). It is not possible to be anxious when we are rejoicing in Him.

Excerpted from How to Be Free from Anxiety. To purchase, visit Amazon or ccmbooks.org/bookstore.

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