So, I am in the middle of PCS season - I believe that is the official term.
Basically, it’s the time of year where military families often receive orders to pack up and move to their next base.
That means finding housing, cars, a new vet, a church, and job etc., all while slowly wrapping things up in your current home state.
And since we only received orders a few weeks ago, we have about 1.5 months to make this all happen, and if you know me this is a PERFECT recipe for my dear friend anxiety to make an appearance.
Hellooooo uncomfortable chest tightness
So, there I am working on cleaning my home and getting a few more items checked off our - before we move - checklist, and this song pops up on my Spotify playlist:
Birds by Anna Golden
It is a worship song that seems to be founded on Matthew 6:25 - 34, a verse focused on anxiety - funny how God works. I quieted a bit and paused my cleaning, listening intently to the lyrics.
Verse 1
Birds in the air, they don’t worry
The sun’s never scared that it won’t rise
If all of creation depends on your goodness
Why oh why can’t I?
Chorus
Anxiety is such a human thing
But what do the creatures know about you?
They all know you’re faithful and you’re true
You’ll do everything you said you would do
They all know you’re lovely and you’re just
I know these things but I must
Admit that Im so human sometimes
Everything you’ve done for all of creation
You’ve done it in my life
And it was a bit convicting I won’t lie. She describes this beautiful, natural trust that creation seems to have for its Creator. There is no worry from the birds over where they will find their food during the cold of winter, the sun arises every day according to the Lord not fearing one day He will forget, flowers are not concerned about the timing of their bloom - all of these created things just exist as God intended. Anxiety for the created beings is not natural, for they are able to trust the Creator.
I know realistically they cannot understand the concept of God, have a relationship with Him, or genuinely fear He will walk away. Still, it is man who knows God, understands His goodness, and walks in relationship with Him that allows anxiety to grip their soul.
And in that moment we are essentially looking to God and saying, I know who You are said to be, I have experienced Your works of goodness in my life, I have believed you sent your Son to die for me on a cross because your love for me is so deep, but I do not know that I can trust you with my life, with my future and all the worries that come with it.
Which saying outloud we can identify as silly. We know the Bible stories, we know He can be trusted. But sometimes we forget that God is God, and that God cares for us.
So today we are going to look at some Scriptures surrounding anxiety and use an approach I am stealing from the Breaking Free from Body Shame Bible study by Jess Connolly. With each verse we are going to note what it teaches us about God and how we can live as if the Bible verse is true - because it is.
These Bible verses would also be good to memorize if you are an anxious soul, as Billy Graham once said: “Memorizing the Bible is most important. ‘Thinking God’s thoughts’ will take the place of worried, anxious concerns.” When you really KNOW the Bible and have it hidden in your hearts you are ready for any attack of anxiety against you, no matter how BIG or small.
Philippians 4:6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made know to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
God Moment: Here we find an instruction to Christians - do not be anxious about anything. And maybe to you that seems like a bold and unrealistic statement, but Paul has a very solid support for his claim: Christians have unprecedented access to God the Father and we have a mediator, Jesus, who stands before Him for us, not only as God, but as someone who once walked the earth as a man and deeply understands us. Thus, Paul knows we can approach the throne with confidence as a son or daughter. Like my favorite Timothy Keller said: “The only person who dares was up a king at 3:00AM for a glass of water is a child. We have THAT kind of access.”
The second piece of this verse is the kind of peace we have access to as a child of God.
[1] It is supernatural, being beautiful and powerful in a way that extends far beyond man’s abilities to understand or explain it. It is that steadying, foundational peace that keeps your boat [you] steady when the waves of this world crash and the winds roar.
[2] It guards our hearts. I found a little tidbit of information on the Bible project that kinda blew my mind and increased my understanding of so many Bible passages: in Bible times there was no understanding of the mind in the way we know it to work now. Therefore, many believed that emotions, processing, and many other key functions we now know are from the brain, were in those days, attributed to the heart. Therefore, the heart was seen as something to protect at all costs.
[3] It will guard our hearts and minds, keeping us calm, composed, and safe from sinking under the pressure of needless anxious thoughts.
Application: We see here it is not a suggestion, but a command that we are not anxious or weighed down by the distracting worries of life. Instead, Paul shows us what our first response should be and how we should go about it. We should pray. Yet, our prayer should not only be a request for our anxiety to be managed, but should acknowledge and thank God for His present goodness and mercy - as we should do in every form of prayer that flows from our lips. And this is not because God is not aware of these emotions, or does not already know what is best and working on it behind the scenes, but to show that we are dependent on Him and know Him as our loving, faithful Father.
1 Peter 5:6 - 7 “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.”
God Moment: Here we see three attributes of God: mighty, timely, caring.
Mighty - possessing great and impressive power or strength, especially on account of size
Timely - coming at the right time
Caring - displaying kindness and concern
I don’t know about you but this sounds like a God that I can trust with my future, but to let Him have control, I must first humbly submit my will to His and make space in my life for Him to work unhindered. I must cease striving, and serve. And in doing this MIGHTY God will work powerfully and impressively in my life, always doing what is best in the right time [not when I think is right, but when God of the universe knows it is right], and knowing we will have anxieties as we let go, He promises not to address or obliterate each one, but to care for them and handle them with care in the best way possible - and as His thoughts and ways are higher we can truly know them to be best.
Application: I see here that there are two things to which I must commit.
[1] I must wake up daily and before even stepping out of bed learn to say AND mean “Your will be done, Lord.” This requires me to submit fully to Him, recognizing He is God and I am not, thus releasing my incessant need to control. I must go before Him with every decision, asking for wisdom, discernment, and direction. I must truly be willing to lay down everything I had planned at my feet and allow Him to decide what comes next.
[2] I must cast all of my anxieties on Him - ALL OF THEM. Which, could be concerning because I am incredibly anxious, and that is a lot of anxiety that need to be casted. However, we also serve a big God who is not only able to carry them all, but to hear them, care for them, and address them in His good way and His good timing.
Hebrews 13:6 “So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’”
**In the previous verses the author offers instruction for Christian living and notes our ability to be content and trust God will provide what we need.
God Moment: God is not independent and set apart from His people. He is a near God, and a present God, and He assists and aids us over the course of our lives in many different ways. All that God is, He is in our lives. All that God does, He is able to do in our lives. We have GOD on our side - do you realize how much power is in that statement?! God is our God, and He is our Helper.
Application: We can have unbridled confidence in the face of our fears because we know that God is on our side and He is undoubtedly for us. Therefore, even if the enemy or man does their worst - taking even our life - there is no reason to fear, for we have a God who has defeated even death itself and our death only means we enter finally into our true home, into eternity with Him. An eternal perspective and placing our fears in the context of our God really does change things.
2 Timothy 1:7 “For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self- control.”
God Moment: Here we see the reality that God, in His goodness, did not leave us on earth alone, but gifted us the Holy Spirit, which is God in us, to assist us through our time on earth. And the fruit of the Spirit [we learn in Galatians] is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness, and self-control. Not that we get these things immediately upon His entrance to our lives, but that He helps guide, instruct, and teach us in the ways of God.
Application: Here Timothy is facing a situation which has brought out fear and timidity, but Paul seeks to remind Him that this emotion is not from God. God does not give us a spirit of fear. So, we can be confident that these anxious emotions can safely be dismissed - because if it is not from God we don’t want it. Instead, Paul reminds Timothy and us is from God:
[1] Power - This power is not of our own doing and does not originate from weak man. It is the power of God that works in our lives, the power God allows us to access as we work to serve and further His kingdom.
[2] Love - A staple of the Christian life is love. Not a superficial conditional love, but a love that looks past mistakes, a love that goes deep, a love that exists unconditionally, a love for those both deserving and undeserving - a love like God’s.
[3] Sound Mind - We have an ability to control our sin nature, to control our unruly appetites, to control our fear, by God’s grace.
And these are things God has given us, we just need to receive them and learn to walk in them daily because our boldness matters.
Matthew 6: 25-34 [also echoed in Luke 12:24-34] “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.”
God Moment: After learning we have two options in life - serving either God or man - we come across this passage that shows we, being eternal beings of the Kingdom of God, should not have anxiety over earthly things. The argument for this: God cares deeply for the birds, providing them food in the midst of winter. God cares even for the grass of the field and its flowers, allowing them to grow in perfect timing without worry or strain. So, if He takes care of these which He did not create in His very image, did not die for because of His great love, does not seek relationship with through relentless loving pursuit, and does not fight to save - will He not take care of us? As Christinas we know our God, we know we were made for more, we know we belong to His heavenly kingdom - and we can know based on simply observing nature that it is not natural to worry because like nature we can instinctually know that God knows what He needs and He will take care of us.
Application: Again we see the emphasis of an eternal perspective - we should not be caught up in concerns of this world as we belong to an eternal kingdom and we have eternal matters to pursue. When we get these things right, when we order our priorities rightly with God first, we naturally begin to not worry so much about material things as they pale in comparison. Additionally, we are called to NOT worry about these things as the rest of the world does for we have been set apart and have a God that we KNOW cares for us. A God who has proven His care time and time again. And when we finally learn to rest in Him, we will have all we need, because we have God. In conclusion we learn that if we must worry we should only worry for today because the future is entirely out of our control, but in doing so we should remember the truth that we are adding nothing to our lives. Nothing at all.
Matthew 10: 29 - 31 “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them falls to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So do not be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows.”
God Moment: Since we discussed a similar passage above I won’t continue to repeat the message in detail, but again we see that there is no need to fear - here specifically Jesus’ speaks to the disciples in terms of spreading the gospel - because God truly cares deeply… DEEPLY… for us down to the tiniest of details. He truly did create us with intention and purpose. We can then know He will care for our needs, because He knows us better than we even know ourselves. Do you know the number of hairs on your head?
Application: Rest. We can rest in God, not fearing man or material things, because God’s care for us is deep and He will always provide. This is a guarantee - even if you sometimes can’t see it or feel it.
John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
**Here we see Jesus give the disciples reassurance though one was just outed as a traitor. Though Jesus will be leaving soon, He promises a Helper, the Holy Spirit, who will teach and bring remembrance to all God has said.
God Moment: In Jewish culture leaving or saying goodbye with wishes of peace was common and customary, here Jesus takes this meaning and adds to it. He offers them peace, but not as the world does - which makes sense as He is not of this world. Jesus’ peace is a real, true, steadfast peace. Not a peace based on circumstances or deliberate ignorance of a problem.
Application: Though we are not promised a life without troubles, we have a God who can untrouble our heart even amidst troubles, if we only reach out and receive through prayer, submission, and ultimately faith that our God has got us, and with Him our present and future are secure.
I hope this helped remind your anxious heart about who God is [it is a reminder I need often, as I too quickly forget], and I pray that we will in time develop a beautiful, natural dependence and trust in our Creator that allows us to simply exist, relying on our faithful, lovely, just, and true God, free from the clutches of anxiety at last [at least as much as we can while still living in a fallen world and hoping for the perfection of heaven].
*** Disclaimer: This post is NOT saying that you should only approach anxiety from a spiritual perspective and should forsake the medical and scientific side of things. I believe that many of the techniques taught to us by medical professionals or tactics used are valid and do work - I have personally experienced their effects myself with great results. I also believe that medication does have its place in mental health, and have used medications previously to help cope with anxiety during mealtimes as I recovered from an eating disorder, and then again as I balanced PA school and planning a wedding. I never used the medications to eliminate my emotions, but to bring them down from an extreme to a manageable level until I could learn to healthily cope with them and wean off the medications. However, some people do require longer term medication use AND THAT IS OKAY! Mental health is so important, and so impactful, and you need to do what is necessary to take care of yourself. Please just don’t forget that you are also a spiritual being and your should needs to be taken care of too.