Anxiety is a serious issue in most people’s lives. We have much to worry about in modern life, from paying the bills and raising our kids to dealing with various requirements the government places upon us. But while worry and anxiety are often used as synonyms, they are actually two different things. Worry is focused on a specific problem, seeking a solution. Anxiety, on the other hand, is unspecified and persistent, yet makes it hard for us to focus on the things we need to. While they are different things, the Bible’s solution for both is the same.
Surprisingly, the Bible actually has very little to say about anxiety, with the word only showing up seven times. That’s not to say that the Bible ignores the subject though. The Bible uses the opposite of anxiety 369 times. The word for that condition is “peace.” God isn’t focused on the problem of anxiety, but rather is focused on us having peace in Him.
Granted, that’s a very difficult thing for many of us to do. We are accustomed to dealing with our problems ourselves, even if the needed solution is beyond our capabilities. We continue worrying, allowing our thoughts to spin round and round, like a hamster on a wheel, in the hopes that we will eventually seek the solution we’re looking for. Worry is literally thinking about a problem, over and over again, seeking the answer to that problem. We worry, because we feel it is up to us to come up with that solution.
Put simply, if we have enough faith in God, then we don’t have reason to be worried. On the other hand, if we find ourselves worried, it shows us that we aren’t operating in faith. The two are tied together, as if by a string. Worry and anxiety can be said to be a crisis of faith, because our faith is not operating.
So, Let’s Talk Faith
Faith is one of those biblical principles that people think they understand, without really understanding it. Part of that is the way it has been taught. The “Word of Faith” movement that happened in the 70s and 80s attempted to do something about this, but mostly ended up teaching people to have faith in their faith, rather than faith in God. Faith was a spiritual tool to be used, to get God to do what you wanted. Mostly that meant to give you things that you wanted.
The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is known as the “hall of faith,” because it talks about some of the great heroes of the faith, specifically in the Old Testament. But when we look at the examples of faith spelled out in that chapter, they don’t talk about getting a new car or a bigger house. Rather, they talk about how those people used their faith to obey God. This makes it seem that the Bible has a much different idea of what faith is, than what has been taught in the modern church.
One of the many interesting things about the examples of faith given in Hebrews, chapter 11, is that many of those who are talked about didn’t see the manifestation of what they were believing for, as it did not happen in their lifetime. Yet that didn’t apparently dampen their faith. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah and more died believing, earning themselves a place in biblical history.
That’s the key to faith… believing. As the chapter starts out by telling us:
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. – Hebrews 11:1
But just what does that mean, in a practical way? It means that when God tells us something in His Word, we believe it. Then, because we believe it, we put action to that belief, acting as if it is already done.
God told Abraham that he would be the “father of many nations” (Genesis 17:5) and Abraham believed Him. That’s why, when God told him to offer his son Isaac on the altar (Genesis 22:2), Abraham didn’t hesitate, but rose “early in the morning” to do what God had commanded. He probably didn’t fully understand why God told him to offer his son, but he had faith and obeyed.
By faith Abrham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” 19 concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. – Hebrews 11:17-19
The Bible doesn’t actually say if Abraham was worried about offering Isaac on the altar; it just tells us that he did. However, here in Hebrews it appears that he had thought it through and made a decision to trust and obey God, “concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead.”
Abraham had a promise from God and that was enough for him. He understood that one way or another, God was going to take care of fulfilling His promise, even if it defied human logic. His faith in God was bigger than his understanding of the problem.
Our Faith
Many of us struggle with our own faith, which adds to our worry. Part of that is that we are accustomed to solving our own problems. But that’s not all there is to it. As we can see from the story about Abraham offering Isaac on the altar, the starting point of Abraham’s faith was that he heard from God and understood what God said about the situation. It is more or less impossible to have faith in God, if we don’t know and understand what He has said about it. This is why Paul wrote in the book of Romans:
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. – Romans 10:17
We must know what God has to say about any subject, before we can have faith. Yet most Christians are poor students of the Bible, spending little time reading it and even less time studying it. How can we expect to know what God says about healing, for example, if we never bother to seek out those verses in the Bible and study them, gaining revelation about what they mean?
Granted, we have much more to study than Abraham did; but we also have much more we can count on God for. God never fully revealed Himself to Abraham, nor told him all that being in covenant with the Creator of the Universe meant. Even so, Abraham’s faith put ours to shame.
The more we know, the more faith we can have in God. That means that it is imperative that we learn what the Bible has to say about a host of subjects. It is only when we know what God has to say about a specific subject, that we can truly have faith.
The second part of what Abraham did was make a decision to trust and believe God. That may sound rather simplistic, but it is nonetheless true. Knowing something, having head knowledge of it, isn’t enough. We have to take action on that knowledge. That means deciding that we will do what that knowledge requires.
In the book of Acts, Peter and John were used as instruments of God in the healing of a lame man. This man was laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those entering the temple” (Acts 3:2). Seeing Peter and John, who had gone to the temple to pray, he asked them for alms. This was normal in the Jewish culture, as the Jewish people were very generous in giving to the poor, especially those, like this man, who had no other means of support.
Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” 7 And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8 So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them – walking, leaping, and praising God. – Acts 3:6-8
Notice that it was when Peter took him by the hand and lifted him up, that his feet and ankles were healed; not before. It wasn’t just the statement that Peter made, but the action which accompanied it; both on Peter’s part and on the paralytics. We see in verse seven that Peter only took him by the right hand, so he could not have fully lifted the man to his feet that way. Obviously, the man had to take action as well. That action put action to his faith and brought about his miracle.
Faith and Worry
God expects us to operate in faith, relying on Him and our understanding of His Word.
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. – Hebrews 11:6
Our first step in this process, as we discussed in the last section, is understanding what God says about a particular subject. Once we have that understanding, we need to decide to believe what He says. Don’t just take that as being something which happens automatically. There are many people in the church who can quote all sorts of verses talking about their particular problem; but don’t really believe that God will do that for them. Oh, they believe that those verses are true; they just don’t believe that God will fulfill that problem for them… for someone else maybe, but not for them.
It’s easier to believe for someone else, than it is to believe for ourselves. That’s mostly because we don’t believe that we deserve God’s blessings. Let’s simplify that. We don’t deserve them; none of us do. Yet God chooses to bless us anyway, if we’ll just get out of the way and allow Him to do so. That’s God’s grace in action in our lives. We don’t deserve it, but He blesses us anyway. There’s a huge difference between believing that God can and knowing that He will.
As long as we are worrying, we are not operating in faith. It is impossible to do both at the same time. Worry is out belief that we can handle the problem, finding the solution without God’s help. Faith on the other hand, is belief that God can handle the problem, without our help.
Here’s the clincher though; as long as we are worrying about the problem, we are preventing God from doing anything about it. God operates in response to our faith, and as I’ve already said, when we are worrying, we’re not exercising our faith.
This was brought home to me a number of years ago, when I was going through a particularly difficult time. I was worried about our finances and trying to figure out how to solve the problem, at the same time I was praying about it. The answer I received to my prayer was to fast, which I did, setting out on a 14 day fast. That fast didn’t change God, but it changed me, allowing me to leave the problem in God’s hands. Once I did that, He was able to solve my problem.
We are told “Cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). In other words, give those cares to God. But here’s the problem… We give those problems to God and then find ourselves taking them right back again. How do we know that we’ve taken them back again? Because we find ourselves worrying about the problem again, just like we were before.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God – Philippians 4:6
Notice that there are three things called for in that verse: prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving. The only prayer that many people know is that of supplication; asking God for things. But Jesus taught us, “Your Father knows the things you need before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8). So, asking God for things should not be the focus of our prayer. Rather, based upon the example Jesus gave us in the Lord’s Prayer, the focus should be on praise and thanksgiving. Any and all supplication needs to be surrounded by prayer of thanksgiving and praise; for it is through those that we express both our love for God and our faith in Him.
The thing that I learned during that fast, was to put the problem in God’s hands and leave it there. That wasn’t easy. My tendency was to take it back again. So, what do we do then? We give it back to God again. I don’t care if it takes giving the same problem to God 50 or 100 times a day, eventually our minds will learn and we will become more and more successful in leaving that problem in His hands.
Besides the answers that come when we leave problems in God’s hands, we also find ourselves with much less worry. Rather than living in anxiety, we find ourselves living in the opposite, God’s peace.
Peace
When we truly cast our cares upon the Lord, we receive peace. This should be the normal state of the believer, showing us that we are truly operating in faith, turning our problems over to God and trusting Him to take care of them. Please note that peace isn’t the absence of problems or conflict in our lives; rather, it is something that should transcend those problems. If our peace is dependent on our circumstances, then it is the world’s peace, not the Lord’s peace.
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. – John 14:27
If we are going to have the sort of peace that Jesus is offering here, we need to stop walking according to the world’s ways and start walking in the Spirit. The more fully we can walk in the Spirit, the more peace we can have.
Part of this means that we need to focus on heavenly things, rather than earthly ones. As long as we are focused on the things of this world, there will be plenty to bother us. But when our eyes are fixed on heavenly things, the things of this world have much less influence on us. Just as Paul did, we are able to be much more content, regardless of our circumstances. Content people don’t worry.
Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. – Philippians 4:11-12
Aren’t our worries and anxiety closely connected to things that we think we need or at least want? Yet as we already discovered, God knows what we need, before we ask. Ask yourself this question: Just how important will that thing you are worrying about today, be in 100 years?
God is capable of giving us something that the scriptures refer to as “great peace” or “peace that surpasses all understanding.” We find the secret to that peace just a few verses before the verse listed above. There’s actually a process given to us to get that peace. Most people miss it, but it is clearly laid out.
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace that surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brethren, whatever things be true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of a good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things. – Philippians 4:4-8
Ok, let’s look at what those verses say:
- Rejoice – if we want peace we must learn to rejoice, praising the Lord.
- Rejoice some more – there’s no such thing as praising the Lord too much.
- Be moderate – being moderate eliminates a lot of stress and worries, which come from trying to have more or better stuff than the next guy.
- Eliminate care and worry – if we are rejoicing and moderate in our desires, that will eliminate much of our care and worry; but we can get rid of more of it by casting what remains on the Lord.
- Prayer of petition or supplication – this is where we give the problem over to the Lord. Remember to leave it in His hands, rather than taking it back and worrying about it more.
- Give thanks – We don’t need to wait until we see the answer to begin giving thanks; in fact, we shouldn’t. If we are operating by faith, we can give thanks before we see the answer manifest before our eyes, because we know that God has answered our prayer.
- Finally, it tells us in verse 8, after the peace has arrived, to keep our thoughts on good things, rather than the bad. That’s so that we don’t lose the peace that we’ve received.
We see a perfect example of this in the Old Testament, when the King of Assyria laid siege to Jerusalem. The Assyrian general ranted against Judea, threatening them and sending a letter to King Hezekiah. What did Hezekiah do with that letter? He took it into the house of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord, giving the problem to the Lord.
And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. 15 Then Hezekiah prayed to the Lord… – Isaiah 37:14-15 and more
After the king had prayed, the prophet Isaiah sent a message to Hezekiah, telling him that God had taken the problem unto himself, seeing the letter as an insult against Him, rather than against the people of Judah. So, God sent an angel, just one, who killed 185,000 of the soldiers in the Assyrian army, causing the king of Assyria to turn tail and return to Nineveh.
That’s how it works when we put our problems in God’s hands. Obviously, King Hezekiah understood this, turning the problem over to the Lord immediately, rather than worrying about it. He knew he didn’t have the military might to take care of this enemy and he knew who did. Rather than waiting, he laid the problem out before God as soon as possible, keeping his peace, rather than allowing the anxiety that wanted to take over his heart to have a foothold. And because he gave the problem to God, it was God who took care of it.
True peace, the kind that occupies our hearts, is the proof that we are operating in faith, turning the problem over to God, rather than allowing the problem to bring worry and anxiety into our lives. We can use it as a measuring rod, a means of checking our hearts and seeing if we really are operating in faith.