Anxiety comes in many forms. Anxiety can be based on the fear that things won’t work out in your favor. Anxiety tells you to act or it will be too late. It is a presumption that you yourself need to intervene to accomplish the goal or you will suffer the consequences.
But certain forms of anxiety can be a positive thing. For example, a certain degree of anxiety pushes you to study hard for your exam or to practice your guitar for the performance this Sunday morning.
The antidote, however, to some of the more debilitating forms of this anxiety is in fact selflessness and humility. It takes humility not to worry to the point of exhaustion that you are going to make a mistake on your first day at work. After all, “it’s just me. I could be embarrassed, but at the end of the day, if I have done my best and put in sincere effort, then I will leave the consequences of that to the Lord.”
But we do sometimes think so highly of ourselves that this is not always easy. We feel we deserve the best. We are not always willing to fall flat on our face, suffer shame, and keep going. That or we are simply unwilling to submit the high level of our goals to serve the greater purpose of God or to simply serve the betterment of those nearest to us. We want more. And we fear we won’t ever get it.
It actually seems rather common for cynicism to be rooted in this disappointed form of idealism. There are a lot of people who have such perfect standards for their spouse or for their careers that the failure of these things to live up to their standards creates resentment mixed with ongoing surges of anxiety as they try to find a way out or a way through it. There is a daily grind and repeated disappointment that can draw out further anxiety and fear that things will never get right no matter what he or she does. Some people crash and burn when this happens. Anxiety attacks are common.
Perhaps, it isn’t “perfect standards” you have anxiety about, maybe you fear discomfort, pain, or hurt. Maybe you fear cancer or death or pain. And yet, God has placed you in the exact situation in which you are today for the best reasons. He sees the future, and He is already there. He loves you and will not allow you to suffer beyond your ability to bear. In the pain, He will provide the grace you need to bear with any affliction. Don’t “knock on wood.” Just trust the one who already knows the end from the beginning.
Maybe you fear divorce or some kind of shame to your reputation. But do not fear that others think poorly of you. You are spiritually already worse than they think you to be. And yet God knows all your closet skeletons, and He loves you.
Some people fear getting help because they will have to confess, and so they clam up. Humble yourself and confess your problems. God gives mercy to those who are honest about themselves. Proverbs 28:13 says, “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”
By now you have noticed a common theme. Humility and gratitude are the solutions to anxiety and fear. Humility makes us feel that we don’t deserve the best, or look too good, or talk too wise. I am just me! And I know that I am sinful though redeemed, which makes me grateful as well!
We can be so thankful that Jesus became like us by being human. He actually lived a humble life as a stone mason (tekton). He lived for thirty years a very humble existence serving those in His family and community. He was nothing special. But then He took on the role of God’s Messiah and bore the penalty of other people’s hatred all the way to the cross. He bore my sin. He bore yours. Philippians 2 says that He took the form of a servant, and He did not think equality with God a thing to be grasped. He emptied Himself.
My friends, being like Jesus in humility and servanthood as well as exhibiting gratitude are the opposite to anxiety and fear. Take heart because someone like us has overcome the world. He is faithful. He is our friend at a level that no one else could ever be. For this reason, we ought to cast all our cares on Him because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). Paul writes,
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 understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
Philippians 4:6-9 – NKJV
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