Be Anxious For Nothing

God has a plan for helping us deal with anxiety. The following transcript is from a message by Max Lucado, as heard on 93.7 The Light’s “Life Together” with Jim Smith.

Sound familiar?

It’s 2:30 in the morning, and you cannot sleep; you roll from one side to the other; pound your pillow; nothing helps. Everyone else sleeps. Your spouse has entered the world of dreamland; your dog is curled up in a lump at the end of your bed. Everyone else sleeps, but not you. It’s 2:30 in the morning. In 6 hours, you begin a new job, a new chapter, a new season, a new era of life. You will be the rookie on the sales team and you’re wondering if you made the right decision- after all, the hours are going to be long, the competition severe, the economy is threatening to decline. Besides, you’re 23 years old, right out of college; 33 years old with 2 kids and a family to take care of; 43 years old and the latest victim of lay-offs; 53 years old- not the perfect time to begin a new career; 63 years old…what happened to retirement and time with the grandkids? Regardless of the age, anxiety can come like a tornado through a Texas prairie, sucking every final vestige of hope out into the sky. So, it’s 2:30 in the morning, it becomes 3:30 and you still haven’t slept. The only light in the room is the green light that comes from the clock. The only light in your life, indeed. All of a sudden a new strain of worry enters your mind. You feel a twitch in the back of your neck. Oh, no! It’s a tumor! Just like great-grandpa….I knew I was next in line! I knew my time was coming. Will the insurance kick in soon enough to cover chemotherapy? Who’s going to take care of the kids? And anxiety begins to have its way with you. Another hour passes, you cover your head with your pillow. You feel like crying…what a mess. What does all this anxiety mean? All this insecurity, all this trepidation, all this worry, all this restlessness, what does it mean? Well, it simply means this: you are a human being. You’re not stupid; you’re not emotionally underdeveloped; you’re not immature; your parents didn’t fail you; it doesn’t mean you failed them; and, this is important, it doesn’t mean you’re not a Christian. Christians battle anxiety- Jesus did, for Heaven’s sake. In the Garden of Gethsemane, on the night before His crucifixion, He prayed for the cup of suffering to be taken away from Him, and He prayed with such ferocity that the capillaries burst, and rivulets of crimson rolled down His face. Jesus battled anxiety. He faced fears, but He fought through His fears and surrendered them to God and fulfilled His mission. Anxiety did not win. And such is God’s plan for you. Anxiety comes with life but it doesn’t have to dominate your life. God’s plan for you is not a life that is drenched in anxiety. It is His will that you and I learn to live a life that is characterized by calm and not chaos; by peace and not panic. There’s a pathway out of the valley of fret, and God has used the apostle Paul to sketch the map.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. 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.

Philippians 4.4-8 NKJV

A person would be hard pressed to find a passage more practical and more applicable to our day and age, wouldn’t you agree? The land of the stars and stripes has become the land of stress and strife. We are now officially the most anxious nation on the planet. This is the most anxious nation since anxiety has been measured. How can this be? Our cars are safer than ever. We have more technological tools, more than our great-grandparents or grandparents could have ever dreamed of. And yet, citizens of third world countries score healthier on the anxiety meter than we do. In fact, when people from third world countries move to the United States, their anxiety spikes! It is as if anxiety is contagious. One of the calmest nations of the world is one we would assume is one of the most stress-filled, and that is Mexico. And yet across the border, we, who pride ourselves in not having what Mexico sometimes has, the nation that battles with anxiety…it’s enough to make me want to move to Acapulco! How do we explain it? What’s more, our college kids are feeling it as well. A recent study of 200,000 incoming freshmen stated “students reported all time lows in overall mental health and emotional stability.” One psychologist said the average child today exhibits the same level of anxiety as the average psychiatric patient of the 1950s. Kids have more toys, more opportunities, more clothing than ever, but by the time they go to college, they’re wrapped tighter than Egyptian mummies. We’re a mess. A doctor received a patient, the patient said “Doc, I have a problem. Last night I dreamt I was a pup tent, the night before I dreamt I was a teepee. What’s wrong with me?” The doctor said “Oh, that’s easy. You’re two tents.”

We are tense and we pay a price for it. 

One doctor friend told me “To see the consequences of anxiety just read half the ailments in a medical textbook.” The psalmist said “do not fret, it only causes harm.” Harm where? Harm to our necks, to our jaws, to our backs, to our bowels…anxiety can twist us into emotional pretzels. It can make our eyes twitch, our blood pressure rise, our heads ache, and our armpits sweat. Anxiety ain’t fun! What can we do? Let me be clear- I do not want to leave the impression that anxiety can be waved away with one sermon, one book, or one season. For some of you, anxiety is THE challenge of life, and it has been. Part of God’s healing for you might very well include professional help- therapy, a counselor, a physician, some medication- and if that is the case, you are not a second-class citizen. God has healing, and sometimes that comes through professional help. All of us, however, could benefit from a healthy dose of Philippians 4.4-8. Right in the center of this passage, the Apostle says “be anxious for nothing.” I would have been happy he had said “be anxious on Thursdays,” or “be anxious on occasion,” or “be anxious only on tough days.” Can somebody really live a life in which they’re anxious for nothing? On occasion, it’s helpful for us to remember that sometimes the Bible uses Greek tense language that helps us understand what the Apostle meant. In this case, the phrase is written in an present active tense, which implies an ongoing state, which could lead us to translate the passage as “do not let yourself be caught in a state of perpetual anxiety.” That’s what he’s saying. It’s impossible to live a life free from anxiety, but we can discover a life that is void of perpetual anxiety. Anxiety comes with life, but it does not have to dominate our lives.

In the next part of this series, Max Lucado gives practical and timely advice on how to deal with worry and anxiety in our lives. Thanks for reading!