We live in a country where anxiety is one of the chief problems facing many people, causing real misery to families and spiralling costs in terms of days off work, medical costs and social disruption. Anxiety is that gnawing worry, not necessarily linked to specific issues or causes. It is like living in permanent fog, living without peace, being unable to relax even for a moment. Nervous energy keeps many people going, but it’s a fuel which comes at the price of mental health and inner peace.
What is the Christian to do about anxiety? How can we follow Paul’s instruction to not be anxious about anything (Phil 4:6) when the slightest decision can bring us out in a cold sweat?
The Bible has a lot to say about anxiety. One of the issues associated with anxiety is helplessness, which leads to lethargy and inertia. People feel helpless about their lives. The Bible reminds us that when we are helpless (which is frequently, if we are honest), God is not. In other words, a trust in God becomes the antidote to the helplessness of anxiety. It doesn’t matter if we can’t solve the problems. God can, and even if He doesn’t, He is there with us to help us through. We don’t have to run the universe (or even our own households) on our own. God is there to help. It’s His job.
Paul’s antidote to anxiety, the reason he can be so cheerfully confident even when in prison, is to bring all our requests to God in prayer. (Phil 4:6-7) Peter tells us to cast our anxiety on God because He cares for us. (1 Pet 5:7) We can live carefree before God because He most certainly cares for us.
Children don’t worry about where the next meal is coming from or how the frazzled parent will buy the Christmas presents they are confidently asking for (or at least, they shouldn’t have to.) That’s not their problem. We too don’t have to carry our problems with us. We can safely leave them with God and marvel then at the miraculous ways He sorts things out.
Anxiety is crippling, debilitating, sorrow-inducing and frankly too heavy a burden for us to bear. Let God daily bear your burdens (Ps 6819, Matt 11:28-30) so you don’t have to.