Be Anxious For Nothing: Jesus Got You (Part 1)

In Paul's letter to the Philippians, he ends with an encouragement to not be anxious about anything.  But instead pray to the Lord, make your request known with thanksgiving. 

Anxiety is the excessive and persistent worry of something. That worry then affects your daily life. This can present as difficulty concentrating. Difficulty in doing our work or studying. It can cause you to push people away and end relationships prematurely. It can sometimes cause people to make impulsive and rash decisions or make no decisions at all. What we call analysis paralysis.

Anxiety is always accompanied by fear. Sometimes other emotions as well such as dread, sadness, hopelessness, and despair. Anxiety can also produce physical pain. Or tension and tightness in your shoulders, chest, nausea, shakiness and racing heart to name a few.  It causes avoidant behaviors and procrastination.  Anxiety affects how one thinks, feels emotionally and physically and how one behaves.

Anxiety can be triggered when there is a feeling of uncertainty. When we are anxious about something there is an element of the unknown there. The worry will come about when we feel uncertain of what is to come. We, people, do not like the unknown, because it feels unsafe.

This is partly why people then become controlling. There is a false belief that if I can control everything, I can then control the outcome and I feel safe in that.  But it is a false sense of safety because it doesn’t work. That person will soon and often find out that there was something they could not control. Something that slipped through the cracks. This then leads to a perpetual cycle of fear and control rather than embracing the unknown.

When walking with the Lord you must learn to embrace the unknown. Because God does not share the entire game plan.  And that is life...period.  We do not know the future so embracing the unknown is one of the ways to peace. God does not tell us everything about our future because we cannot hold all the knowledge he has.  Also, it would be too much for us or ruin the journey in some way.

God will give us what we need to complete the task at hand when we need it.  And there will be a lot you do not know.  But I do not need to know everything because I should be okay knowing that God is taking care of it and of me. I do not need to fear the unknown.

2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Fear does not come from God.  It is a spirit far too often we embrace when we need to rid ourselves of it.  God gives us power.  Power through his son Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Then The Holy spirit will fill you with boldness. In Acts 4: 31, Paul, the disciples and many others were filled with boldness by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gave them this boldness to speak what God wanted them to speak. He also took away their fear.

Acts 4:31 NKJV

And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

Paul had this boldness. Even though he was in circumstances that should elicit anxiety. Despite that, in the letters you still read a sense of peace. Peace to still proclaim the gospel and do the work of the Lord. Through the entire letter Paul tells them about the terrible conditions and circumstances he was in. He speaks of things that would make one think anxiety is valid. He wrote this letter while imprisoned in Rome.  That sounds like a good reason to be anxious. He also spoke of Epaphroditus and others who were risking their lives for the sake of the gospel. That also sounds like a good reason to be anxious.  Philippians Ch 3 verse 2 gives more reasons to worry.  

Philippians 3:2 NKJV

Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!

Although there are legit reasons to be anxious. Before the ending of the letter, Paul encourages the people to be anxious for nothing.  Do not worry about anything.  Some may question and ask if it is possible not to be anxious for nothing. I do think it is possible. As Philippians chapter 4: 13 says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 

We can do all things including not being anxious. Does this mean when something happens you will not worry for a moment or have a reaction. No. Remember, anxiety is persistent worry, continual.  I do believe that in Christ we can learn to live in a state where we are not in a persistent state of worry.   

Critics of the bible may say the bible tells us to not be anxious but does not tell us the how.  But it does.  In so many places. I will go over a few.

But before I do it is important to understand what the opposite of anxiety is. The opposite of worry and anxiety is trust.  When we are anxious, we lack trust. Psychology would say trust in your core strengths and your resilience. Trust in the process, in the discomfort of our anxious emotions and our ability to learn from them.  

Now all those are true. But there is a limit to human strength, knowledge and wisdom.  To have true peace and no anxiety our trust must be in the Lord.

Matthew 6:25-34 NRSV

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life? 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For it is the gentiles who seek all these things, and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

This is one example of Jesus telling us exactly what to do to not be anxious.  Stop worrying about what you will eat, wear, drink and live. Instead seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you.   I can keep my focus on the kingdom trusting that God will take care of the needs I have on this earth.  What you focus on will determine how you think and what makes you anxious. 

If your thoughts are worried about what money is coming in and out of your bank account. Worried about if it is enough. Focusing on all the bills to be paid and other expenses may bring about worry. This is because your focus has a level of uncertainty in it as well. If you were certain that all your bills would get paid, you wouldn’t think about it so hard, right? which would eliminate the anxiety.

When we worry about something so much it is because we are uncertain, not sure if it will work out. However, if my trust is in the Lord I have no need to worry.  Jesus is pretty much saying focus on my kingdom, and I got you.  If I believe in Jesus, then I need to believe what he said and know that Jesus got me.  I don’t need to worry about clothes, food, drink, shelter, my future, career, etc,. My heavenly Father already knows I need these things. And will provide them.

But do we really believe that Jesus got us?