Double-Minded Thinking
You must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. . . . Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
James 1:6,8
In the New Testament, the primary words for anxiety are the noun merimna and the verb merimnao. Of the 25 uses, 5 indicate a sense of caring, while the other 20 refer to a distracting, negative sense of worry or dread. In the positive sense, we should feel anxious if we have an important responsibility to fulfill, and it should motivate us to take necessary steps to carry out our responsibility. Most of our anxious thoughts, however, are not profitable and can lead to psychosomatic illnesses.
Worrying doesn’t accomplish anything and won’t prevent something from happening. We are not going to help the plane stay in the air by worrying, and we are not going to improve the odds in our favor by fretting about all that could go wrong. Jesus says, “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 6:27). On the other hand, excessive worrying can take some years off our lives.
Remember that anxiety differs from fear in that fear has an object whereas anxiety doesn’t. We are anxious because our future is uncertain and we don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. This process of worrying can be more debilitating than actually experiencing the negative consequences of what we worried about. In fact, some of us feel relieved to have the anxious “waiting” period over, even if the much worried over “happening” hasn’t turned out the way we wanted.
It is easier for us to live with “what is” than it is to live with “what if.” When we don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow, we are tempted to make assumptions. It seems to be a peculiar trait of our minds to assume the worst. However, nothing good can come from making negative assumptions and then acting on them as though they were facts.
The root of merimna is the verb merizo, which means “to draw in different directions or distract.” When merimna is used as a verb (merimnao), it appears to be a conjunction of merizo and nous, which means mind. That is probably why the translators of the King James Version translated “do not worry” (Matthew 6:25) as “take no thought,” and “why do you worry” (Matthew 6:28) as “why take ye thought.”
To be anxious in a negative sense is to be double-minded, and James says a double-minded person is unstable in all their ways (see James 1:8). This is clearly revealed in Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:24-25: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life.”
When Joshua gave his farewell address, the Israelites had yet to fully possess the land and had many more battles to fight. So Joshua, knowing that his leaving might create uncertainties in their minds, reminded them of how the Lord had delivered them and advised them, “Fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. . . . But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. . . . But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:14-15).
questions to consider:
When is anxiousness a postive feedback? When is it negative?
Why is it easier to deal with what is than what might be?
In what ways does anxiety reveal that we are attempting to serve two masters?
How can you turn a negative state of mind into a positive one?
What kind of assumptions do you naturally make when you are anxious about something?
Neil T. Anderson is the founder of Freedom in Christ Ministries. He began the ministry in 1989 and continues to spread the message of freedom to this day.