Anxiety & Knowing God's Ways
Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 1:31
Someone speculated that every decision people make is an attempt to reduce further anxiety. To cope with anxiety, people consume food, alcohol and drugs; have illicit sex; mindlessly repeat mantras; and escape to cabins, boats and lonely places. More prescription drugs are dispensed for the temporary “cure” of anxiety than for any other reason. But when the temporary cures wear off, we have to return to the same world—only now we have the added problem of the negative consequences of the escape mechanisms. Anxiety drains our energy today and dims our hope for tomorrow.
Anxiety arises out of a state of disconnection. Human wisdom, strength and riches cannot comprehend, accomplish or buy the peace that comes from being rightly related to God. The only thing we can boast about is our understanding of God and His ways (see Jeremiah 9:23-24). God has designed us to live a certain way, and living any other way is like swimming upstream in our own strength or succumbing to the current and being swept helplessly along. Having the peace of God regardless of external circumstances is like floating on a pond.
Life is like a factory that has hundreds of gears all intertwined and running together. It runs smoothly as long as the gears are well oiled and perfectly centered. Should one of the gears get a little out-of-round and start taking an elliptical path, it will no longer mesh with the other gears and will quickly wear out. The out-of-place gear not only does damage to itself but also creates friction with those gears closely connected to it. In the same way, we have to stay closely connected to God and to our fellow believers if we are to become the people God wants us to be.
However, we can’t work together as a harmonious whole unless we are Christ-centered and submissive to His ways. We need to discover the God-created harmony and rhythms of life. He is the Master Musician, and we are His orchestra. When we are filled with his Spirit, we will sing and make melody in our hearts to the Lord (see Ephesians 5:19). If each of us follows the Director and plays our part, the music will be a glorious expression of His glory. But if our timing is off, or if we play a different tune, we create an awful noise. To go to the grave with our music still in us would be the greatest tragedy of all.
In the time of Jeremiah, the Israelites were not living in harmony with God. Jeremiah was disgusted with these unfaithful people and wanted to get away from them (see Jeremiah 9:2). They were self-centered and had not followed God’s ways (see verses 13-14). Their attempt to correct their own problems was at best superficial. “They dress the wounds of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace” (8:11).
God never gives bandage-answers to cancerous problems. He said to the people, “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich man boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight” (9:23-24).
questions to consider:
What are some of the temporal cures for anxiety? Why are they ineffective?
Why do we need to be Christ-centered if we want to be anxious-free?
Why does world peace keep alluding us?
To what or whom have you turned when feeling anxious?
How can you become single-minded when feeling anxious?
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.