You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
Isaiah 26:3-4
LEARN
The bible commands us to not be anxious about anything, so why do so many people seem overcome by their anxiety? I do believe some people are predisposed to anxiety (like myself), just as some alcoholics have stronger tendencies for addictive behaviors. However, I reached a point in my adult life where I became so used to being anxious I started to believe anxiety wasn’t something to overcome, but something to accept and learn to live with. What I didn’t understand was that having an inclination towards some behavior and acknowledging a weakness was different than being defined by that weakness - and that’s what I did. In any given day I could count at least a dozen times where I would have anxiety about something. For me, it was easier to give into the pull of anxiety then go to war against it. I began to let my anxiety define me, because I accepted it as just a part of who I was. It wasn’t until I read an article from Timothy Keller talking about going to war with our anxiety that I realized my anxiety was controlling me. I looked at my anxiety as a state of being, not a fallen state that God had the power to overcome. Once I started looking at my anxiety as something to overcome, I saw that I wasn’t just an anxious person, I was a person deliberately not trusting Christ.
In our society I see this happening a lot; instead of people being overcome by their struggle with their anxiety, they choose to accept their struggle and define themselves by it. It is a false empowerment. Being an empowered anxious person is a lie, just as being an empowered transgendered person is. We are both trapped in an identity that is not just unhealthy, but is causing us harm. This empowerment is just a facade from owning the fact that we have let “it” overcome us, whatever the “it” is in our lives that we don’t feel like we can control. We do this because we want to feel that we still have power, and so we end up telling people they need to not only accept us as we are but also accept themselves because it makes us feel more normal. It is nice for an alcoholic to have a drinking buddy that accepts his harmful behavior, just like it is nice to accept other anxious people's behavior because we relate to it.
The definition of anxiety is- a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome. Each time I was anxious I was choosing to be defined by uncertainty and worry. The bible makes it clear there are no uncertain outcomes in our lives that God doesn’t have control over. Our life circumstances might be uncertain from our perspective, but our ultimate security in being with God now and for eternity is always secure from God's perspective. We do not need to base our ultimate security off our temporary situation, because it is fleeting. All we need to do is persevere and trust.
The God of the bible wants us to be defined by Him, and to be overcomers through Him. God has the ability to overcome my anxiety, even if in this lifetime my anxiety still persists. When I accepted myself as an anxious person, I allowed it to rule me, but friends, we don't have to be ruled by anyone other than our good God. Anxiety has already been overcome through Christ so we can have hope in this promise. We may still struggle with anxiety but we should be intentionally combating our anxiety, not giving into it. We are called to go to war with our fears through Christ, and to go to war with the things we let ourselves be ruled by that are absent of God. We are kept in perfect peace, forever, when our mind is stayed on Christ. Let us not lose sight of true empowerment through the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and minds. When we do this we get to focus less on our fears about the world and more on fearing the Lord, the one who is “trustworthy in all He promises and faithful in all He does” (psalm 145:13).
KNOW
What would it take for you to have a mind that continually trusts in the Lord?
What things are you allowing yourself to be defined by apart from Christ?
DO
The picture below is something I made a few months ago to help me go to battle with my unbelief. Feel free to print it out and post it somewhere that you will see each day. (I have mine on the inside of my vanity and look at it when I brush my teeth).
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