Be Anxious for Nothing

Anxiety is something that we’re all familiar with. We’ve all experienced it, and we’ve all witnessed it in those around us. Some of us live ‘on our nerves’, persistently anxious; some of us are more ‘laid back’, but still find anxiety creeping up on us from time to time, despite our phlegmatic temperament.

So, what is anxiety, and why do we suffer from it?

Anxiety and stress arise when we’re facing circumstances that, for whatever reason, we cannot cope with.

It may be that a bill needs to be paid, but there’s not enough money in the kitty.

It may be that a ‘home truth’ needs to be told, but the repercussions may be difficult to handle.

It may be that sickness has arisen or an accident has happened and we feel totally inadequate for the task of dealing with it.

Or it may be any number of other events or occurrences that we face from day to day and which challenge our ability to cope, making us feel out of our depth, ill equipped and unprepared, and almost certain to fall far short of the mark.

In life we meet many trials, challenges, and difficulties, and the way that we deal with these is largely dependent on our natural temperament.

For example, when a situation confronts you, what do you do? Do you:

• Set out to prove that you can overcome it?
• Complain that it’s not fair?
• Look for somebody to blame?
• Beat yourself up?
• Take it out on someone else?
• Fall into depression?
• Run away?
• Recruit an army of supporters?

All of these responses are very human, and we can all probably look back and remember instances when we’ve reacted in these or similar ways.

But the important question is: How does God want us to respond?

In what way does God expect us to handle ourselves when we are faced with a challenge which would naturally throw us into a state of anxiety?

In order to answer that, let’s look at a passage from the apostle Peter’s first letter, and then home in on some of the points that he makes and try to unpack them:

a) “Clothe yourselves with humility”

What does this mean?

We wear clothes for three main reasons:

• For modesty
• For protection
• To make a statement

The way you dress tells people something about you. One man goes to work wearing a three-piece suit while another wears overalls spattered with paint or plaster. One woman wears a nurse’s uniform while another wears the uniform of an air hostess. One musician comes on to the stage in evening dress, but another in tight leather pants and a multi-coloured, frilly shirt.

The physical clothing that we wear would not be of much interest to God, were it not for the fact that what we wear on the outside reflects what we are on the inside, or what we think we are, or want others to think we are, or perhaps what we aspire to be. (Peter deals with this issue elsewhere – see 1 Peter 3:3-4.)

What is of interest to God is what we might call our ‘spiritual clothing’. He wants us to be clothed in HUMILITY.

In other words, He wants what people see of us on the outside to be a reflection of a humble, meek, and contrite heart on the inside. And He wants this not just now and again; not just when we’re at a Christian meeting; not just when we’re trying to impress someone or win someone to Christ.

No; He wants us to be clothed in humility as a LIFESTYLE.

If this is so, then, what are we to understand by ‘humility’?

Someone once said:

To be humble is not to think yourself small,
But not to think of yourself at all.

The proud person is self-centred and self-obsessed, but the humble person is concerned with the honour of God and the well-being of other people – a quality for which Paul commended Timothy (see Philippians 2:19-21).

The humble person is also not afraid to ask for help, and will always look to God first, while the proud person will first be determined to prove that he can deal with the problem without any help.

The result is that the humble receive grace from God, but the proud do not:

By nature, our instinctive reaction to a perceived threat is usually either: “I can deal with this!” and dive in; or “I can’t cope with this!” and run away; or close the eyes, open the mouth, stand still and scream!

Our flesh, which is powered by INSTINCT, when under threat goes into what is normally referred to as SELF-PRESERVATION MODE, which manifests in one of three ways, namely: FIGHT, FLIGHT, or FREEZE.

The exhortation on this point from Paul is both clear and concise:

(For ‘lust’ read ‘instinct’.)

So, rather than having the trajectory of our lives determined by fleshly, irrational instinct, God’s will for us as Christians is that we should be walking in the spirit as a life-style, which means that we are clothed with HUMILITY, which, in turn, means that we are able to receive from God all the GRACE that we need in order not only to deal with the immediate, challenging circumstance, but to come out victoriously and well able to fight another day.

If we’re truly walking in the spirit, we won’t allow ourselves to be bounced into self-preservation mode. Instead, when the pressure is on, we will be guided by Peter’s next exhortation:

b) “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God … casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”

Before a crisis arises, ask yourself this question: Am I capable, in my own strength and with my own resources, to deal effectively with any and every demand that may be placed upon me throughout my life?

If you’re honest, you’ll admit that you’re not. And if that causes you a problem, then maybe you haven’t humbled yourself as completely as you need to.

Let’s take a simple example of something which we all face often in daily life:

You have to travel to another city a hundred miles away. If you go by your own power, it’ll take you a week to walk there. What can you do? You can drive, take the bus, take the train, or maybe hitch-hike.

Are you admitting defeat? Are you a failure because you had to get help?

No, of course not. You’re just being sensible! You’re recognising your limitations and acknowledging your need. You’re HUMBLING yourself!

When challenging circumstances arise, God does not want you to be UNDER the circumstances, but OVER the circumstances, as Peter says: “… that He may EXALT you at the proper time …”.

If you’re going to rely on your own natural abilities, you will inevitably be labouring UNDER the circumstances, because the circumstances are always bigger than you are. However, no matter how prodigious the circumstances may be, God is always bigger than they are, and He wants you to participate in that overcoming bigness. He wants to EXALT you.

c) He may exalt you at the proper time

In what way will God exalt you? David says:

God exalts, or lifts, us ABOVE the circumstances, which enables us to see things more clearly.

In Psalm 73, Asaph the priest reveals how he has been concerned about the prosperity of the wicked and the mistreatment of the poor, and has been wondering where God is in all of this. He was ready to throw in the towel, until he humbled himself under the mighty hand of God, went into the sanctuary to seek God’s face, and allowed God to lift him up on to a high place where he could see things from God’s perspective:

In his Ephesian epistle, Paul shows us that this is not something which God needs to do again and again, since He has, once and for all, raised us up into the heavenlies and seated us there with Jesus Christ, so that we are now permanently, in the spirit, OVER the circumstances that we experience, and those circumstances are UNDER our feet.

The irony is that we must be humble enough to realise that we have already been exalted

Paul says elsewhere that “we walk by FAITH and not by SIGHT (2 Cor.5:7)”, which is true when we are walking in the SPIRIT and not in the FLESH.

When I am relying on my own abilities and resources, no matter how religious or righteous I might seem to be, I am walking in the flesh.

I am walking in the spirit when my confidence is not in me or mine but my faith is in Christ and His, and I am looking to His power and provision, not my own.

Walking by sight can be perilous, for what you see with your natural eye is not necessarily the spiritual reality.

Walking by faith can be daunting, for you are relying on the sight and guidance of Another, Whose ways are higher than your ways and Whose thoughts are higher than your thoughts, as the heavens are higher than the earth (see Isaiah 55:9).

Peter tells us that God will exalt us ‘at the proper time’. But what is ‘the proper time’?

The proper time is the time which fits properly with God’s will and purposes.

God’s timing is quite different from our own, and so more often than not FAITH requires PATIENCE, and PATIENCE, of course, requires HUMILITY.

If I want what I want, and I want it NOW, but God wants me to have what He knows is best, but at some time in the future, then I have a choice to make: what is more important in the grand scheme of things – my want or God’s will?

The prophet Habakkuk was faced with this challenge, as he cried out to God for the salvation of his nation, and God’s message was an exhortation to faith and patience:

A couple of points to note on this:

• The prophet has ‘stationed himself upon the rampart’ – the high place, the exalted place, the vantage point – where he is able to see beyond the natural and into the supernatural. He has positioned himself in the heavenlies, as the prophetic grace enables him to do.

  In Christ, this position is ours, whether we are graced as prophets or not, and we should follow Habakkuk’s example.

• He anticipates being reproved when he reports what he has seen, for experience has taught him that when we see things that others are unable to see, they tell us that we’re wrong and that we should stop following delusions.

• God has ‘an appointed time’, but His time is not our time. God’s ‘soon’ may be a long time in coming. Are we willing, in faith and humility, to wait with patience for God to move when the time is right according to His wisdom rather than our wishing?

• Look at the words that God uses to describe the coming of the vision: ‘it hastens’, ‘it will not fail’, ‘it tarries’, ‘it will certainly come’, ‘it will not delay’.

  It hastens, yet it tarries, yet it will not delay. How are we to understand this contradiction? How are we to deal with this uncertainty?

  The answer is given in three simple words: “WAIT FOR IT”! This is the challenge, and the hope, of faith. If we try to understand it, frustration is inevitable. However, through FAITH and PATIENCE we will inherit the promises of God and see the vision fulfilled (see Hebrews 6:11-12; 10:35-39).

d) “Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion …”

Satan is always seeking ways to bring us down, and while we remain walking in the flesh he will succeed, because in ourselves we do not have the power to resist him. However, by walking in the spirit and humbly recognising that we are seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, we are more than able to resist him by remaining firm in our faith in Christ and His grace.

When we are firm in our faith, and walking in obedience to the will of God, the devil cannot get a handle on us, as Jesus declared shortly before His crucifixion:

e) “… the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren …”

Even suffering is an accomplishment, if we endure it with patience, faith, and humility. God is working in us and also through us in the trials as well as in the triumphs, as we prepare ourselves for the great day when His DOMINION (v11) will be established on the earth.

We sometimes ask, “Lord, what am I doing, what am I achieving? My life’s going nowhere. I’m just surviving from one day to the next!”

Well, Abraham was 75 years old when God first spoke to him, 85 when He spoke to him again, and 99 when he first began to see the promise taking shape.

Moses was 40 when he began to feel the stirring of God’s call, and 80 before he actually heard the voice of God calling him.

Jesus spent the first 30 years of His life as an ordinary member of an ordinary family surrounded by ordinary people in an ordinary village doing an ordinary job. Then, when the time eventually came for Him to be launched into His ministry, He first had to humble Himself to be baptised by his cousin John, and then spend forty days in the wilderness being tempted by the devil.

In the purposes of God, no time is ever wasted, even though we are unable to see its value. Someone has said that we find God in the waiting.

The seed must be sown and spend weeks, or months, or even years hidden within the soil before the green shoots begin to poke through into the sunlight.