The challenges of this world are myriad and often severe, even as they keep increasing in intensity: Wars and rumours of wars, pestilences (epidemics and pandemics), droughts, economic downturns and collapses; governments are confused as these problems defy solutions even when they proffer some way out.
You will hear of wars and rumours of wars but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places -Matthew 24:6-7, NIV.
Beyond the upheavals and turmoil of the world at large, we have families and marriages failing as though their value were not worth a-dime-a-dozen, and the personal issues of individuals are driving them to the brink. The hearts of people are failing!
With our TV remote controls, we bring the troubles and turmoil the world over to our living rooms, and this has the propensity to give someone enough anxiety to last a lifetime.
Anxiety is a problem that can lead to physical and mental health issues.
What is anxiety? The WordWeb digital dictionary gives two definitions of anxiety: 1. (Psychiatry) a relatively permanent state of worry and nervousness occurring in a variety of mental disorders, usually accompanied by compulsive behaviour or attacks of panic. 2. A vague unpleasant emotion that is experienced in anticipation of some (usually ill-defined) misfortune.
Worry is a word that is related to anxiety. Similarly, it is a disturbance of one’s peace of mind; when one is afflicted with mental distress or agitation.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus dedicated a part of it to the subject of anxiety. More about practice than precept, which is more about how we live our lives than what we teach or profess, the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ longest, recorded discussion with His disciples. He taught them in the presence of the multitudes (Matthew 5:1-7:29).
While multitudes might hear His teachings alongside disciples, it is disciples that submit to precepts through practice. If you are not a disciple of Jesus, you will suppose hearing the word without doing it to be enough. But it is not enough. James calls this attitude self-deceit (James 1:22-25).
However, if you are a sincere follower of Jesus Christ, you will not only lend your ears to His words, you will also put your hands, wholeheartedly, to the plough of obedience by living His words in your life. For the true disciple, there are no excuses for disobedience.
Jesus said he came that we might have life more abundantly, that is, having it in its fullness. Many misconstrue having financial and material comforts to be what Jesus meant when He spoke of abundant life. Let us leave that discussion for another day.
Taking a cue from the phrase: for after all these things do the Gentiles seek, a friend of mine coined the term, Gentalized questions: What shall we eat? What shall we drink, and what shall we wear? Maslow put these concerns as being fundamental in the hierarchy of human needs.
Bare necessities drive people in pursuit of answers to the cares and affairs of this life while they leave other vital areas of their lives to suffer. Is your life consumed by Gentalized questions and priorities?
Jesus teaches us about anxiety in Matthew 6:25-34, commanding His disciples not to be anxious about anything. He hits at the very root of the most important of human needs, telling His audience that the Kingdom of God and His righteousness ought to be at the top of all our priorities.
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? -Matthew 6:25-26, NIV.
While speaking about anxiety, Jesus is intense: Take no thought for your life. Haba, Jesus! Even for my life? There is the common saying that self-preservation is the first law of human existence. Jesus says, no, it is not.
Somewhere else, He says:
All who are obsessed with being secure in life will lose it all- including their lives. But those who let go of their lives and surrender them to me will discover true life –Luke 17:33, TPT.
Is Jesus calling us to careless living? Is He asking us not to plan our lives or prepare for the future? No, He is not. However, He does forbid us from a certain pattern of thinking. Matthew Henry itemises it this way:
- A disquieting, tormenting thought, which hurries the mind hither and thither, and hangs it in suspense; which disturbs our joy in God, and is a damp upon our hope in him; which breaks the sleep, and hinders our enjoyment of ourselves, of our friends, and of what God has given us.
- A distrustful, unbelieving thought. God has promised to provide for those that are his all things needful for life as well as godliness, the life that now is, food and a covering: not dainties, but necessaries. He never said, “They shall be feasted,” but, “Verily, they shall be fed.”
Now an inordinate care for time to come, and fear of wanting those supplies, spring from disbelief of these promises, and of the wisdom and goodness of Divine Providence; and that is the evil of it.
Anxiety: disquieting, tormenting thoughts; distrustful, unbelieving thoughts. These are the thinking patterns Jesus is asking us to forbid in our minds. Paul puts it this way: Do not be anxious about anything (Philippians 4:6, NIV).
Satan believes that a man will give all that he has for his life (Job 2:4). Well, that is not surprising, for Jesus said he thinks like mere men and not like God (Mark 8:33). But there are things in life that are more important than life itself, and one of those things is a relationship with God.
Anxiety disables a person mentally and emotionally. It creates false realities and imaginations that cause fear and blinds one from seeing or creating solutions for the challenges one worries about. It creates and builds distrust in God.
Anxiety invites despair and depression and shuts out hope. The Bible describes hope as the anchor of our souls (Hebrews 6:19). Like a ship without an anchor, your life could go into an aimless drift and run aground in dangerous waters.
Anxiety and what it does to the lives of people is not God’s plan for your life. You can deal with it effectively. You can have a life free from anxiety.
Unfortunately, some people do not believe that a life without anxiety is possible. I understand. However, I know it is possible because the word of God says so, and I have a personal testimony to that effect.
In part 2 of this blog, I will share some practical ways you can deal with anxiety before it deals with you?
Thank you. Do not forget to keep living, loving and learning.
Related: Dealing with Anxiety
Photo by Hedgehog Digital on Unsplash
