3 Ds for Battling Anxiety

In the United States, 6.8 million adults have been diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and women are twice as likely as men to suffer from an anxiety disorder. 

Is it any wonder this is true? A few moments watching the evening news or scrolling your smartphone newsfeed will explain why.  Even the wording of the nightly newscaster’s transcript seems as though it is designed to instigate fear. In marketing, we learn these tricks of the trade.  Do you know the number one emotion that evokes the most engagement on social media?  Not joy, not sadness. Fear.

And we play right into the devil’s scheme.

Now, I realize anxiety is complicated and there is a vast array of causes, and we need to look at the whole person when procuring a remedy.  However, we need to start somewhere and what better place than the words of our Creator, the very God who made us and loves us.  Jesus speaks directly into our anxiety-filled world in Matthew 6.

Define it.

What is anxiety? Our English dictionary defines it as a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome. The synonymous verb in Scripture is worry or think.  In this passage, the NIV uses the word “worry,” the ESV uses the word “anxious,” and interestingly, the KJV uses the word “thought.” The Greek word is “merimnao” and it means “to be anxious, to be troubled with cares, to care for, look out for a thing.”  Another derivative of this word used in Scripture means “care that brings disruption to the personality and the mind” or distracting care.

Herein lies the rub: we are created to care about people and things.  In the Garden of Eden, God made man and commissioned him to take care of the garden, but now, after the fall, our sin nature warps everything. Our caring turns into worry and anxiety instead of tending and nurturing as was our original design.

In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus talks about anxiety.  To set the context, the book of Matthew is all about the fact that Jesus is King and He comes on the scene speaking of a kingdom – a word used 52 times in the book of Matthew.  This is a key component to understanding how we are to deal with anxieties of this world.  If Jesus is King and He is good and we know the end of the story, why do we worry so much? 

Dismantle it.

Jesus addresses their anxiety by first dismantling it. Matthew 6:25-34 is in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount. He has been teaching his disciples, the subjects of his kingdom, who they are as kingdom citizens and how they are to act as His people.  Unlike the Jews in that day that had an evil king, Herod, Jesus is a good king.  In verse 25, Jesus says his kingdom citizens should not be characterized by worry or anxiety about food, drink or clothes. He dismantles their anxiety by naming what they are: the body, what to eat, what to drink, and what to wear.    

Fast forward to today: What are your anxieties? We must first name them, and then dismantle them - break them down and get to the base of our fear.  Finances, jobs, flying on an airplane, teenagers learning to drive (yikes), kids making the team, kids actually getting play for said team, elderly parents living alone and getting hurt, surgeries we have to undergo, waiting for test results, our next president, the public education system, and on and on.

Now, look what Jesus does….

Direct it.

Jesus directs their attention up and out.  “Look at the birds of the air…. your heavenly Father feeds them. See how the lilies of the field grow…. God clothes the grass of the field.” If the King cares that much about the creation within his kingdom, “how much more” will He take care of our needs? The remedy Jesus prescribes for anxiety here is to shift our obsession to the Creator of all. Matthew 6:33 is familiar to us: “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” But what does it mean to seek first his kingdom in light of the fact that he has just been talking about anxiety?  (Remember, we need to always read contextually. Don’t divorce this well-known, stitched-on-a-pillow verse from its context.)  It means that my “needs” or perceived needs, must first be laid down before the King, in submission to his good rule and authority. His priorities win. “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)

We direct our cares, worries, anxieties when we look up to our King and follow what He says about them. We don’t let our minds run rampant. God has given us a will and with the power of the Holy Spirit, we can direct our thoughts to think what God thinks. We submit our cares to Him in prayer and rest in His promise to take care of “all these things.”

Real life application.

So, while I don’t want my daughter to be lonely at college, perhaps God’s priority for her right now is to first learn to be utterly satisfied in Him because He is where fullness is found.  (Colossians 2:9; Ephesians 1:23) And while I want my other daughter to get time on that court playing volleyball, maybe God’s priority is that her heart be more conformed to His by learning how to sit on the bench, cheering her teammates on wholeheartedly, learning how to be selfless (Philippians 2:3) and genuinely happy for others’ success and not jealous, learning to take disappointments to her Father in heaven who does not withhold anything good from her. (Psalm 84:11)

Oh, the faith we need to believe the promises of God in the hard stuff of life and put our feet firmly on kingdom ground, knowing we have good King!  We have an enemy who desires to steal, kill and destroy our joy and shipwreck our faith with anxiety. He does this by taking our eyes off our good King and His better promises. 

Battling anxiety is an ongoing process and it is a fight of faith and a fight to see with spiritual eyes. God created us as whole beings – emotional, physical, spiritual – and there are many variables that can contribute to anxiety and the levels that we may experience in different seasons of life.  We need to look at all these human aspects when dismantling anxiety.  But we start with our Creator. We look to our good King for rest, peace and wisdom in battling anxiety. 

As a community of faith, let’s commit to compassionately helping one another fix our eyes on King Jesus and remind each other to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.  Jesus reigns. Therefore, we can rest is his good plan and purpose.