Anxiety can be a huge hindrance in the lives of those it afflicts. My personal struggle with anxiety has been a long journey of trying to get to the bottom of my terrible pull to overthink, and recently my soul searching has produced pretty liberating results! The Holy Spirit has been showing me things, through the reading of God's word and prayer, that I never really understood about my anxious tendencies. And one passage that I use in my arsenal to actively fight against my anxiety is pulled from Jesus' sermon on the mount: Matthew 6:25-34!
Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
In a meeting with my hometown pastor, Sam, we discussed my anxiety and the many different forms it manifests. He then brought me to this specific passage, one I had heard many times before. We read through it and I was waiting for him to drop some spiritual bomb to cure my anxiety right then and there. Of course that didn't happen! But, he did give me a different way to view my anxiety and the exact tool I need to employ to battle against this daily struggle. He equated this passage in Matthew's gospel to a coin! And this simple view of this passage and anxiety has helped me to flip from anxiety to freedom!
Verses 25 through 32 involve Jesus exposing the fears that most people in that day had, and then providing biblical reasoning of why they should not be afraid! He first starts off with what used to be one of my least favorite commands to hear... "do not be anxious about your life..." I would read this specific part of the verse and in my mind think "I wish it were that easy!" After struggle, trials, prayer, reading God's word, and tons of help from the Holy Spirit, I have found out that it can be that easy!
So, what fears do Jesus expose? Jesus talks about food, drink, and clothing. To us these seem like pretty "healthy" things to worry about. Of course, all worry is sinful and there is no need to worry! And Jesus tells these people exactly why they don't need to worry about these specific things! For food and drink, Jesus argues that their heavenly Father feeds the birds of the air, how much more will He feed you since you are of more value than they are? For clothing, Jesus argues that since God clothes the grass of the fields, which will wither away, will He not also clothe you? Jesus takes fears that were probably pretty common at that time and then He uses biblical truth to explain why those fears shouldn't exist! And this is how I seek to tackle my anxiety! If I am fearing, I run to the word and I find specific promises or attributes of God that overpower my fears.
Why do we get anxious? Why are these people anxious about these specific things? Where does any fear come from? Well, Jesus kind of gives us a look at why we might be overcome with fear! At the end of verse 25 Jesus asks "Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?" These people were anxious about food, drink, and clothing because they valued them more than anything else! "Is not life more than food?" What are you anxious about right now? Take that and replace the word "food" with whatever it is. Is not life more than money? Is not life more than a stable future? Is not life more than rejection? We are fearing things in our lives because we make our lives all about that specific thing. We are valuing relationships, a stable future, and money more than we are valuing the one thing that can give us hope, peace, and joy! God must be ultimately valued in our hearts in order to expel our anxious tendencies.
I've already pointed out that our anxiety is caused by valuing things more than we value God. We have elevated specific things over God that do not deserve that special place in our hearts. And to say it simply, overcoming anxiety is as simple as reorienting what you value! This takes work, prayer, and help from the Holy Spirit. Thankfully, after Jesus tells us to not be anxious about food, drink, clothes, or insert whatever fears we have, He gives us a nice "but..." This is where the coin flips and Jesus outlines exactly what we need to do to overcome our anxiety!
Jesus says, "but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." That's the key to overcoming our anxieties! Seek first the kingdom of God! This doesn't mean that you wake up and read your Bible and then you're done for the day. It's not a grocery list. It's a reorienting of what your heart values. We are to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness in all that we do. When we are hanging out with friends, our minds need to be set on God and His righteousness. When we are by ourselves passing time, our minds need to be set on God and His righteousness. In all that we do, we need Him in our hearts and minds. Because once He becomes the thing we value the most, our worries and anxieties won't be able to grip our hearts and choke out what is good. We will be able to take our fears and say no, I don't have to fear that because God is good, sovereign, and wise. When God is most valued, our fears are washed away!
So, after I have laid out for you this verse and what it means in regards to our fears and worries, I'll let you in on my struggles and victories with this!
I would describe a lot of my fear as self-induced fear. It seems that I actively want to overthink situations in my life. Mostly my relationships and future. And recently I have discovered that I like to overthink about these things because I want to control them. I have trained myself, since I was young, to always picture the worst outcome of every situation because I have deceived myself into thinking I can change the outcome by doing that. If I think about all the potential areas where my relationship can go wrong, then they won't. At least that was my mindset, and I'm still tempted into thinking that way. So for me, I am literally seeking to be anxious.
However, if I take my gaze off of potential failures or things that could go wrong, and "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness..." my thoughts are consumed by God and all that He has done for me! And I am free from my self-induced anxiety episodes! Once I recognize that I am overthinking I literally imagine myself flipping a coin over to the other side. This reminds me to flip my thought direction away from things I want to control, and on to the God who is in control! And this is a really recent thing I have started doing, and oh man... it has made so much of a difference in my life and in how I act! I am thankful for God's grace and goodness in my life and how He has helped me in my fight against sin! And my prayer is that He would do the same to you, as He has done for me! There is a lot more that one can go over in this verse, and I left out a few other points. I just wanted to highlight what has helped me!
Thanks for reading :)
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:4-7