Dealing with An Anxious Heart

Dealing with An Anxious Heart

– Changing from “What If” to “Even If”

Let us be honest, everybody is anxious about something one day or another (or even one moment or another), the difference is what makes us anxious, how anxious we are, and how we deal with our anxiety.

We can become anxious when we think of the difficult or challenging situations that we face now or that we will or might face in the future. We keep thinking, “What if this happens? What if that happens? What if….What if….What if…?” The list does not end. We become worried that it will cost us too high a price to deal with the current or future/potential difficulties, that it might be too much for us to handle, that it will overwhelm us, like the ocean waves swallowing us up, making us no more, all alone and helpless in the depth of darkness.

Anxiety is deeply connected with worry and fear. We worry about the worst scenarios that we envision might happen, and we fear that it will actually happen. We spend a lot of precious time and energy in our precious life worrying about what might or might not happen, as if we can save ourselves from trouble or danger if we worry “enough” about it. That doesn’t sound very wise when we say it out loud, does it? But that’s what we do so much often than we would like. It’s like someone buying a new car and then spending every day for the whole year worrying that it might rain too much the next year which might cause a flood to drown his car. Not only is it unwise to worry about what might or might not happen, it also sounds miserable to live a life soaked in worry, fear, and anxiety. Anybody who has been troubled with much anxiety knows the pain that it brings, and our souls cry out: “Is there a way out of such misery?!”

The good news is yes, there is a way out! There is much wisdom from above in God’s Word teaching us how to battle against anxiety. Here we will look at three things that will help us to grow in grace in this area.

I. God is Good, Sovereign, and Trustworthy

The Lord is our good good Father, He is in control over all things, and we can trust Him. Everything starts with God and comes back to Him.

In our anxious moments, our eyes are fixed on our circumstances (or potential circumstances) and our minds are occupied with ourselves or the people or things that we love, and we are afraid that we might lose “something” we treasure. In moments like this, we need to remember who we are and who God is. We are God’s children and we belong to Him. In His great mercy and grace, when we first believed in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, God has redeemed us through the precious blood of Christ shed for us on the cross, forgiving our sins and reconciling us back to Him, and making us His own, as He has promised over and over again that “They will be My people, and I will be their God” (Exodus 29:45, Ezekiel 37:27, Jeremiah 31:33; 32:38, Hebrews 8:10).

Our God is a good God and He loves us with an everlasting love (John 3:16; 15:13, Jeremiah 29:11; 31:3), there is no doubt about that. He has made all things (Genesis 1-2, Psalm 146:6, Colossians 1:16), He is in control over all things (Psalm 115:3, Proverbs 19:21, Matthew 19:26), and He is completely trustworthy (Psalm 33:4; 18:30; 11:7, 1 Thessalonians 5:24).

When we are anxious, we often lose sight of these truths and feel trapped in our troubles (or the troubles that we fear we will experience), so it is extremely important for us to remind ourselves of these truths and to dwell on them instead of dwelling on our worries (Philippians 4:8). This also shows how important it is to be in God’s Word daily so that we can become familiar with God’s truths and remember them as the Holy Spirit brings them to our mind as a way to help us in our time of need (Psalm 46:1), that is when we become anxious, with our faith being challenged and our hearts being tempted to forget God the Creator and to cling way too tightly to the people or things that we treasure in creation.

II. God is All Powerful and is Able to Protect Us

Real and ultimate power is nothing less than the power to create, to bring life into existence, to save, to recreate, to judge the living and the dead, to resurrect life, to give eternal life, and to condemn life to eternal fire. Who has such power? Only the one true God – our God! He created man in His own image bringing life into existence, He saves a people for himself throughout human history recreating them in the image of Jesus Christ our Savior, He will judge the living and the dead when Jesus Christ comes back again, He will resurrect life giving eternal life to His people and condemning those who do not believe in Him to eternal fire in hell.

Nobody can do any one of these things, not even a tiny little part of any of it, except God alone. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation1:8) Nothing is too hard for him. And He loves us and is for us, He has promised to protect us. Are any of our troubles (today or in the future) too big or too hard for Him? Not in a million years, not ever! As Jesus said to us in Matthew 19:26, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

On the contrary, what power do we have? Luke 12:25-26 says it loud and clear, “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?”

So let us give all our cares to God, and pray as the prophet Jeremiah and king David did, “Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.” (Jeremiah 32:17)

The Lord is my light and my salvation;

    whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life;

    of whom shall I be afraid?

….

Though an army encamp against me,

    my heart shall not fear;

though war arise against me,

    yet I will be confident.

One thing have I asked of the Lord,

    that will I seek after:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

    all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord

    and to inquire in his temple.

For he will hide me in his shelter

    in the day of trouble;

he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;

    he will lift me high upon a rock.

….

Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;

    be gracious to me and answer me!

You have said, “Seek my face.”

My heart says to you,

    “Your face, Lord, do I seek.”

….

I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord

    in the land of the living!

Wait for the Lord;

    be strong, and let your heart take courage;

    wait for the Lord! (Psalm 27, ESV)

In this turning toward God, we are changing from our anxious “What if” to “Even if”: Even if troubles face me, even if more hardships might come, my God is with me, He is always good and faithful, He is in control over all my circumstances (now and in the future), He is completely trustworthy, I can have complete confidence in Him as He is all powerful and is able to save and protect me as He has promised me life eternal in His Son Jesus Christ, a promise that will never fail because His love never fails (Psalm 136:26).

III. Focus on God’s Call Today and Trust God with the Rest

Now that we have set our hearts in the right place – in God alone, how shall we live in the details of our daily life as we battle against the temptation to anxiety? Again, we turn our face toward God to seek Him.

God has a purpose for us in our lives on earth before Jesus comes back again to take us home with Him forever. And God has a purpose for us today, with a mission coming with that purpose – to glorify God in all things. Jesus has given us all the “Great Commission”: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:16-20). And the Lord teaches us, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,” (Colossians 3:23) “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31) As we learn and strive to do all to the glory of God in love (1 Corinthians 13:13), doing wholeheartedly for Him the things that He has brought into our path for us to do today, even the seemingly small responsibilities in our daily life, we “proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession” (1 Peter 2:9).

As we live each day seeking to do God’s will, to bring Him honor and glory, trusting Him with the rest of everything in His beautiful promise, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10) our hearts can truly rest in Him, just as the prophet sings in Isaiah 26:3, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”

Another wonderful thing is that as we live each day seeking to do all things for the glory of God, we might find something surprising happening to us: we become less and less anxious about the things that used to trouble us. This happens because most often the desires that caused us anxiety in the first place were not desires that glory God, and as our desires get reoriented toward God with a full confidence in Him, our anxious thoughts about those things diminish more and more or even vanish all together. This is a true blessing from God as He takes us into a deeper, more intimate relationship with Him, so that our souls turn from crying out, “Is there a way out of such misery?!” to “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” (Psalm 34:8)

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