According to the NHS, Anxiety is a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear, that can be mild or severe. Everyone experiences anxiety at some point in their life – for example, you may feel worried and anxious about sitting an exam, having a medical test or a job interview. At times like this, feeling anxious can be perfectly normal. But some people find it hard to control their worries. Their feelings of anxiety are more constant and can often affect their daily lives. Someone once said that people in general, cannot bear very much reality.
Anxiety is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it won’t take you very far. It was anxiety that caused Martha to be pre-occupied with the unimportant (preparing the perfect meal), instead of sitting to listen attentively at the feet of Jesus with her sister Mary. Jesus went on and said to Martha (Luke 10), “There is only ONE thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”
“Anxiety is the pre-occupation with the unimportant things in life, and the false reasoning that if those things are attended to, life will be great and wonderful” – Dr. Michael Youssef.
Anxiety is a kind of weed that chokes up the peace God gives us freely. Absolute peace is impossible in this life, that unadulterated joy is only possible in Heaven. In Christ alone, we are assured of the Peace that passes all understanding that gives life to the body. It is this same peace Jesus said He leaves with us, and gives to us, unlike the peace the world has to offer or offers to us which is only temporary.
A couple who were alarmed at the condition of our society undertook a serious study of all the inhabitable places on the face of the globe. Their goal was very simple – to find the most peaceful place of uttermost serenity on the face of the earth. Finally, they found it, they really found it, and then they moved there and built their dream home. Their new home was built in Faulkner Island. I guess we all know how this ends… Months later, it became a war zone as Great Britain and Argentina fought it out.
On the other hand, a panic attack is said to be an intense wave of anxiety/fear characterized by its unexpectedness and debilitating, immobilizing intensity. I think the following quote says it all, “A panic attack goes from 0 to 100 in an instant. It’s halfway between feeling like you’ll faint and feeling like you’ll die.” Panic attacks often strike out of the blue, without any warning, and sometimes with no clear trigger. Kim Basinger once described her experience saying, “It can hit at any time (anxiety/panic attack). You feel like you’re in an open field, and there’s a tornado coming at you. And you’re just consumed by it.”
Perhaps, there can be no greater fear than the fear that comes upon us suddenly. In all truth, there is no such thing as a fearless person, but a person living in any kind of constant fear is a person behind bars more powerful than steel. Throughout the Bible, the Word of God tells us “FEAR NOT” so to assure us of the promise, comfort, security, and peace found in God alone.
- Fear not life. Why? “For I am the way the truth and the life” – John 14:6
- Fear not death. Why? ” For I am He that lives and was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore.” – Rev. 1:18
- Fear not the unknown. Why? “For I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end” – Rev. 22:13
- Fear not evil. Why? “For thou art with me. thy rod and thy staff they comfort me” – Psalm 23:4
- Fear not life problems. Why? “For God is our refuge, He is our strength, the very help in times of need or trouble” – Psalm 46:1
- Fear not what others can do to us. Why? “In God I have put my trust. I will not fear what flesh can do to me” – Psalm 56:4
One of the biggest deception that Satan has managed to sell believers is that they can prolong their lives. Here is what Jesus said, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” Nothing or nobody can take a believer’s life unless God permits it. Fear of death for a born-again Christian is ludicrous. Why? Because absence from the body is to be present with the Lord, which is far better (2 Corinthians 5:8). There can be no denying that we believers are to be good stewards of our body. The Holy Spirit indwells in us and where the Holy Spirit dwells, abuse and carelessness of the body should not be even contemplated. Nevertheless, we can never prolong our lives.
The Scripture tells us in 1 Sam 23;14 that Saul pursued David every single day, but God did not deliver David into Saul’s hand. David went on the run, hiding from one place to the other (even in a cave) fleeing for his life. Eventually through that trying times, David learnt the lesson of trusting God. David learnt that his time and his life cannot be in God’s’ hand and in the enemies’ hand all at the same time. For when he is in God’s hand, fear departs, faith emerges, and there is peace. FEAR is to Satan what FAITH is to God. When fear is up, faith is down; when faith is up, fear is down.
At one point in time when Saul was after David’s life, David was presented with a clear opportunity to kill Saul and to take the throne, but he refused to do either. David knew that he was destined for the throne, but he also knew that he was destined for the throne in God’s time and in God’s way, not his own. God does everything He does in our lives by appointment. It is written in scripture that “It is appointed unto man to die once.” – Hebrews 9:27. We ought to remember that an appointment is a meeting already set up. God is never one second late or one second early because He always works by appointment. God will bring to pass all the promises that He made to you because He works by appointment.
David, a man after God’s own heart knew that his very breath was in the hand of God. In Psalm 139:16 & Psalm 31:15, David said of the Lord, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were appointed for me, when as yet there was none of them… My times are in Your hand.” David knew that God controls our time. God controls our up-times and our down-times; God controls our good times and our bad times; God controls our joyful times and our sorrowful times. God controlled David’s time in the cave as well as his times in the King’s palace. The exclamation points and the question marks in our lives are all in God’s hand. All of our times are in His mighty hand.
I think most people in their honest moment are apprehensive about the future in one way or the other. The truth is that most people are anxious about something in the future – whether it be about their children’s future, economy, job, health, financial security (the list goes on and on…). Uncertainty about the future plagues a lot of people. But when we place our complete trust in the Lord Jesus, we need not to be afraid about the future.
There is nothing that will happen to you which is not already foreseen by your heavenly Father. God sees the future as a present reality. In Jeremiah 1:5, God said, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” God knows what happen before it happens. So how do you face an uncertain future? By trusting that the same God, the same heavenly Father, who protected you in the past with all of its grieve and pain and joy, the One who took care of you in the past, He is going to take care of the present and the future.
In Your presence, all fear is gone.
In Christ Alone 