Have No Anxiety

I'd like to read again those few verses that Don read as the epistle from Philippians 4.4. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice. Let all men know your forbearance.

The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety 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 passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

When it's pointed out to us that in all circumstances, our Lord somehow managed to hold on to that inner peace, we have a tendency to shrug it off. You know, after all, he was the Son of God. He knew that things were going to work out all right.

It was easy enough for him to be calm. See, but we don't know what's going to happen next. Besides that, the pace is so much faster these days.

It's a lot easier to be a nervous wreck today than it was then. And we forget that although he was indeed God the Son, our Lord was truly a man, and his mind, the mind that he was born with in this body of flesh and blood, was just as limited and human as yours and mine. Not only that, he was born in an age when there was no social security, no unemployment insurance, and no bankruptcy laws, and no penicillin, and no Valium, and no plumbing, and life didn't go any more smoothly for him than it does for us.

His disciples were quitting on him. John the Baptist was uptight with him. His own family were trying to figure out whether he was sane.

The authorities were trying to catch him in something so they could get him, and at the end of the road was the cross waiting for him. And yet never once do we catch Jesus biting his nails with anxiety, or throwing up his hands in despair, oh it just isn't going to work, I can't go on, or worried about the attendants at his meetings. The difference whether he was talking to 5,000 people or one woman looked at well.

He didn't take up a collection either way. Now the reason for this equanimity that we see in our Lord is really quite simple. The things that you and I worry about, he took to his Father.

For instance, when it came time for him to choose the apostles, he didn't bite his nails and pace the floor for three days, flipping coins trying to figure out what to do, call his mother on the phone for advice. He went up into the hills to pray, continued all night in prayer to God, and when morning came it was all settled. He called this large group of disciples that were already following him and picked out 12, one, two, three, four, up to 12, right away just like that, including Judas.

The time he said to 5,000, the people were so enthused by what happened there that they, according to the record in John 6, were all set to take him by force right then and there and make him a king. To solve this problem, he withdraws into the hills to pray, we're told in Mark. Now he takes the problem and lays it before his Father, and the very next day when Jesus comes back, he begins to teach with such a strong, offensive message that the multitudes are turned off by him, and many of his disciples turn away and never walk with him again.

And the problem of people trying to make him a king, the night before his crucifixion, he knows the cross is coming, he sees it looming up in front of him, and he's tempted to be anxious. And so he goes to Gethsemane to pray and notice that he doesn't pray in generality. He gets right down to the specific issue, his cross.

Father, if there's some way for this cross, this cup, to be taken from me, take it. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And as we know, the cross was not taken from him, but when Jesus got up from the ground that night, he was absolutely filled with divine peace.

Now, by contrast, our ministries barely get rolling before the evil one jumps on board and starts rattling the windows and kicking at the doors, and we become anxious. And the energy that should be going into the work God gave us already to do is dissipated on anxiety. The slightest setback throws us into a depression.

You know, when somebody doesn't say hello with the right tone of voice, we're upset. When they don't smile when we come into the room, we're all worried. It comes back to you that somebody's been criticizing you.

By mistake, it gets back to you, and before an hour goes by from the time you get the news, you're planning to leave town. They'll appreciate me when I'm gone. We're all like that.

You get a witness to some lady on the job, and she smiles and shakes her head, and oh, mild disappointment. You've turned out to be another Jesus freak. And so you go to the drinking fountain, all confused and embarrassed, and oh, I just don't have what it takes.

I never find the right words. It always works out like this for me. When the layoffs start to come, when, you know, heavy financial drain starts hitting the family, immediately we jump to conclusions.

We're starving to death. We're destitute. We're ruined.

Now, it's true. This world is so full of dangers. So many things could go wrong.

So many unexpected surprises waiting to meet us around the corner. See that if our minds are not solidly anchored in God, we're going to be filled all the time with worry, even when we give the impression to our brothers and sisters that we're just bubbling with confidence. And when we're we are worried about what's going to happen tomorrow, or anxious about our reputation, or crestfallen because somebody doesn't like us, when we're in that kind of shape, we can't minister.

Now, this epistle, these few verses in the fourth chapter of Philippians, are nothing but a list of specific things that we, under the power of God's Spirit, can do that will deliver us from the curse of anxiety. And if we will do these things in the power of the Spirit, we will be absolutely wrapped in the peace of God, just as our Lord was. And the first thing that we are told to do is rejoice in our Lord, in the same way that he rejoiced in his Father.

Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. When I'm anxious, this is always a sign that I'm getting my joy out of something other than my Lord. Even though I may give all the, you know, the right impressions and go through all the motions of being a heavy disciple, my joy is coming from, let's say, my hope for success.

And as long as I see myself getting close to that goal of some kind of success, I have peace. But the minute things go wrong, and praise God they always do, eventually, you know, I become a nervous wreck. But if my Lord is really my joy, and if his word is my desire and my delight, and if it's my meat and drink to do his will, and if he himself is the goal of my life, then who can mess me up? You know, what can the devil do to take that away from me? The second thing, and we usually skip right over this one when we read this passage, is we are to be forbearing toward all men.

Patient. Kind. Give them room to breathe.

Give them the benefit of the doubt. We make ourselves into nervous wrecks by getting this idea that we have to play God over other people's lives. Praise God the destiny of these other people is not ours to decide.

Our work is to manifest to these people, to make real to them, God's mercy in Jesus Christ. And what better way can we do this than by having a consistently forbearing spirit? The third thing, know that the Lord is at hand. When my mind is fixed upon his coming, then I'm not going to waste my time building my all-knowing kingdom and getting upset.

See, if I really believe that Jesus is coming, and if I really believe that his kingdom is the only one that's going to stand, and if I truly believe that he is in charge of his church right now, then I'm set free from the curse of pinning my hope on my work, and my fellowship, and my fruit, and getting a big head when things go well, and ulcers when they don't. Turn your anxieties into prayers. So then they're no longer anxieties, they're prayers.

They're no longer then attached to the uncertain tomorrow, they're attached to the God who never fails his children. In everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. So you're worried and troubled about a loved one.

You turn that worry into prayers to the Father. Is there something that you can do for that loved one? The Father will show you. If not, he will give you the peace of knowing that he hears your prayer.

And if 15 times a day you get hassled with worry, or 100 times a day about that loved one, 15 times a day, 100 times a day, you turn that worry, or you're going to have to face a problem two weeks from now. You take that problem and lay it specifically before the Father. You describe it, open your mouth and talk about it to God.

He's not going to get uptight because you're pestering him. God delights to have his children pester him in this way. See, and as you go on pestering him, God will not only work in your circumstances, but he will also work inside you to settle your mind and clarify your vision, you know, and strengthen your faith.

And the final thing, so important and so lacking, be thankful in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, not just mouth thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God. You're praying to the God who adopted you in the beloved before the foundation of the world.

You're praying to the God who said he's only begun to lay down his life for your sins. You're praying to the God who, even at this moment, stirs upon your heart with his Spirit for healing and grace and all the kinds of help that you need. If your life were to end today, an eternity spent thanking him would not be adequate to thank him for what he's already done in your life.

So thank him. And as you thank him, you will find that whatever anxiety is left in your heart will vanish like the morning mist before a blazing sun. We got to praise God as we look back over our lives for the fact that even as worry wards, God has used us, because that's what most of us have been.

But now, for the work that lies in front of us as of today and the days that are soon to follow, God would have a people who are free from anxiety. He would have a people who, with confidence and with joy and with clear mind, can keep right on going in the midst of all kinds of chaos, rapid changes, sudden defeats and setbacks. God would have a people who can keep right on doing what needs to be done, even when the sky is falling in.

And he's training us for this. This is why things are going wrong in many of our lives. We've got to learn this.

Now, if you can take these words of Paul, who lived what he said here himself, you know, and by the power of God's Spirit, begin to live those words. The Spirit of God will turn them into reality in every one of our lives, and we'll make it. Let me read them once more.

Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Let your forbearance be made known to all men. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just pray that even this day the words will be confirmed, that you will set your children here assembled free from the curse of anxiety.

And oh God, we ask that those anxieties and those worries and those stillings, with freedom and with power of God, will be lifted up by the Spirit of God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just pray.

stillings, with freedom and with power of God, will be lifted up by the Spirit of God.