A Life in Exile

The topic of our word of wisdom today reminds me of an old Mel Brooks movie called “High Anxiety.” Though that movie was a parody of the growing field of psychoanalysis and some films of Alfred Hitchcock, anxiety is no laughing matter to the growing number of Americans who suffer from its effects.

If there was ever a time to feel anxious, our overly-connected world makes it clear that today is the day. A quick search reveals that around 42.5 million people in our country live with an anxiety disorder, out of over 300 million globally. Those are serious numbers and a strong reflection on our ability as a society to maintain a peaceful and calm living environment for our citizens.

The Bible recognizes the effects of anxiety

Our verse today is a reminder that we can turn to God’s Word about every issue in life, including those that cause us pain. We’re only going to look at this one verse, because I believe it will speak to many.

Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad. (Proverbs 12:25 ESV)

Anyone who struggles with anxiety knows that it affects them emotionally and physically, and this verse affirms that reality. When a person is anxious, there is a heaviness in his heart. This is serious, because we know from another proverb that says, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life (Prov. 4:23). Another version uses the word guard. We must guard and watch our heart. I have often used this phrase with women who are considering beginning relationships with men. I tell them to guard their hearts, because it’s easy to let it lead us too quickly down a path not of God’s design.

Why do I say that? Well, because of another verse:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” (Jer. 17:9-10)

Knowing that our heart can deceive us and thus must be guarded, let’s go back to anxiety. Anxiety can be used by our enemy to cause us to fear something that has yet to happen and to doubt God, who is always faithful. That’s why the heart gets heavy. We’re not meant to live in fear or doubt. We have God’s Word that provides the clear commands and plans of God for our lives and assurances of His character and love for us. Verses like these:

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. (Jer. 29:11-13)

Or,

But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. (2 Thess. 3:3)

The antidote

Yes, I am aware that anxiety can become crippling. I don’t want to come across as flippant to anyone suffering with anxiety disorder, but I do know that God doesn’t want anyone to live this way. The first question I would ask is if you have a relationship with God. Do you know Jesus? Have you repented of your sins and put your trust in Him as your Lord and Savior? Do you realize that without Jesus you have no hope for eternity?

Knowing Christ is the foundation for changing our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh that become malleable to the work of the Holy Spirit. In knowing Jesus, we are filled with an overwhelming joy that can squash anxious thoughts and fears.

Without that first step, this second one can help but won’t be permanent. Still, believers can apply it in our desire to show love and care for others suffering with anxiety. What do we do?

Speak good into the lives of others.

I have often had friends, believers and otherwise, who have confided in me when they are anxious and troubled by life circumstances. Because I’ve learned this in my own life, I work hard to help them focus on the blessings in their lives. Whether it’s the fact they have a job, a good marriage, lovely children, or a kind neighbor, I bring up all the good they are forgetting because of the anxiety that clouds their minds.

Think about Jesus’s encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. She was living under a cloud of anxiety for sure; otherwise, she wouldn’t be coming to the well during the hottest part of the day to avoid other women. She’d had five husbands and was living with a man who wasn’t number six. Life was not pretty, and she was consumed with anxiety. It showed in the way she responded to Jesus’s request for water.

Jesus could have snapped back at her, ignored her, or proved His deity from the get-go, but instead, he patiently drew her out with words of affirmation and kindness. He told her twice that she had spoken the truth about her current marital status before He revealed Himself as Messiah. What better good could have been spoken to this outcast, anxious woman than the revelation of Himself as the Christ?

This anxious woman, after accepting the good word of Christ, went on to proclaim Him to everyone in her village, giving Jesus great opportunities to share for the next two days.

We hold the good word

The good word we can share with those whose hearts are heavy with anxiety is that Jesus loves them and has come to save them from their sins, open the door to eternity with the Father, and give them new purpose and an abundant life here on earth. What a wonderful antidote to anxiety.

May the Lord use us to turn heavy hearts to glad hearts as we share the good word that is great news to a lost and dying world.

Grace and Peace

If you missed the last Friday Focus post, click HERE, or start this Walking in Wisdom series from the beginning.