Freedom From Worry and Anxiety Part I

Introduction:

"Do not be anxious about anything" (Phil. 4:6).  What do you worry about?  Money?  Poor health?  Growing old?  Offending someone?  The future?  All of us worry, and all of us have times of anxiety, even fear.  But few human characteristics are more destructive to us personally.  Worry keeps us from living the full life Jesus promised.  It fills us with tension and stress, preventing us from enjoying our lives.  It can even make us sick.

Imagine a scene from the dawn of history.  The time is early evening, and the place, the most beautiful garden on earth.  A solitary voice, unlike any other calls out, "Adam, Eve, where are you?"  A short distance away, a young couple, dressed in makeshift shirts of fig leaves, crouch among the bushes. Their breathing is labored.  Beads of perspiration course down their faces and backs.  Worry and fear wrack their bodies.

Finally realizing it is pointless to try to hide from the all-seeing eyes of God, the young man slowly rises.  His voice is barely audible as he stares at the ground, unable to look into the eyes of his Maker.

"I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
"Who told you that you were naked?  Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
"The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."
God turns His attention to the woman.  "What is this you have done?"
"The serpent deceived me, and I ate" (Gen. 3:9-13).

We all know the familiar story.  A whole set of conflicting emotions and actions accompanied Adam and Eve's worry and fear.  They lied to God, and they blamed each other.  Their punishment:  banishment from the Garden of Eden for them. They and their offspring became alienated from God; they were condemned to a life of hard work and pain, accompanied by a propensity for worry and anxiety.

We don't have to look very far in our Bibles before we see the result of worry in the lives of the people chronicled there.  We see Moses fleeing from the Egyptians into the desert for a forty-year exile.  We see the disciple Peter so fearful that he lies about knowing Jesus.  In Psalm 139, we hear David praying, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts" (v. 23).

Yes, like David we all have anxious thoughts.  Because of Adam and Eve's sin and the resulting separation from God, worry and anxiety have become a natural part of the human condition.  But what do we do then with the Bible's command to not be anxious about anything?  This entails living supernatural lives.

How we can do this is the focus of this study.

First, let's look at what causes worry.  I believe the two primary reasons for worry are having a different set of priorities from God and failing to trust in Him and His promises.  Perhaps this sounds over-simplified, but if you will follow along with me, I think you will come to agree.

God's Priorities

Let's be honest.  God's priorities and ours are often very different.  As long as we disagree with God we are doomed to worry.  We feel something is important; God says it isn't.  We believe our needs aren't being met; God says we've confused our wants and our needs.  What is the Bible's solution?

Click the button below to begin Freedom From Worry and Anxiety Part 1.

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(Freedom From Worry and Anxiety Part I | Freedom From Worry and Anxiety Part II)

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