Abiding in Christ in Our Fears and Anxieties

Almost 1 in 5 Americans, Over 40 million people, live with anxiety disorders. And the other 4 in 5 live with stress, anxiety and fear that may not show up as a diagnosis in the therapists handbook, but affect our lives and our souls. We live in what you might call…

The Age of Anxiety

And it’s worse among young people.

Jonathan Haidt, the author of The Anxious Generation, has pointed out that anxiety among college students has risen 134% since 2010.

And some studies have shown that nearly 50% of teens are affected by anxiety.

We are anxious about:

What our friends or coworkers or total strangers on the internet will think of us.

What we will do if we can’t find a better job

Finding someone to marry.

Our upcoming health scans.

How we’re going to afford childcare or preschool.

The climate. Fearful for our children’s future.

The upcoming election and all of the tension that will bring.

Violence and chaos in our neighborhoods.

And yet, the tendency we have so often is to pathologize our anxieties and our fears. If we worry, we have a problem that must be solved. Either a problem in our life that should be fixed or a problem in our processing of our problems that needs to be medicated or therapy’ed away. If we can find the right therapist, the right drug, the right book, the right hack or the right tool, we can rid ourselves of our fears and anxieties.

Now don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with therapy. I’ve done it for years. There’s nothing wrong with medication. It can be very helpful.

But the desire to simply fix our anxieties and fears can get in the way of some powerful transformation in our lives, and in the end leave us feeling more anxious and afraid, but also ashamed and in despair of our inability to overcome those feelings.

Have you ever felt like your worries or worrying was just something that needed to be cured?

Curtis Chang - who recently wrote a book called The Anxiety Opportunity, says that we ought to reframe our anxieties not as a problem to be fixed but as an opportunity to be held. Why? Because as he says, “

"Our levels of anxiety we feel is a product of the loss that we fear times the avoidance we practice around that loss.” - Curtis Chang

In other words, Anxiety = Fear of Loss x Avoidance

You will lose things in life. That is a given. You will lose

apartments,

jobs, and

cherished relationships. You will lose

physical abilities,

general health, and

mental capacity.

And of course, eventually, you will lose your life and everything that goes with it. That is a foundational truth. Avoiding it doesn’t make it less true. And it doesn’t make us fear it less. It just makes us even more anxious.

In this story of Elijah we find a man with incredible fears who abides in God in his fears and anxieties. And we find a God who takes care of him in surprising ways in the midst of those fears.

The story

Jezebel, the most powerful person in Israel, has threatened to kill him.

He runs for his life. Then goes a little further into the wilderness, alone, to pray.

So terrified of what’s next in life he wants God to kill him. Make it quick.

The New International Version Chapter 19

“Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.

He is done. He wants out.

What does God do? How does God respond?

Does he say, “Yep, I knew you weren’t up for the task! Typical Elijah!”

Does he say, “Elijah just pray about it and you’ll feel better, I promise! Do not be anxious about anything, Elijah.”

Does he say, “Just stop your worrying and get back in the game!”

NO! God doesn’t do any of these things. Did you see the first thing God does?

God Takes Care of His Basic Physical Needs

God lets him sleep and makes him a meal.

God is a wise enough father that he knows, “Hey man, half of these feelings are deeply held fears and anxieties. And the other half are because you’re tired and hangry. And we’re not gonna touch the first half until we address the second half.

Only after he is well fed and had plenty of sleep does God ask him to address his anxieties.

How many of us know that sometimes, when we’re feeling anxious, half of it would dissipate if we just had a good night’s rest and a hearty breakfast?

When you are worn out, worn down, exhausted, hungry and thirsty is the last time you want someone sitting with you and asking you to process your feelings.

I know this as a husband. 11:30pm after both kids have finally fallen asleep is not the best time to say, “Honey, what have you been so anxious about today?”

I know this as a father. The solution to a tantrum right before dinner time might not be a discussion. It just MIGHT be a meatball.

When we are anxious and afraid, God comes to take care of our basic needs first. Part of abiding in God in our anxieties is trusting him enough to just go to bed. Take a break for lunch. Eat dinner with your family. It will be ok. These are God’s good gifts to us to sustain us on the journey.

Only after Elijah sleeps and eats and drinks and sleeps and eats and drinks—two times—does God say. Ok let’s talk. And that is when God takes care of his spiritual needs.

God Takes Care of His Spiritual Needs

So Elijah is well fed and well rested, he travels forty days through the desert and God comes to meet him. And surprisingly, God doesn’t do all the talking. In fact, the first thing God does is ask a question. The first thing God does is to listen.

The New International Version Chapter 19

And the word of the LORD came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

What a gracious thing God does for Elijah! Instead of telling Elijah what he thinks, he invites Elijah to share with him. Our God desires to listen to our hearts before he shares his.

Sometimes God is silent for his own reasons, but sometimes God is silent because he’s simply waiting to hear you speak. To really speak. To pour out your heart to him. To stop avoiding your fears and anxieties and lay them out before God in all their rawness, in all their messiness.

What are you doing here, Elijah?

Elijah answers

The New International Version Chapter 19

“I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

You can hear the fear in his voice. The breathless pace with which he spills his guts to God. The unsophisticated, unedited, almost whining tone of Elijah. I’m not judging! I’m appreciative! Because Elijah doesn’t make sure his answer in prayer aligns with his systematic theology. He’s just honest with God.

Elijah is basically anxious about three things:

All of my hard work for you is going to be fruitless and meaningless.

I am the only one left - I’m totally alone in this work.

I am going to die. Then what will come of this ministry?

Now again, God takes care of Elijah in an unexpected way. He doesn’t actually address any of his anxieties directly. But addresses the root of all of them all at once. God says,

The New International Version Chapter 19

Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”

God knows that what Elijah really needs in response to his fears is not God’s pat on the back or pat answers but God’s presence and his power.

One of the most transformative opportunities our anxieties present to us is, when we bring them raw before the face of God, to experience the presence and power of God. I can tell you from experience that in the face of death, when you just might lose everything and there’s nothing you can do about it, you don’t need pat answers. You need God’s presence. You need to be able to say with the psalmist, “My heart and my flesh may fail, but the Lord is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

So God shows his presence and power to Elijah. But again! Not how we would expect.

You see,

The New International Version Chapter 19

a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire.

If we were Elijah, we would have felt and watched this hurricane force wind tear that mountain apart and say…Wow! Well, that’s God!

And then we would have felt the earth roll and slide and shake under our feet, and said, “Wow! Well, that’s God!”

And then we would have seen the fire, perhaps lighting ignite and rage through the mountainside, and said, “Wow, well that’s definitely, God!”

We expect God’s presence and power to show up in ways that we ordinarily associate with power.

But somehow Elijah knows God hasn’t even shown up yet. And then

The New International Version Chapter 19

after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

then after the fire came a gentle whisper....or you could translate the Hebrew...the gentle voice of silence.

God is not in the wind. or the earthquake. or the fire. He made the wind. He made the fire. He made the tectonic plates beneath the earth. The creator is more powerful than His creation.

Next time you’re feeling the pressures of life heavily on you, one way to abide with God is to go into nature. Redwoods. Ridgelines. Ocean views. Take it in and remember…

God is not IN them. God is OVER them.

God is not in the wind. He is over it.

God is not in the earthquake. He is over it.

God is not in the fire. He is over it.

God is more powerful than the most powerful forces in our lives. Be they natural or human, personal or systemic, spiritual or bodily. God

It was this gentle voice of silence that caused Elijah to pull his cloak over his face, fearful for his life because he knew THIS was the power of God...THIS was the presence of God and, he thought, no one could see God's face and survive it.

How many of us know that when we are in the midst of our anxieties, we think we need God to shake the mountains. We think we need him to burn our problems up. We think we need him to blow them away.

But what we really need is some quiet time with God. A moment of silence and the gentle voice of God does more to quell our anxiety than if he blew away our problems with a tornado.

Because we are GOING to face loss in this life.

What we need is a God is stronger than our problems and whose presence goes with us as we go through them.

It was that same gentle whispering voice....that gentle voice of silence, that asked the question yet again (whispered) "What are you doing here Elijah?"

Now he says the exact same words, but I imagined the second time, he said these words very differently. The first time they spilled out of him, as words do when we're anxious.

The second time, I imagine his shoulders hunched, his eyes downturned, his voice quavering because he is carrying the weight of the words as he speaks them. He almost whispers back to God.

The New International Version Chapter 19

“I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

And finally, after God has taken care of his body, after God has taken care of his spiritual needs…

God Takes Care of His Circumstances

Look what God finally says, to Elijah:

The New International Version Chapter 19

“Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. 17 Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. 18 Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”

Remember, Elijah is basically anxious about three things:

All of my hard work for you is going to be fruitless and meaningless.

I am the only one left - I’m totally alone in this work.

I am going to die. Then what will come of this ministry?

God addresses all three of them.

You’re worried you’re going to be killed by Jezebel? Well, Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha are going to be doing the killing, not Jezebel.

You’re worried you’re the only one left? You’re all alone and no one will take over when you die? Elisha will be your companion and apprentice. You're not alone.

Your worried all your hard work has been for nothing and all of the Israelites have turned away from me? Check this out: I’ve got 7000 Israelites in reserve.

God has been working behind the scenes throughout Elijah’s life in ways Elijah knew nothing about and totally undermined his fears.

How many times have you been worried in this life about things that God had already worked out?

I can tell you from my own life,

We thought we were never going to find a stable place to live. But God brought mold, a flood, and asbestos contamination to our apartment, forcing us out and saving us 6 months on rent while we stayed with friends…the exact amount of our deposit on our house, minus $100. And I can tell you, that mold was growing in our apartment long before we prayed about finding a new place to live.

We thought we were never gonna have a church that reflected the whole city of Oakland, but here again God was already working on Pastor Bernard Emerson about the same thing for years in advance.

Some of you were worried you’d never find a job that you liked, but God provided that perfect opportunity. And you wouldn’t have been ready for it unless you had been laid off of the last one.

Some of you had your heart broken by a person you thought was the love of your life. Only to discover you had yet to meet that person, and they were such a better match for you than the person who left you in the first place.

Sometimes, we have to remember, God is playing the long game. He has strategies we can’t imagine and resources we’ll never have access to. That gentle whispering voice comes from, as Elijah calls him, the LORD Almighty.

But…and this is big caveat…

what about when God doesn’t fix our circumstances?

What about when the loss moves from fear to reality?

We have to ask it, because many of the losses we fear do and will happen. And in fact we have the fears we have, we face the anxieties we face, in part precisely because these types of losses have happened to us or to others before.

We have to be honest with ourselves about that.

What does it look like to Abide in God when he takes care of our basic physical needs and basic spiritual needs but doesn’t seem to take care of our circumstances?

Well that’s why this series is not merely called abiding in God. But Abiding in Christ.

Because you see, there was another prophet who traveled 40 days through the desert in a period of intense trial. But he didn’t meet God at the end of it. He met the devil.

There was another man who poured his heart out to God, in all the rawness and messiness of his fear and anxiety, not on Mount Horeb but on Gethsemane saying, “Father, let this cup pass from me.” And his Father did not let that cup pass from him.

There was another man who’s life was threatened by the most powerful people in the region for doing the work of the Lord. Only his life was not just threatened. It was taken.

But worse than all of that, whereas God’s presence and power were with Elijah throughout his trial, the Father turned his face away from Jesus who cried at his death, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me!”

He not only experienced the worst fear and anxiety that has ever been felt, he experienced the deepest lost, the most terrifying fruition of his fears that has ever been experienced.

And even then, having been abandoned by his disciples, killed on a cross, forsaken by God, and sealed in a tomb.

Jesus rose. He rose from the grave. God’s powerful presence rested on him once more. His disciples became apostles, became a church, became a movement….No. God had not abandoned him or his work to the grave.

And how does this help you and me? Because the Bible says that anyone who is in Christ, that is, anyone who puts their trust in Jesus, will also rise up. And not only that! We will experience the restoration of all things!!!!

Do you know what that means. Whatever goodness, love and joy we have lost in this life will be restored to us. And Just like we have to go through our fears and anxieties to experience a transformed new life of faith, trust, and joy, we have to go through the grave to get to the resurrection. But rest assured. We will be raised.

But when we go to the grave, our gravestones won’t just read, “Rest in Peace,” they’ll read, “Rest Assured” because just as surely as Jesus rose so will we.

That is the ultimate Christian answer to fear and anxiety. The God who mightier than your problems in life, is also stronger than death. And with a gentle whisper he can say, “Kyle, get up. Enter my glory. Kim, get up, enter my glory. Anand, get up, enter my glory. Zach, get up enter my glory. Katie get up and enter my glory.”

The one who rose from the dead, Jesus himself, assures us of his steady presence and ultimate power even in our anxieties and fears when he says, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me….And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Amen