Part 4: Fight Anxiety With Thankfulness

Introduction

What makes you anxious? We are all anxious about something - relationships, money, health, the future. We worry so much that it seems like a natural part of life. Some of us probably don’t know what to do with ourselves if we aren’t anxious about something.

Why This Matters

Anxiety takes your life away. First, it eat at the quality of your life, and then it kills you. Matthew 6:27 “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”

Signs of Worry

https://www.healthline.com/health/anxiety/effects-on-body

Headaches

A sense of doom

Panic attacks

Depression

Irritability

Breathing Problems

Pounding heart

Upset stomach

Loss of sexual desire

Extreme fatigue

High blood pressure

Random aches or pains in the body

How To Fight Anxiety / 6 Imperatives

1. Rejoice in the Lord. This command seems impossible in light of all that life throws at us. Their friend Paul is in jail, they’ve suffered relational conflict, and that is aside from pressure from outside the church, such as persecution. Paul repeats this command because of this objection. We shouldn’t be focus on our problems but on joy, and it this is possible!

2. Let your gentleness be evident to all. This word is difficult to translate without under-translating it because it encompasses many qualities such as forbearance, temperance, kind, lenient or yielding, gracious. Perhaps a good summary word in place of gentleness is considerate. This is important because when we are anxious, we push to get our way - we violent!

James 4:1–2 NIV

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.

3. Do not be anxious about anything. Is anxiety bad? It depends.

Collins English Dictionary—8th Edition anxiety

anxiety (æŋˈzaɪɪtɪ) n, pl -ties 1 a state of uneasiness or tension caused by apprehension of possible future misfortune, danger, etc.; worry 2 intense desire; eagerness 3 psychol a state of intense apprehension or worry often accompanied by physical symptoms such as shaking, intense feelings in the gut, etc., common in mental illness or after a very distressing experience.

Paul echoes Jesus in Matthew 6:25-34

Matthew 6:25–34 (NIV)

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

This is worry in the bad sense. Paul shows us worry in a good sense. 2 examples:

1 Corinthians 7:32–33 (NIV)

I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife—

Philippians 2:19–22 (NIV)

I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you. I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare. For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.

4. Present your requests to God.

Prayer. Prayer is talking to God and its the first thing we should do to be deal with our problems. This is how we combat anxiety. This actually works, I’ve done this myself.

Petition. We have needs and we worship when we acknowledge that only God can meet our needs. God listens to us, like a loving parent to a child, when we bring our needs to him.

Thanksgiving. This is the opposite of grumbling. This is the 2 tenants of language. Thanksgiving is words that express how grateful we are for what God has done. Complaining is accusing God of being evil, or at least, neglectful of us.

5. Think about good things.

Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1-2 Thessalonians & Philemon Commentary

1. True (alēthē [227, 239])—This speaks of what is valid, reliable, and honest.

2. Honorable (semna [4586, 4948])—This speaks of what is noble. It is used only by Paul in the New Testament (1 Tim 3:8, 11; Titus 2:2) as a quality that should be exhibited in elders.

3. Right (dikaia [1342, 1465])—This refers to what is just and fair.

4. Pure (hagna [53, 54])—This denotes moral purity.

5. Lovely (prosphilē [4375, 4713])—This refers to what is amiable and beautiful, pleasing and agreeable. This is the only occurrence of the word in the New Testament; it appears in Esther 5:2 (LXX). In Greek writings, it is used to describe people who are kindly affectioned, well disposed, agreeable, and friendly (LSJ 1530).

6. Admirable (euphēma [2163, 2368])—This connotes what is of good repute and what is winsome.

7. Excellent (aretē [703, 746])—This denotes virtue, excellence, goodness. This is the only time Paul used the word; the other occurrences of it in the New Testament are 1 Peter 2:9; 2 Peter 1:3, 5. As far as the Stoic philosophers were concerned, aretē was the greatest of all virtues.

8. Worthy of praise (epainos [1868, 2047])—This denotes conduct that wins the praise of others.

6. Practice the good you see in others

Philippians 4:9 (NIV)

Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

You become what you behold. Who do you look up to?

Luke 6:40 NIV

The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.

You are not an island to yourself. You are constantly borrowing ideas from other people and mingling them with other ideas you got from other people. This is why who we listen to and watch are fundamentally important. Nothing is simply ‘entertainment.’

Closing

There is good stress and bad stress. There are thing we should be concerned about because love makes us care. But there is a shadow-side of stress that kills us - when we try to be God over our world.

I am thankful that we have a God who invites us to give him our anxiety, our worries. We can tell him everything that is on our minds because he cares for us. Remember