Anxiety 2.0

Php 4:6  Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  NASB

Anxious:  μεριμνάω  merimnaō

1) to be anxious

1a) to be troubled with cares

2) to care for, look out for (a thing)

2a) to seek to promote one’s interests

2b) caring or providing for

There is a related word that we ought to attend to as well:  μερίζω  merizō.  This work means to divide, to split into factions; to be disunited.  The reason I include merizō is that it gives a clearer sense of what we’re being told in this verse.  This word carried the idea of being distracted – diverted from the course set.

It is normal to be “anxious” – is it not?  Are we not told that we will be hated and have tribulation?  Are we not told we are engaged in a war?  Are we not warned of Satan’s desire to entrap and impale us?  How then could we never be anxious?

If you want to get hard core we are told here to “Be anxious,” but to be anxious for nothing 

But – that aside, we need to understand that the point here is to enjoin us to not be “disunited,” or as my grandfather would say, “discombobulated” for nothing.  We are not to let anything distract us from, well, the faith.

OK – for the rookies.  I want you to remember that the Christ did not die to make life here a party – or even nice.  He died so that we might be redeemed into God’s family and have the assurance of eternal life with Him.  That’s what we cannot afford to be distracted from. 

We should also remember that God’s desire for us here is to grow in righteousness.  He does not want us to be distracted from that either.  The anxiety He presents here in Phil. Is an anxiety that distracts us from those truths and make other things of equal or greater importance and concern.

I know a man who is struggling with anxiety over his circumstances.  Work, money, the future all seem to loom over him pressing him down.  The constant battle he faces is in trying to work it out, figure it out, fix it, etc. apart from his dependence upon God.  The shame and humiliation that would attend the worst case scenario plaques most of his waking moments, even his dreams.  A sense of a wasted life, uselessness and failure rise up in his throat like bile.

He’s afraid to do anything because the thought keeps running in his head that if he does the wrong thing, God will smack him.  All of his past errors and sin raise their ugly heads to accuse and offer proof of his unfitness for God’s blessing.  In his anxiety, he is frozen. 

He wants to pray but feels that would be disingenuous.  He has thoughts of ramping up his practices, good works, prayer, stewardship – but he knows that comes from the wrong direction.  The subtle thought that if he just does X God will rescue him freezes his mind and heart.

This is the anxiety of which Paul writes.  I had one person describe it as feeling like what it must be like to be water-boarded.  It’s a paralyzing, smothering sense of distress. 

Knowing his redemption is sure; Knowing that he is a child of God; Knowing that God works all thing for the good of those who love him, he still struggles desperately though quietly; all the while pushing forward to meet his obligations and commitments. 

He yearns to be with the Lord but even here it is dangerous.  To be with the Lord one must shuffle off this mortal coil.  Yet he knows that perhaps he wants more to be out of his circumstances than to be - well – dead.  So he even questions his desire for God and the eternal life Christ purchased for him.

He does not trust his own mind and struggles with God entrusting him because of his failures.  Oh, he knows these are all the strategies of the world, the flesh and the Devil but knowing the source doesn’t reduce the injury. 

He fights being “distracted,” or “diverted,” rom the course set before him.  He struggles with every fiber of his being to push through the darkness and dismay.  Like the prophet he would sit under a tree and invite God to take his life.  Like Job he would scorn the day of his birth.

There is no “cure” for his anxiety, only an alternative.

“but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God”

Interestingly he does not struggle with being thankful.  He knows all he has to be thankful for.  It is the nature and content of his requests that concern him.  He wants to pray for what he needs but what he thinks he needs smacks too much of what he wants.  He wants to ask for the right thing but he does not trust his thoughts on what the right thing is.  What should he request?

Now, for you and me, what he should pray for may be clear and simple.  Homey but true, “It’s hard to remember the job was to drain the swamp when you’re up to your behind in alligators.”  We also have to remember that one man’s gecko is another man’s alligator.

Then we find:

Rom 8:26-27  In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;  (27)  and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

That, then, is his only active hope.  Unable to trust himself, his heart, his mind, he must trust the Spirit of God to untangle all the “stuff” and to present to God those groanings.  Yes, sometimes we need to “be still.”  Not just to hear from God but to speak to Him as well.

“Being still,” isn’t easy.  We need to pray to be still.  When our minds and hearts a racing, when we are hard pressed inside and out being still is as hard as turning the other cheek – perhaps harder.

The real distressing part of this is that we are not prone to carry these burdens to the Body.  There is too much of a stigma attached.  Not only that, but there is often nothing available except shallow platitudes or castigation.  So in these circumstances the individual is left to deal with it alone.  All too often – most often – this results in a catastrophe of faith.

Yes, I know that the Romans verse is followed by:

Rom 8:28  And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

This is indeed a great and true assurance but like children who have suffered an injury the assurance that, “It will be OK,” doesn’t stop the pain or quell the fear.

Any thoughts?