Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
If anyone gets to know me, or if you’ve been around this blog, it won’t be too long until you’ll find out that anxiety has been a major issue I’ve had to deal with in my life. Someone could say, “Well, you’re anxious due to issues, real concerns.” And yes, that’s right. I have in recent years coped with anxiety better, maybe much better than sometimes in the past. If one can find a healthy coping mechanism so to speak, that might give one a window or the space needed to learn to deal with anxiety in ways helpful to them, that seems to me all very well and good.
There are actually many places in Scripture to draw help from when thinking about, anticipating, or experiencing anxiety. The psalms are chalk full of expressions of anxiety mixed with expressions of faith, even if a faith expressed in cries of desperation. Also the stories in the Bible, and don’t ever leave the Old Testament behind. In light of God as revealed in Jesus, we’re not going to take a good number of the Old Testament stories as correlated one to one, totally prescriptive for us today. My “sling and stone” will always be metaphorical, never for an actual flesh and blood enemy.
If there’s one spot I land on or return to again and again when dealing with anxiety, it’s Paul’s words here in Philippians. It is good, even important to read everything in context. Clicking the link above will put one into the section of Scripture, these words on anxiety are found. And better yet, read the entire book of Philippians, a relatively short read. We need less “precious promise” books and more reading of Scripture. Often the promises are taken out of context and more or less misapplied. I am not against such books myself. All I’m saying is that nothing replaces reading and studying and meditating on Scripture as a whole.
Now to Paul’s instruction for us. It seems odd, really impossible to not be anxious about anything. That depends precisely on what is meant, but we do well to do exactly as told here. When we’re considering anything which we know might take us down the path of anxiety, we pray to God with thanksgiving, letting God know all of our concerns, asking God for good answers as best we understand that. Then comes the promise that we’ll be living in God’s peace. Remember, that peace does not depend on circumstances. If it did, none of us would ever have it.
One last thought. We can read and consider this passage from a position of privilege, never encountering the dangers and ills that daily beset billions on our planet. That doesn’t mean this passage doesn’t apply to us, but it does mean that we will do well to take steps even towards what might well make us anxious, step out of our comfort zones, enter somehow into the suffering and world of others. Any number of ways to do that, through giving what resources we have, our time, ourselves, in ways that are healthy for us, but also self-sacrificial in love, the love of God in Jesus.
All the while stepping towards and being immersed in God’s peace in Jesus.
Jesus community 