Dealing With Anxiety and Fear

September 19, 1999
By Pastor William R. Cunningham

Introduction

What should we do when we hear something so bad on the radio or television that we become anxious or fearful? How should we handle worry and fear that arises in our lives? What should we do when situations promote anxiety? The answer to these questions is the subject of this lesson. Consider for example the situation where someone hears a rumor that his or her job will experience a vast number of layoffs. Normally a person may feel anxious because of this news and begin to worry. He or she may worry that their job will be lost and then the thoughts are diverted to the bills and other financial responsibilities that will be in jeopardy. We begin to dig our own hole before we can really assess the situation.

In this lesson we are going to look at the Bible for information that will help us to deal with worry, anxiety, and fear. Christians should realize that we have a helper that is always available. We have someone in whom we can put our trust and hope to help us through all situations—good and bad. One thing is very common among Christians and that is that we tend to forget who we are and the help that is available to us. That help is in God.

We will begin with a discussion of feelings and emotions because these primarily fuel our anxiety and worry. Then we will move into a discussion of the impact of the feelings and emotions and how they can cause us to regress instead of progress. Next we will discuss what the Bible says about worry and where we can turn to for help.

Feelings and emotions

Feelings and emotions fuel fear and anxiety. Let’s define these terms now so that we are all on the same page. An emotion is an intense mental state that arises subjectively rather than through conscious effort and is often accompanied by physiological changes (a strong feeling). A feeling is a physical sensation or a sensation resulting from a stimulus, an effective state of consciousness. Feelings are induced by an external stimulus. It can also be induced by an internal stimulus called an emotion. What are some things we worry about? For example, we tend to worry about the following.

• Our jobs

• The bills

• The business we own

• The wife

• The husband

• Etc.

Stimulation

We need to be aware of the fact that our feelings are induced by external stimulus. We feel a certain way when something happens. We can even be led to feel a certain way by the words of someone, which in turn moves us toward the desired action. If we are not careful, the reaction to these stimuli can cause us to do things that we may regret later. Acting purely on how we feel can prove to be one of the most foolish things that we can do. Our feelings are dynamic and therefore unstable. Making decisions based on how we feel is therefore prone to error and misjudgments.

For example, feelings of inadequacy may drive someone to excel on their job. Feelings of betrayal may move someone to retaliate. Feelings of loneliness may drive a spouse into the arms of another person and perhaps ultimately into their bed. Feelings of anger may lead to violence. Consider the following scripture as an illustration of the last point.

The word "Raca" literally means "Empty head" and is an insult. Calling someone a fool is also a very serious insult. Anger can move a person to action. Insulting someone may cause the insulted party to action. These feelings of action can grow into such violent action that judgement may be eminent or even the "fire of hell." The fire of hell is a place where Jewish teachers say that people will be burned up forever or that they will be eternally tortured.

This moves us into the next discussion, which is where our feeling or emotions can lead us if gone unchecked.

The Path of Feelings and Emotions

Where do our feelings and emotions take us? Recall that your feelings and emotions are dynamic. Your emotional state of mind and the feelings you are experiencing are both influenced by the things that go on around you everyday. Therefore, your feelings and emotions change as your environment change. This implies that your feelings are not reliable. A person that follows his or her feelings or emotions is heading for trouble. Why? The feelings and emotions are not stable.

We said earlier that our feelings could lead us to decisions and actions that we may later regret. Feelings of lust can ultimately destroy a marriage. Feelings of rage can ultimately destroy the one feeling the rage and the person that is the object or target of that rage. Feelings of love can move a person to marry someone that perhaps they should not marry. We can go on and on with this. I am sure that you get the picture though. Let’s look at an example of the impact of feelings by looking at a passage of scripture in the Bible.

The important point of this passage is the message that it gives and not necessarily whether or not you believe that this is an actual historic event. First we see that Peter acted on the words of Jesus Christ. After all Jesus was on the water so I suppose that Peter figured that if Jesus told him to come out on the water that all would be well. He responded to what Jesus said and did indeed walk on the water. We should remember that the water wasn’t calm, rather there was a storm in progress and the winds were blowing and there were large waves all around. Evidently that didn’t enter Peter’s mind significantly enough to keep him from stepping out on the water.

Next, Peter begins to consider the waves and the wind around him, which causes him to become afraid. He felt fear and began to respond to that fear. Remember that Jesus was still walking on the water. The fear that Peter felt brought on the next state of mind. Peter began to doubt, which caused him to begin to sink. Let’s look at the progression of events.

1. Consideration of the environment

2. Emotions and then feelings are stimulated

3. A response occurs based on the what was felt

4. The results of the feelings begin to take effect

How often does this happen to you? How many times have you looked at your situation and feelings of hopelessness, inadequacy, or insufficiency arose. How often have you responded to your feelings instead of doing something about your situation?

The Alternative

What can we do instead of responding to our feelings and emotions? Consider the following scripture. The message the Bible gives us is very clear.

The last two verses are particularly interesting. They tell us what to do instead of worrying instead of just telling us not to worry. The scriptures from Matthew chapter six do the same thing, however you have to read Matthew 6:19-34 to get that entire message.

The message that the Bible gives us is to not worry about things. Instead, we should go to God in prayer and allow him to guide us through our situations, thus negating the need to worry. The scriptures from Matthew chapter six refer to a dependence on money or the love of money that may cause us to worry. If we depend solely on money and all of a sudden find ourselves lacking money, then we may progressively feel inadequate or even fearful because financial obligations are in danger of not being met or we will not be able to live the lifestyle we desire.

Jesus tells us, as an illustration here, that we should not put our trust in money. Instead we should trust God. If we trust money then we cannot trust God because we "cannot serve two masters." So the first step to not worrying is to put your trust in God and not things around you that are not stable or permanent.

Faith in God

Look at what the Bible tells us to do regarding managing our lives.

See also Mark 11:22-24.

We should learn to trust God. We should learn to put our faith in God instead of things. It is very easy for us to place our faith and confidence in things including others and ourselves. It is easy for us to place our trust in our abilities, money, and possessions. However, those things are temporal and therefore cannot be totally relied upon.

In order to put our faith in God we need to know what he says apart from basic church doctrine or ministerial dogma. We need to know in our own heart what God says so that we can do what he says and live by what he says (see Matthew 4:4). This doesn’t mean that everything will be like bed of roses. It doesn’t mean that trouble won’t come. We said in a previous lesson that things happen to us as a result of living on this earth. However, we have a companion and a helper that can help us to avoid such things and to deal with them if we should happen to experience them.

If our trust is in our money and possessions and then one day those things are taken from us one way or another, then typically we will have a acute feeling of hopelessness because the foundation of our life is now gone. Consider the following scripture.

Here is a typical scenario. The Philistines defeated the Israelites. Instead of consulting God as to why they lost or what they should do next, they decided to place their faith in the Ark of the Covenant. Though it was a sacred item, it was still just a "thing." Even with the Ark, which brought great hope and excitement to the Israelite camp, the Israelites were defeated decisively again and the enemy, the Philistines, took the Ark of the Covenant. The Israelite faith in the Ark proved to be fatal instead of just putting their faith in God.

How often do we put our faith in things? How many times this week did you look for strength, confidence, hope, or sustenance from a thing or person? We wonder why we can’t progress the way we want to and why we can’t have the things that we want. Our focus is all wrong and our faith is directed in the wrong direction.

The point is this—Put your faith in God and not things! Yes we will depend on things for day to day activities but do not let those things be the SOURCE or foundation of you faith. Let your foundation of faith be on God. Govern your life based on what the Bible teach us and not on the empty words of man and is dogma.

Take Action

There is one other thing that I would like to add to our discussion. Not worrying is good and trusting God is good. However, these mean nothing if we don’t take action. For example, Solomon says:

This means that we have to take an active role in implementing the solution to our problems. We can’t just sit back and declare that we are trusting God and do nothing. We have to take action. This action may mean research, physically doing something, or whatever. The point is that we have to do something about the situations that we are in instead of just sitting back worrying and feeling sorry for ourselves or declaring that we are trusting God and He will take care of everything for us. The Bible tells us that the Christian faith in the life of a person is meaningless if there is no corresponding action to show it (James 2:17, 26). I believe that principle applies on a wider scope. Our faith in God is meaningless if we don’t do something about the things in our lives.

Results

We have found that the alternative to worrying about stuff is to have our faith directed to God. If our faith and trust are on things or people then we are destined to find ourselves in a position where our hope is lost because the thing is gone. However, God will never abandon us though we may think so or feel like he has. Regardless of what happens to us, we can place our trust in God to sustain us. True life can be experienced if we just learn to trust God and live according to what he says.

Of course before you can really trust God and live by his word, you must be a part of his family. That is, you have to believe in Jesus Christ and gain all of the privileges and benefits of being reconciled to God. We could say that we have a right to expect God to hear us and do what we ask according to what he has said.

So don’t worry—trust God.