The End of Anxiety
Written By Ravi Hans
If you search the Internet for answers on how to get rid of anxiety, you will find a number of suggestions. Some advise setting aside an hour a day to do nothing but worry, while others say to make a list of your anxieties so you can focus on them later in the day. However, God’s Word has a simple and clear solution to anxiety, and it’s spelled out for us in Philippians 4:6-7.
Philippians 4:6-7 (ESV)
6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
God would have us anxious about nothing! The antidote is simple: “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Let’s break that down.
First, we pray to God in everything. Today Christians have two ways to pray: prayer with the understanding and prayer with the spirit. We can either speak in tongues about the situation that’s making us anxious, or we can pray to God with our understanding. Note that we are to pray in everything that makes us anxious, so that includes big and small things. Next, we make supplication, which means heart-felt, specific requests. When we make our requests known to God, we can be bold. This isn’t a time to be timid. We can let God know exactly what it is that is making us anxious. We can even let Him know what it would take for us to stop being anxious. Finally, we are to pray and make our specific requests with thanksgiving. Of course, that doesn’t mean we are supposed to be thankful for the things that worry us. Rather, we can be thankful to God for all the ways in which He’s blessed and provided for us. We can also be thankful to God for Who He is and for all that He has done for us in Christ, and for all the many promises He has made to us in the Bible. This might be a good time to open the Bible and find passages to remind us of God’s power and might.
The result? The peace of God will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Verse 7 does not guarantee that we will get our requests, but it does guarantee that the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds! And that’s because the opposite of anxiety is peace. When we are anxious, we need peace, and God promises to give us peace that passes understanding when we pray and make our requests known to Him, with thanksgiving. How God brings this about is not specified in the passage. Perhaps God will show us how He is going to take care of the situation. Perhaps He will tell us what to do to resolve the problem. How God brings peace is up to God. Our job is simply to pray and make our requests, with thanksgiving. Once we have peace, we can go about our life. Should the anxiety return, we can repeat the process until we get the peace we need.
The next time you are anxious about something, big or small, try the godly solution given to us in Philippians 4:6-7. It really is the end of anxiety!