Midweek: Concern or Anxiety?

But I'm just concerned.

Nothing seems to be working. I'm just trying to figure out a way...

Sure, we get concerned. Sure, we don't give up after the first try. But when does "concern" become anxiety? When does perseverance become defiance or obsession? I know I said last week was the last installment of our series on anxiety; but I was cleaning my office the other day and came across some notes. On anxiety, of course. I figured they were worth mentioning.

So, how do we know when we've crossed from simple problem solving or resolution and tenacity into something much less godly? Well, that's our Number One: We are more interested in what we want, in the outcome we have planned, than what God wants. God wants us to walk in His peace (John 14:27). God wants us to abide in His power (John 15:7). God wants us to do all things to His glory (1 Corinthians 10:31). Can it be the time for street preaching is over? Can it be the contribution the shelter has counted on for years is not coming --by God's design? Can it be the plans we have made are not God's plan for us? When we're not okay with the answer to those questions being Yes, when we're plotting and fixing and managing ad nauseum just to achieve the outcome we think is preferred, we've gone beyond perseverance and concern. (Chances are that we've left behind prayer as well.) And we are deep into the woods of anxiety.  

Number Two: We are hurried/pressured into making unsound decisions. Concern prays, looks at the options, gathers information, and makes decisions based on facts and the Holy Spirit's direction. But anxiety? Well, you've heard the sales pitch before: If you sign with us today, we'll give you a free estimate on that new bathroom you've been wanting. Satan's got a few of his own as well. If you don't tithe this month, you can afford it. Or, If you don't take the overtime work is offering this Sunday, they won't ask you again. Or this one, God hasn't answered; He's hanging you out to dry. Better figure it out yourself. Anxiety takes all of the weight and places it on us when Scripture clearly says we are to cast our cares on Jesus (1 Peter 5:6, 7).

Number Three: We are constantly agitated. Concern might have us quiet, praying throughout the hours of the day, lifting the situation and its varied dimensions as they appear up to the Lord. But anxiety causes a physical response: grinding your teeth, snapping at drivers, avoiding eye contact with your children, blind to the beauty of cloudless skies and chirping of crickets. I'm just hyper-focused. Maybe, for a period of time; but if you go through life feeling tense and annoyed by everyone and everything, you are wrong. Plain and simple, cut and dried. (Personal hang-up here.) We are made for relationship, with our Creator and with others; if we can't find joy in any or all of those things, we need a change of heart. And maybe a Sabbath or two (Isaiah 40:31).  

Number Four: We are constantly mulling the situation over, talking it out even when our ability to do anything is at zero. Concern may be the initial response; concern may lead us to seek answers or take action; but once it has been established there is nothing in our power to be done, we must relinquish all our plans, our desires, our emotions to the Lord. Any more thinking, ranting, drinking, eating, pacing, smoking, or stressing over it is anxiety. The jury is out and what are you doing? The test results will take a week; have you slept at all? You've trained them and prayed for them; are you able to keep your hands off of your adult children's lives? Yes, we have concerns --who wouldn't? God gave us emotions. But those emotions are there as warning lights on the dashboard of our lives, to send us to our knees and draw us to Him. All of that late at night, staring at the ceiling, obsessing over where you will ever find the time to clean before guests arrive --it's not the best use of your time before a busy day; common sense will tell you that. But worse than that, it's anxiety. Better to pray God's will be done and be amazed at how He handles the situation! (Philippians 4:6, 7)

Anxiety is the thief of peace. We willing lay down the gift of God's presence in our circumstances because we want control. Will God do it the way I want it to be done? Hopefully not. The God of the universe, the God who knows the end from the beginning, the God who calls things that are not as though they are, the God who loves His people with an everlasting hesed --this is the God who wants to handle outcomes and carry burdens. This is the God who hears our concerns and will walk with us in the peace that dismantles anxiety.