TLIC PROVERBS. JUNE 3: ANXIETY.

Proverbs 12:25. Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.

Anxiety is an increasing problem for so many people these days. Do you ever feel anxious? I do. Sometimes I know what is causing my anxiety, and sometimes I don’t. This proverb doesn’t tell us the cause of the man’s anxious heart. It only tells us the effect – it weighs him down. It brings depression, a heaviness of heart. Anxiety and depression go hand in hand don’t they? Worry and fear, even when we know they are not rational, can debilitate us, preventing us from being able to move forward in life.

The Bible assumes we are all anxious to some degree. Fear is a normal part of being human, isn’t it? A certain level of anxiety, worry, and fear are hardwired into our brains for our good. Imagine if you went through life without any fear or worry. That would be a foolish and dangerous way to live, wouldn’t it? 

Not only would living without fear or worry be unsafe it would be unloving. Fear and worry spring from love. They are the opposite of apathy. If we love or care for anything or anyone at all, we will have some anxiety because we will always worry, at least in part, about that person or thing that we love. And that’s normal.

The problem is when our anxiety weighs us down. Like carrying a heavy weight over a long distance, too much anxiety brings a depression that makes us just want to quit carrying the load. And when the load gets too heavy, we will do anything to get rid of it, even rejecting the calling of God on our lives.

What’s the cure for anxiety? A good word. This is exactly what Jesus gave us in the gospels, a good word of God’s love and faithful care for us.

Matthew 6:25-33. ²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? ²⁸And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³²For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Every one of us needs someone who will speak this good word into our lives. The good word of our value to God and God’s love for us. The good word of the birds and flowers. The good word that Christ can and does satisfy every basic need and every deep longing of our souls.

The gospel is the good word that we must learn to speak to one another. This is how we will make glad one another’s hearts, by speaking the good word of grace in Christ to the anxious and weighed down heart.

You: Do you ever feel anxious? Weighed down?

You in Christ: How can you speak the good word of your union with Christ to your own heart on a regular basis?

Christ in you: Is there someone that you can speak the good word of grace in Christ to this week, and thus help them overcome their anxiety?

Pray: Jesus, make my heart glad. Replace my anxious fear with faith in your good word. Amen.