Hold up your shield of faith today and slay those anxious thoughts with the sword of the Spirit.
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SHAUNA: Hi, I’m Shauna on Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope with a few helpful words from Joni about anxiety.
JONI: Now, I don’t consider myself an anxious person. But occasionally, when I look to the future, I can feel anxiety gnawing on the edges of my heart. It’s just a hint, just a whisper, but I know that anxiety is there. Anxiety produces thoughts like: ‘You think you have chronic pain now? You just wait ‘til you get a little older.’ And other thoughts like: ‘What if something happens to Ken? He’s your primary caregiver. How will you manage without him?’ See what I mean? Anxiety is common to any person, but Christians – and I’m talking to myself here – Christians must do all we can to make it uncommon. For the follower of Jesus, anxiety should not be a way of life. And we battle it by holding fast to the promises of God.
For instance, if I get a cold, it is so dangerous, and here we are in February, smack of the middle of the cold season. People at work and at the supermarket have been coughing. Man, if I get sick, it could quickly settle into my quadriplegic lungs which are pretty weak. So, as soon as I sense that I’m getting anxious about being sick, I battle my fear with the promise from Psalm 34: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” And if I do happen to fall ill then I take the promise of Romans 5 with great trembling, knowing that “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” When I feel anxious about getting older, and how much harder it will be, I battle that anxiety with the promise from Isaiah 46 where God says, “I will be the same until your old age, and I will bear you up when you turn gray. Because I have made you, and I will carry you, I will bear and save you.” Wow!
I can also be anxious about the things I constantly need to let go of; things I need to die to. And when I feel anxiety start to rise, I battle it with the promise that “None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord.” So then when my pain gets so overwhelming, I just feel like throwing in the towel, I battle those anxious thoughts with the promise that, “He who began a good work in me is going to bring it to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.” You know, there are so many things we could fight over in this world; so many people we could do battle with. But as Dr. John Piper says, “Let us make war, not with other people, but with our own unbelief. It is the root of anxiety, which, in turn, is the root of so many other sins.”
Friend, I want you to join me today in standing on the promises of God; like the ones I’ve mentioned. We need to constantly remind our spirit, instruct our hearts, and strengthen our faith on God’s promises. So, fight the good fight – whatever shortcoming you’re wrestling with, whatever sin has you fearful or anxious; battle it. Hold up your shield of faith today; slay those anxious thoughts with the sword of the Spirit; that is, the promises of God. It’s what makes the good fight so very, very good for Christians.
SHAUNA: And friend, we’d love to hear your thoughts on this, so drop us a comment, would you, at joniradio.org. Let us know what Bible promises are helping you overcome anxiety and fear. Tell us all about it and leave us your prayer requests at joniradio.org.
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