Whence Anxiety? -- Part 2
When Adam and Eve chose to find their value, security, and comfort in their own efforts, when they traded “Thou” for “I”, they took on the characteristic of satan we call ‘pride’, and released pride into our human nature where it resides, even thrives, today. Coupled with pride – the dependence upon self for our ultimate value, security, and comfort – came the curse of anxiety. “What if I fail”, “What if I am not strong enough”, “What if we have a drought and the crops don’t grow”, “What if I get sick and can’t provide”, “What if the economy crashes”, “What if I can’t get enough toilet paper”. “What if,” – the two words that always precede an anxious thought.
Pride and anxiety are inextricably linked, the proverbial ‘two sides of the same coin’. Where there is pride, there will always be anxiety; where there is anxiety, there will always be pride. (Remember, I am not describing a medical or psychiatric condition. I am describing ordinary anxiety that every person experiences; although, I believe God can cure anxiety that medicine has not).
Anxiety is a curse that can destroy a human heart, filling a person with fear and despair. Fear attracts demons, in the same way carrion attracts vultures. Pride is a sin, and sin opens the door, letting the curse of anxiety into our heart. The anxious heart is not a Kingdom heart, in the same way the offendable heart is not a Kingdom heart.
Pride and its curse, anxiety, are described in Deuteronomy. In preparation for crossing the Jordan River into the Promised Land, a picture of Israel’s life with God restored back to the relationship God had with Adam and Eve, Moses sent 6 of the tribes up to the top of Mount Gerizim and the other 6 to the top of Mount Ebal to pronounce blessings and curses over the 12 tribes. On Mount Ebal, 12 curses were pronounced over Israel.
Here is the first, or ‘greatest’ curse:
“Cursed is the man who carves an image or casts an idol – a thing detestable to the Lord, the work of the craftsman’s hands – and sets it up in secret. Then all the people shall say, Amen” (Deuteronomy 27: 15).
This curse is connected with the first 2 of the 10 commandments — which describe idolatry or pride. It is a mistake to take this passage too literally. You might think, “I don’t have any carved or cast idols in my house” (You would be surprised how many Christians have a statue of Buddha or a ‘folk art’ painting or sculpture of a god in their home). But God’s meaning is broader than a wooden or metal image or idol. God is referring to all idols – anything in our life that has taken the place of God as the center of our worship. As I wrote above, God is talking about pride – exactly what got God Adam and Eve in trouble when they chose ‘self’ over God.
So, what are the curses for idolatry or worship of self? Plenty (see Deuteronomy 28: 15 – 68). Among these curses here are a few: “Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks” (Deuteronomy 28: 17. 18); the curse of insufficiency or lack – not having what you need; the opposite of God’s provision. In other words, the very causes of anxiety.
God goes on to say, speaking about living in a place separated from Him and the Promised Land, “There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life” (Deuteronomy 28: 65, 66). These words are a good description of life in the kingdom of the world, apart from Jesus and His Kingdom life, as a result of pride.
Pride and anxiety go hand-in-hand.
Where there is pride, there can be no faith. Without faith, there is no Kingdom life because it is by grace, through faith, that we are saved. As I have written many times and provided Scripture to back it up, salvation means life in the Kingdom of God. And without Kingdom life growing in us, we cannot be rid of the curse of anxiety.
Most people believe they can rid themselves of anxiety. That is false. Anxiety is more than an emotion. It is a curse passed down to us through generations. To be free from anxiety, the curse and its effects must be broken. To think we can set ourselves free is another manifestation of pride!
But there is hope – wonderful, living, present, and powerful hope. Hope is a person – Jesus. Jesus died to set us free from sin – and pride is the root of a long list of sins – and the associated curse of anxiety under which we lived in bondage. As Paul wrote, “Let me be clear, the Anointed One has set us free – not partially, but completely and wonderfully free! We must always cherish this truth and stubbornly refuse to go back into the bondage of our past” (Galatians 5: 1 TPT). The bondage Paul is talking about is bondage to sin, especially the sin of pride, and the curse of anxiety with the associated curses of shame and fear.
Jesus tells us specifically how to be rid of anxiety – or at least begin to be released from the bondage of anxiety. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses anxiety (translated in the NIV as ‘worry’. The Greek word is merimnao, meaning “to be anxious about, troubled with cares”).
“Therefore, I tell you do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; about your body, what you will wear . . . So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them” (Matthew 6: 25, 31 NIV).
Jesus is telling us to not be anxious, because God will provide all our needs – our daily needs for food and clothing as well as our needs for security, comfort, and value. He is trustworthy. We don’t need more knowledge; we need more trust in God.
And then Jesus tells us how to deal with anxiety. Here it is, the secret to the anxious-free life:
“So above all, constantly chase after the realm of God’s Kingdom and the righteousness that proceeds from Him. Then all these less important things will be given to you abundantly. Refuse to worry (‘be anxious about’) about tomorrow, but deal with each challenge that comes our way, one day at a time. Tomorrow will take care of itself” (Matthew 6: 33, 34 TPT).
You probably know this passage in a more familiar translation, the NIV, for example. Here is verse 33:
“But first seek His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”.
Chase after (seek) His Kingdom and His righteousness and everything you need – all your security, comfort, and value – will be given to you by God in exactly the same way God provided for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before they disobeyed God. When you believe and trust this, your life will be free from anxiety (at least, most anxiety).
What does it mean to “chase after His Kingdom”? You have a role to play, but the work is done by the Holy Spirit. We seek or chase after His kingdom by seeking or chasing after Jesus. We begin by acknowledging and renouncing our pride – self-worship, or demanding the right to our self, or putting ourselves on the throne of our lives, or seeking our value, security, and comfort in our own power, apart from God – all definitions of pride. Confess pride by telling Jesus, “Lord, I renounce my selfishness, my need to be in control, and my self-centeredness. I renounce the sin of pride. Lord, forgive me; I forgive myself”.
Then ask Jesus to circumcise your heart. When you ask Jesus this, the Holy Spirit will begin to cut away your spiritual flesh, or your pride.
We seek His righteousness or His holiness, when we ask Jesus to cleanse our heart from unrighteousness. In the same way as King Hezekiah commanded the priests to carry the uncleanliness out of the Holy Place, we must give the Holy Spirit permission to cleanse our heart. We do this by telling Jesus, “Lord, I choose today to give the sin of pride to you. Please set me free. Remove pride from my heart, wash me clean.” Then in your mind, give the pride to Jesus.
Confessing and renouncing pride, asking Jesus for forgiveness, and then lifting the sin to Him is the cleansing act of repentance. There is no Kingdom life apart from repentance!
In his book, ‘The House of the Lord’, Francis Frangipane says this:
“Before the Eternal One moves visibly in power, He moves invisibly in holiness. He cleanses His house (our heart – God’s temple). Then the outward signs of restoration and revival, the miracles and true conversions can come forth” (pgs. 18, 19)
Next, confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. We do this in the power of the Holy Spirit. When we pray this prayer, Scripture tells us we will be saved.
This prayer gains us entrance into the Kingdom of God. And in that moment, something amazing happens. Your spirit is filled with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In your sprit, you have all the power, joy, hope, peace, faith, and wisdom that the Triune God can give you. Now, if you ask the Holy Spirit give me more peace (for example), He will say, “You have all the peace I can give you”. “But, Holy Spirit”, you might say, “I am still anxious.”
We are still anxious because our soul, the seat of our emotions, including anxiety; will, and intellect must now be brought under the control and authority of our spirit (the opposite was true before you entered the Kingdom of God – your life was under the control of your soul, aka self). We must give the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit every part of our life, including our soul. We must surrender, submit, and ask Jesus to rule and reign over every part of us – we must seek or chase after the Kingdom of God to fill every part of our life. That seeking or chasing is a process – a journey – called sanctification. It is under the direction and authority of the Holy Spirit, but we have a role to play.
We seek or chase after Jesus by praying continually, by continuing to repent, by filling our lives with the words and ways of God (for example, be a Philippians 4: 8 man or woman), by seeking to emulate Jesus in all that we do, and by always desiring His presence in our lives. If we do these things, in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, as Paul says, “The God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4: 9).
Humility is the opposite of pride. The antidote to anxiety is humility — finding all of our security, value, and comfort in Jesus. Peter reminds us: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5: 6, 7 NIV). Good advice; humility instead of pride, the work of God instead of ‘self help’. Trust God and bring all your negative emotions, fears, and sins to Him, and He will lift you up. The end result — a holy and righteous life, free or largely free from anxiety, worry, and fear. Hallelujah!
Finally, although Jesus became a curse for us (Galatians 3: 13), we need to renounce the curse of anxiety and the effects that curse has had on our lives. It is not complicated. You can pray, “Jesus, I renounce the generational curse of anxiety. I renounce the effects this curse has had on my life. I cast out of my heart this curse and its effects, and send all of it to Jesus. Amen”
We chase after Jesus in one other important, essential way: we worship the King of Kings.
Jesus wants to restore (Jesus restores!) each of us back to the relationship He had with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He died on the cross to make this possible. On the cross He became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5: 21), even though we still need to repent of sin. In the same way, Jesus became a curse for us (Galatians 3: 13), setting us free from the curse of anxiety, even though we still need to renounce the curse. When we repent, confess Him as Lord, and enter into the Kingdom of God (now, not just when we die), He will become our peace. There is no anxiety in the Kingdom of God, because in the Kingdom of God pride does not exist – Jesus is all in all.
Be anxious for nothing — trust Jesus!
John