Gospel

Friends under anxiety

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

Anxiety weighs down a friend. Especially crushing is the unspecified general feeling of dread. So what is the good word capable of lifting the weight and letting gladness spring up in the heart?

I don’t know. I’m sure there is no formula for the “good word.” The good word is discovered in the give and take of friendship. A person under anxiety will seek connection. But it seems from my own experiences that those first attempts at connecting often go wrong or are dissatisfying. Those of us “outside” the weight may be busy, may diminish the feelings and the situation, and just may miss the bid for connection.

And therein is the danger for friends under anxiety. When the bid for connection doesn’t deliver quickly the brain and body moves on to something else in a hurry. Like a baby goose imprinting on its mother those of us under the weight of anxiety are all likely to latch on to something or someone that “makes us feel better” for the moment.

So, what’s the good word that makes one glad? Think about it. What’s it been for you? 

Well for me, most often it is a word delivered by a friend. It may be as simple as “I’m glad to see you” and accompanied by a smile. Usually its a word delivered after listening and questioning. This good word both recognizes the anxiety and calls me to courage. This good word might be buried in a story. But usually “this good word” highlights a good and noble quality possessed by me and calls it forward as a strength.

This good word… may also point to reasons for hope and faith outside of me to which I may intrust myself. Even if I initially resist this kind of good word from a friend, it still has landed in my heart… even for a moment. This is what the Gospel does; it grounds us in the reality of God’s tender mercy and powerful strength for us. And so I believe that though the good words of formal blessings may seem strange to our common conversation patterns, they are powerful for us. Here are three:

Romans 15:13
I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

 
Romans 16:19-20 
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But everyone knows that you are obedient to the Lord. This makes me very happy. I want you to be wise in doing right and to stay innocent of any wrong. 20The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

 
Numbers 6:24-26
24May the LORD bless you and protect you.
25May the LORD smile on you and be gracious to you.
26May the LORD show you his favour and give you his peace.
You probably have friends under anxiety. I hope you will connect with them and see if the Spirit of God generates a good word between you. A good word cannot be rushed!

I pray for you, that our Sovereign LORD would give you His words of wisdom so that you may know how to encourage the anxious. May He waken you morning by morning and open your understanding to His will. (Drawn from Isaiah 50:4)

Resurrection People have been disrupted by Jesus.

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5Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. 6We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. 9We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. 11So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:5-11

 

Jesus is the master of disruption. He disrupts our lives so we can love and connect by first being loved and connected to God through Him. When His disruptions begin we may be troubled by the challenge we feel to our beliefs, behaviours, and attitudes. We may worry — what do others think of us? We may fear — what we are going to miss out on? But surely as we engage faith and become curious about the rumbling in our mind, body, and soul we will see a new day and a new life emerging.

Disruption is required! Its required so we can enter into the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Gospel life is not a life of dual citizenship. Really! Today many countries allow “dual citizenship” and people are walking around with multiple passports. But the Kingdom-life with Jesus is not like that. We must surrender our passport to the “old life” and the “old nature” in order to fully receive and live into the new life of the Kingdom of God. That’s disruptive! We have to die to the old life and its claim on us. Turning over a passport may initially seem limiting and scary if you have retained deep connections, hopes, and dreams fuelled by a residence in the “old country.” But life in the new country, as my father who immigrated from Ireland declared to me, “cannot be lived looking over your shoulder.”

We must reckon with with this truth about the Kingdom of God: it is not meant to be lived looking over our shoulder. Life in the Kingdom of God is meant to be looking forward to Jesus and what He redeems and plants anew in our lives.

Discipleship, then, is a continual process of consideration of our union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. We are intended to be Resurrection People so we must

“consider [ourselves] to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.”

Why would we bother with the hard work of waiting and wading with Jesus? Because He is the master of disruption; He disrupts death!

“And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. 9We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God.”

So now, we too may live for the glory of God as Resurrection People!

 

Following Jesus Through the Gospels During Holy Week

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This is “Holy Week” or the week of Jesus’ “passion.” Christians are following Jesus through the events of His life on the journey toward the Cross and to His Resurrection. Its a helpful practice to read and reflect on the events of “Holy Week.”  Professor Michael J. Wilkins has created a “harmony” of the Gospels for Holy Week and the publishers of the ESV (Crossway) have made it available in an interactive form.

I suggest you read and pray through the texts for each day. Jesus’ disciples followed Him into this week and the Gospel writers gave substantially more script to recording the last week of Jesus’ life in order to capture the significance of His death and resurrection. Set yourself into the very real and human moments of the week in which our Saviour persists in displaying His unity with our Heavenly Father’s plan to forgive sinners and draw them into His love.

When I was preparing for the “Palm Sunday” message I was floored by a little line I have just breezed past for years.

And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.
Matthew 21:14

In the moments after Jesus cleared the Court of the Gentiles of the temple money changers and merchants it must of been quiet. Jesus began to teach. He declared, “My house will be a house of prayer but you have made it a den of robbers.” As he taught in the quiet, the blind could make their way to Him. As he taught in the spaciousness, the lame could make their way to Him. And in His last public act of healing, Jesus turned outsiders into insiders. These blind and lame could have gone no farther into the Temple Courts. But now after being healed they could. They were no longer second-class citizens. The human realities of their imperfections would no longer preclude them from full participation in the covenant. Wow! The clearing of the Temple and this moment of healing is a prelude to the Cross.

Jesus is going to the Cross in order to prepare the way for our full inclusion in the communion of God.  He goes to the Cross in order to fulfill the love and justice of God. He goes to the Cross in order to fulfill the cost of a sinner’s forgiveness. He goes to the Cross in order to heal and include the spiritually blind and lame. He goes on to the Cross in order to heal and include you and me.

Praise the Lord!

 

I hope you will journey with Jesus through the Holy Week by using  the  “harmony” of the Gospels for Holy Week. And I pray asking our Heavenly Father to grace you with moments of new insight and awe at His love displayed through the life and death of Jesus.

Facing the squeeze of anxiety.

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4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:4-9

Conflict produces anxiety in most of us. Whether we are simply uneasy about a relationship, struggling with having disappointed another person, dealing with feeling out of place in a social setting, unsure of our performance on a test, or facing raw hostility  — anxiety alerts us: this is important. So if it is important — talk with God about it.

Paul gives exhortations in verses 4-9 in the context of a larger call for peacemaking between two conflicted leaders, Euodia and Syntyche, who were part of the Philippian church. Even peacemaking makes most of us a bit nervous. So no matter what side of a conflict you are on or if you are entering into conflicted relationships the anxiety there can choke your best intentions.

Each of the exhortations in these verses disrupts a product of anxiety.

Anxiety robs us of joy, so rejoice. However, the Apostle Paul directs us in to the Presence of Jesus to find matters of rejoicing in the Gospel. (vs. 4.)

Anxiety dampens our consideration of others and creates self-centredness, so consider the Lord’s closeness.  Notice how Paul reminds us of the closeness of Jesus and calls us into a considerate, reasonable, gentle approach towards others. (vs. 5)  Jesus is at hand, close, not far. He is Immanuel, God with us. He is keeping an eye on us and our lives, thoughts, actions, and attitudes are not unobserved by Him.

Anxiety paralyses us by limiting our access to the resources available to us, so Paul directs us to pray. (vs 6-7) When we pray we are accessing the abundant, unlimited, generous God who has shown himself through Christ Jesus. When we are making our requests known to God, we are giving voice to what has stirred up our anxiety and we are simultaneously entering into the peace of God. Even though the circumstances may not yet have changed — we are being changed.

Anxiety clouds our thinking, fixates on the negative, and creates a stingy story line, so think about… I love how Paul directs the believers to regulate their thinking. (vs 8-9) When in conflict, the storylines we create about others and ourselves are most likely to not be characterized by what is true, honourable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent and worthy of praise. Jesus provides us with much that is true, honourable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent and worthy of praise in the Gospel and in Creation, so we are exhorted to discipline our thinking into those things and realities. Why? Our thinking will be expanded beyond the shrink wrap effect of anxiety and into the abundance of God.

To anticipate the next time you face the squeeze of anxiety you may find it beneficial to print out this text and keep it around where you may be drawn by the Spirit into these life-giving processes and into life provided by the God of peace.

Past. Present. Future. Jesus changes the script.

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1This letter is from Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, appointed by the command of God our Savior and Christ Jesus, who gives us hope.

12I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. He considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him, 13even though I used to blaspheme the name of Christ. In my insolence, I persecuted his people. But God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance and unbelief. 14Oh, how generous and gracious our Lord was! He filled me with the faith and love that come from Christ Jesus.

15This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. 16But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life. 17All honor and glory to God forever and ever! He is the eternal King, the unseen one who never dies; he alone is God. Amen.  1 Timothy 1:1, 12-17
The Apostle Paul reminds Timothy of his testimony and celebrates Jesus’ extraordinary grace. How gracious Jesus has been! Paul in no way deserved Jesus’ love; in fact Paul was a persecutor of the church. Paul rejected Jesus as the Messiah and turned to violence in order to rid Jerusalem and the region of anyone who confessed Jesus as the Lord.

But that all changed after the intersection of Jesus and Paul on the Damascus Road. Jesus has become the source of Paul’s faith, hope, and love. That’s true of you and me. We in no way deserved Jesus’ mercy. But somewhere in our history the Risen Lord Jesus intercepted us and brought us into his Kingdom. He is now filling us with faith, hope and love. We have been changed! He is changing us!

Faith from Jesus changes our view of our past:  forgiven.

Hope from Jesus changes our view of our future: secure.

Love from Jesus changes our view of our today: full of possibilities.