Living Life Without Anxiety

Living Life Without Anxiety
1 Peter 5:6-11
“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”
The uncertainty of life breeds anxiety in the soul.  We like life to be predictable and controllable, but when life becomes volatile and arbitrary, we become anxious and fearful. We face issues and challenges that cause us stress.  Like Paul, we face fears without and fears within.  How do we find confidence and peace in a world of conflicting views of morality, a volatile economy, and fears of the uncertainty of the future?

We are not alone in our fears; since the fall brought death and decay, people have struggled to have peace and inward tranquility.  Peter encourages his readers to cast all their anxieties upon God. Anxiety refers to feelings of apprehension or distress that come with the threat of danger or misfortune. These threats may be real or possible.  Often, what causes the most anxiety is not the present's troubles but the future's uncertainty.  It is the fact that we do not know what tomorrow may bring, and so we because anxious.  The word all has the idea of the totality of our worries.  We are to place all our fears, even those about the future, upon God so that even if they become a reality, we are not upset or concerned about them. The word “cast” refers to the idea of placing something into the hands of another so that they are responsible for it.  The picture then is that when we encounter circumstances, both actual and potential, we place them in the hands of God so that He has the responsibility to care for us.  Too often, we pray about circumstances, but we maintain the responsibility for them.  We still trust in ourselves to deal with the situation rather than trust in God.  Instead, we are to place them under the umbrella of God’s care so that we give the responsibility to Him.  The reason we can trust in God is because He cares for us.  Again, the verb “care” has the idea of responding appropriately. He continually cares for us, and because His care is unending and uninterrupted, we can rest in Him.  Because He cares, we have the assurance that no circumstance is beyond His knowledge and ability to deal with.  The remedy to anxiety is to rest in the grace of God, who is infinitely gracious and powerful and will be more than adequate to provide us with the protection we need.  Our security and well-being are not governed by our circumstances but by the one who controls all situations we encounter.  Anxiety and fear are not a result of the circumstances we face but a result of our failure to trust in God’s care for us.  

We can trust in God’s care because God has already determined and assured us of the outcome of our lives.  No matter what circumstances we face in the present, they do not threaten our eternal life in Christ.  When we face life struggles, we are assured that God will strengthen and establish us.  He will protect us and assure us of our eternal relationship with Him.  What are the fears that you have in the present?  What are the actual and potential circumstances causing you to become anxious?  No matter how uncertain life comes, we have the certainty of God, who is unchanging in His being and purpose and all-powerful to accomplish His purpose in us.  Fear, anxiety, and apprehension do not come because of the circumstances we face; they come when we take our focus off of God.  Instead of worrying about the future, rest in the knowledge that God is the one who governs our future.