Treating Anxiety
Matthew 6:25-34
How is your soul?
You know, that which is YOU deep inside.
That which will remain when our “earthly tent” stops functioning.
Our soul is what lasts eternity – it’s our eternal existence. So are you now seeing how important this series is?
We need to ensure our soul is well. Never mind the vitamins and the exercise (No I didn’t say don’t exercise – we are instructed to look after our bodies), BUT our soul is of more importance.
So, it’s our soul we have to make sure is well.
So if you haven’t been paying too much attention to this series so far, maybe you just found a good reason to revisit and check out the wellbeing of your soul.
Now today, we are looking at anxiety.
Matthew 6
Do not worry
25 ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?
28 ‘And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Some of you right now are reading or hearing those words and are thinking, well Jesus obviously didn’t suffer from anxiety!
I mean worry is one thing.
Anxiety is quite another.
It’s interesting that, while researching this subject for my message, I found any number of people talking about anxiety and worry and stress in the same sentence.
Yet anxiety can often be something on its own.
So I’m going to try and deal with anxiety today, and not stress about stress or worry about worry for now.
Psalm 139: 23
Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Anxiety effects so many people – to different degrees.
• Some find it hard to breathe during an anxiety attack.
• They might get a tightness across the chest
• Their tummy feels twisted
• They feel frozen – unable to move or do anything.
Now, talk to many who suffer from anxiety and they may tell you that they get it due to circumstances:
• A meeting
• An events
• Work task
• Meeting people
• Taking exams
But its usually NOT about circumstances
ANXIETY has one letter in the centre of it.
You see it? It’s “I”
More often than not, anxiety is about me,
• how I perceive things,
• How I deal with things,
• How I prepare for things.
It’s internal.
When going through anxiety, we say, “I can’t cope”
I in Anxiety – 61 Hear my cry, O God,
listen to my prayer;
2 from the end of the earth I call to you
when my heart is faint.
Lead me to the rock
that is higher than I,
3 for you have been my refuge,
a strong tower against the enemy.
Today I want to address four areas – four aspects of anxiety.
This is about the wellbeing of our soul.
Anxiety is very much something we need to address in order to bring wellbeing to our soul.
I said that I is in the middle of Anxiety – I’ll show you what I mean.
FIRST: Things we say.
What comes out of our mouth is important.
When we say things, verbalise things, we are putting them into motion.
So when we say, “I can’t”, or
“This is too much to take”, or
“What will …. Think of me?”,
we put into process the panic.
As we speak, we can feel our body tighten, our breath shorten.
We are verbalising in the negative, and our body is already shoring up for a disaster.
Now you are thinking about it, you know its’s true right?
Those who get anxious… you say with words,
“I can’t, it’s too big, I will look stupid” and you know your body goes into lockdown, right?
If I’m describing you, try this:
If you are facing something, and you would normally panic because you think you will fail or fall, tell yourself and others:
“I will give it a try. I may makes mistakes, but I’ll try it.”
Or if it’s something you made a mess with, verbalise:
“But I’m going to improve. I’m learning from my mistakes, and I’m going to get better at it.”
Or if you have hurt someone or messed up with someone, rather than fear what will happen next, go and say,
“I’m sorry. I know what I did.”
By verbalising, you are telling yourself that you are moving forward rather than freezing in fear.
In the bible, time and time again, it says we are to recognise our faults, press on, and seek forgiveness from anyone we’ve hurt.
So: The things we say help or hinder our anxiety.
SECOND: ATITTUDE
Again it’s the I in anxiety. We can bring on our panic.
• How many get anxious because they end up being late?
By being late, we can be in panic mode before we start.
• How many get anxious because they try to cope alone?
“I can do this” – like you have to prove yourself. But that creates panic within.
• How many get anxious by leaving or putting off something?
I mean that just prolongs the anxiety!
• How many get anxious because they see bumps or restrictions or barriers?
There are fairly obvious answers to these that we can put into practice.
• Don’t be late!
Get up earlier, start the journey some time before you would normally.
• Ask for help!!!
We were not created to do things alone. (lockdown work from home is causing issues. People aren’t interacting and solving problems together, or seeing the bigger picture.)
• Help shorten the anxiety by getting on with the task.
Don’t put it off!
• And you know, bumps, restrictions, barriers are things that can strengthen us. We have to learn how to overcome them.
THIRDLY: THE VOICES WE HEAR.
Think about the voices you hear each day.
I can guarantee, many of them add to or create anxiety in us.
Social media. I’m not talking a lot on this.
Those who spend a lot of time on social media KNOW that it can cause a great deal of anxiety.
It’s a well known fact.
News is important.
We need to know what is happening around us, and in the world, BUT
Do you wake in the morning and one of the first things you do is watch or read the news?
How does that start your day well?
Most news is negative.
There is very little positive news presented.
So we start the day anxious about what is happening around us.
And you know what’s coming next.
How many watch the news late evening?
What does that do to our minds just before going to bed?
To cope, we need to ration our media intake.
Treat it on a “need to know” basis, and watch the timing of absorbing it.
How is this affecting my soul?
What is this doing to my anxiety?
Am I relaxing or is my body tightening?
Incidentally – replace some of the social media and news watching with reading God’s Word…..
FOURTH: PLATE SPINNING
You know I have talked about plate spinning before; and you know I’ve had a time when I couldn’t cope with so many plates.
You know what I mean by plate spinning right?
During life we pick up certain plates and start to spin them.
Some last only a short time; others we keep spinning for years.
Common plates to spin:
• Family
• Friends
• Work
• Organisations
• Cash flow
• Health
• Regular commitments
These are pretty normal plates for most people, and we are reasonable at keeping them spinning in most situations.
We get in a routine of keeping them all up.
Sometimes we can get stressed or even anxious about some of these plates, but we mostly manage.
But at some point we get handed (or thrown) another plate – or more.
• Workload increases – extra responsibility.
•
• Guilt – invisible plate that many don’t see. Thinking people will judge us. Thinking Godwill judge us. We constantly look over our shoulder – not good for plate spinning)
•
• Fears and worries. Finance, change in circumstance, health issues, family crisis.
•
• Other people’s problems. We try sorting out others life, do favours, get involved in some way
These are extra plates and often they are unpredictable plates – with chips in or items on them.
They wobble more than the normal plates, and our body gets anxious – understandably!
We end up nervous wrecks trying to keep spinning plates.
Here’s the truth.
To calm the anxiety, you must – I say again MUST remove some plates, or find ways to manage what you spin and how you spin them.
This might depend on how organised you are.
But find a way to take hold of the plate and lay it down.
When you do, you will feel some of your anxiety calm down.
CONCLUSION
You know many suffer from anxiety because they aim at perfection, or as near as they can get.
Driven by the need to please people, please God, live with yourself!
Experts will say, if you are like that, give yourself a trial at lowering your expectations – just a bit to help take the pressure off.
As I close, I want to add a few other things to try in order to manage your anxiety:
Forgive yourself. God has forgiven us through Christ, and He instructs us to forgive others. Forgive yourself.
If you strive for perfection, tell yourself you are forgiven for not achieving it.
• Have a mentor. Someone you feel comfortable talking honesty with. They can help you manage your anxiety.
• Get with others to pray… small groups help, because they are more personal, and we can share thing we cant easily with a bigger group.
• Control – self control contained within the Fruit of the Spirit.
Ask the HS to help you in controlling your anxiety.
I started by saying, more often than not, anxiety is about me, how I perceive things,
How I deal with things,
How I prepare for things.
It’s internal. When going through anxiety, we say, “I can’t cope”
61
Lead me to the rock
that is higher than I,
That’s our prayer today.
Go to the Rock that is higher than you to control your anxiety.
Prayer: ….. You are the Rock, above I. By your HS help us lower our Anxiety. So that we can enjoy life in ALL it’s fullness!
