Treating Anxiety

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.