Antidote to Anxiety
Matthew 6:25,
Verse 31-34,
So I want to give a helpful acronym for telling us what we should do when we are feeling anxious. And the little acronym is CPR, we confront, pray, and replace. So CPR, confront, pray and replace.
Confront
The first thing I believe we see in this passage is that we should confront our anxiety with truth. Jesus is saying here that we tend to be anxious or overly concerned or excessively worrying about things that concern our bodies most often, whether that's food or drink or clothing or health. And Jesus isn't saying it's necessarily bad that we have concern for those things, there's an appropriate anxiety to have. But what the word that he is using is talking about is an excessive worry, or an inordinate, beyond-measure sort of concern; more of a panicking and obsessing over those things that we are concerned about. So Jesus gives us truth in this passage that we should confront our anxiety with.
Really, you can sum it all up by saying you have a Heavenly Father. That is the foundation of the truth with which we confront our anxieties with. We have a Heavenly Father, and that changes everything concerning how we deal with anxiety. Because Jesus tells us in this passage, first of all your Heavenly Father knows because he is heavenly; because he sees everything he knows what it is that you are tempted to be anxious about. He knows what you are concerned about, he is not unaware, you don't have to inform him. So he says, your Heavenly Father knows. Since he's your Heavenly Father that also means that he loves you, you are His. You have received the right to become a child of God, which means he sees you as he sees his Son. He loves you as he loves his Son.
And then, Jesus says that he is able to provide, he is able to provide for you. He says, “When you're tempted to worry, look out at nature, look out at how he's providing for everything else, all the non-image-bearing creatures. The grass that he clothes with the lilies and the birds that are fed.” He says, “Look at those, and let that inform your faith. You are of much more value to your Heavenly Father than these non-image-bearing creatures. So, he's providing for them. And then lastly, we see at the end of this passage he says, “Seek first the kingdom and his righteousness,” and, here's a promise, “These things will be added to you.” That's the truth that we are to confront our anxiety with. So that's the C of CPR, confront.
Pray
The next part is pray. We pray about our anxiety. Although Jesus doesn't explicitly say, “pray” in this passage, I believe it is definitely implied. First of all, in his command to not be anxious. Anxious is something we are doing by ourselves. We are obsessing, we're trying to plan it out in our own strength and our own wisdom and we're not taking it to God. So in a sense, it's like prayer is the exact opposite of anxiety. Instead of mulling over it ourselves and being overwhelmed by ourselves, we are, as the psalmist says, “Pouring it out to God.” Or, as Peter later says, it's "casting our anxieties upon the Father knowing that he cares for us.” And I think that prayer is also implied here. Jesus had just taught the Lord's Prayer previously in the Sermon on the Mount, and he said to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” So if we're understanding this anxiety passage in context of the Sermon on the Mount, I think it's reasonable for us to say, “Part of what we do with our anxiety is we confront it with the truth that we have a Heavenly Father and we pray about it, we release it to him, we unload the burden onto our Heavenly Father.”
Replace
And then, lastly we replace it. We replace it with what we could call a true or a pure anxiety, because not all anxiety is bad. There are things that Jesus says that we should be anxious for. And what he says at the end of this passage is in verse 33, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” In a sense he's saying this is what you should be most worried about, kingdom matters. He's not saying don't be concerned about those other things, but here's where the precedence is, here's where the priority is. We should concern ourselves and consume ourselves first with what Jesus instructs us to pray in the Lord's Prayer, “Your kingdom come, your will be done.” And I believe that's what he's talking about when he says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” So, if we are to be anxious for something, think of Paul when he says, “I have anxiety for the churches of God.” That's kingdom matters! We are to have anxiety for pleasing God. We are to have anxiety for obeying God. That's His righteousness.
So those are the things that we, with the help of the Holy Spirit, try to replace our anxieties with. So, again, Jesus is not saying, don't be concerned at all about the things of the body, but he's saying prioritize and give precedence to those kingdom matters and matters of his righteousness. So in essence, I think Jesus is saying in this passage, “Remember how I just taught you to pray, ‘Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done.’"
So, to summarize all of that, when we are tempted, as many of us perhaps are; maybe we have worries and burdens and cares, we should remember the truth that our Heavenly Father knows, he's not unaware. That he loves us, he is able to provide for us and he has promised to provide for us. And while we are praying, we can ask the Lord, even as we lift up concerns of the body and health and things of that nature that we still seek to elevate those matters of Christ's kingdom and his righteousness.
CPR - Confront, Pray, Replace.
“Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”
Verse 31-34,
“Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles, seek after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
So I want to give a helpful acronym for telling us what we should do when we are feeling anxious. And the little acronym is CPR, we confront, pray, and replace. So CPR, confront, pray and replace.
Confront
The first thing I believe we see in this passage is that we should confront our anxiety with truth. Jesus is saying here that we tend to be anxious or overly concerned or excessively worrying about things that concern our bodies most often, whether that's food or drink or clothing or health. And Jesus isn't saying it's necessarily bad that we have concern for those things, there's an appropriate anxiety to have. But what the word that he is using is talking about is an excessive worry, or an inordinate, beyond-measure sort of concern; more of a panicking and obsessing over those things that we are concerned about. So Jesus gives us truth in this passage that we should confront our anxiety with.
Really, you can sum it all up by saying you have a Heavenly Father. That is the foundation of the truth with which we confront our anxieties with. We have a Heavenly Father, and that changes everything concerning how we deal with anxiety. Because Jesus tells us in this passage, first of all your Heavenly Father knows because he is heavenly; because he sees everything he knows what it is that you are tempted to be anxious about. He knows what you are concerned about, he is not unaware, you don't have to inform him. So he says, your Heavenly Father knows. Since he's your Heavenly Father that also means that he loves you, you are His. You have received the right to become a child of God, which means he sees you as he sees his Son. He loves you as he loves his Son.
And then, Jesus says that he is able to provide, he is able to provide for you. He says, “When you're tempted to worry, look out at nature, look out at how he's providing for everything else, all the non-image-bearing creatures. The grass that he clothes with the lilies and the birds that are fed.” He says, “Look at those, and let that inform your faith. You are of much more value to your Heavenly Father than these non-image-bearing creatures. So, he's providing for them. And then lastly, we see at the end of this passage he says, “Seek first the kingdom and his righteousness,” and, here's a promise, “These things will be added to you.” That's the truth that we are to confront our anxiety with. So that's the C of CPR, confront.
Pray
The next part is pray. We pray about our anxiety. Although Jesus doesn't explicitly say, “pray” in this passage, I believe it is definitely implied. First of all, in his command to not be anxious. Anxious is something we are doing by ourselves. We are obsessing, we're trying to plan it out in our own strength and our own wisdom and we're not taking it to God. So in a sense, it's like prayer is the exact opposite of anxiety. Instead of mulling over it ourselves and being overwhelmed by ourselves, we are, as the psalmist says, “Pouring it out to God.” Or, as Peter later says, it's "casting our anxieties upon the Father knowing that he cares for us.” And I think that prayer is also implied here. Jesus had just taught the Lord's Prayer previously in the Sermon on the Mount, and he said to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” So if we're understanding this anxiety passage in context of the Sermon on the Mount, I think it's reasonable for us to say, “Part of what we do with our anxiety is we confront it with the truth that we have a Heavenly Father and we pray about it, we release it to him, we unload the burden onto our Heavenly Father.”
Replace
And then, lastly we replace it. We replace it with what we could call a true or a pure anxiety, because not all anxiety is bad. There are things that Jesus says that we should be anxious for. And what he says at the end of this passage is in verse 33, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” In a sense he's saying this is what you should be most worried about, kingdom matters. He's not saying don't be concerned about those other things, but here's where the precedence is, here's where the priority is. We should concern ourselves and consume ourselves first with what Jesus instructs us to pray in the Lord's Prayer, “Your kingdom come, your will be done.” And I believe that's what he's talking about when he says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” So, if we are to be anxious for something, think of Paul when he says, “I have anxiety for the churches of God.” That's kingdom matters! We are to have anxiety for pleasing God. We are to have anxiety for obeying God. That's His righteousness.
So those are the things that we, with the help of the Holy Spirit, try to replace our anxieties with. So, again, Jesus is not saying, don't be concerned at all about the things of the body, but he's saying prioritize and give precedence to those kingdom matters and matters of his righteousness. So in essence, I think Jesus is saying in this passage, “Remember how I just taught you to pray, ‘Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done.’"
So, to summarize all of that, when we are tempted, as many of us perhaps are; maybe we have worries and burdens and cares, we should remember the truth that our Heavenly Father knows, he's not unaware. That he loves us, he is able to provide for us and he has promised to provide for us. And while we are praying, we can ask the Lord, even as we lift up concerns of the body and health and things of that nature that we still seek to elevate those matters of Christ's kingdom and his righteousness.
CPR - Confront, Pray, Replace.
Posted in Pastor Devotional