Wednesday, April 9

Casting Anxiety

Wednesday, April 9

I Peter 5:7

The ancients had a handle on emotions, from a naming standpoint. According to my Greek dictionary, the word for anxiety meant to divide or to separate.   When a person’s allegiance is divided, he or she feels anxious about 2 possible outcomes because of the angst of loosing one or the other desirable outcome. Another fear is backlash or the cost of choosing one option over another.  Another element is the idea that general anxiety, fear of all sorts of unknowns, strikes us because we do not really know the potential level of pain or trouble brought on by new circumstances. So often we cannot even see the potential blessing hiding under the apparent burden.

Peter was anxious about the Lord becoming disappointed when Peter figured out that Jesus could see into his heart.  (Luke 5:8) Jesus could, and He did know Peter’s sin.  Yet He still called Peter. How could Peter have handled the anxiety better? The answer:  by knowing Jesus better and by trusting that Jesus’ love is greater than any sin. It was actually Peter’s honesty about his weaknesses that attracted Christ to the fisherman.

In I Peter 5, the Holy Spirit inspired Peter to address pastors and elders, who had many temptations such as leading with legalism or being motivated by greed (I Pt. 5:2) or allowing power to well up in a pastor’s heart to distort his leadership. Peter accurately pointed out that the quest for power and the lack of humility really came from anxiety – a divided heart: ⁶ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time, ⁷ having cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares about you. (I Peter 5:6-7)

The answer was just trust the Lord. God’s exaltation is always far better than any we can muster. But as we know, trust can be hard.

I remember not knowing why my daughter Stephanie went suddenly from a happy, apparently healthy 22 month old toddler, to a shaking, stumbling, vomiting child, who could not keep any food down, lost the ability to talk and walk, and ended up with a feeding tube, like her older sister.   It was the fear of the unknown that was making all of us anxious. Six months later, doctors found a dangerous cancerous nerve tumor. The anxiety actually dissipated a great deal once we discovered the unknown cause.

But almost every earthly outcome is unknown. We can build bulwarks of wealth and esteem around us, but just as quickly they could come crashing down. Peter learned to not fear shame or pain by trusting the Lord Jesus. The big fisherman who shriveled before a slave girl would stand unafraid in front the very men who crucified Christ. What were they going to do, kill him?!? Yes, that was the plan. But Peter had seen Jesus alive and had heard Him forgive Peter’s great denial. Jesus meant both life after death and everlasting grace and mercy. That should make us all strong.

Anxiety is real.  It divides a soul and heart. Throw anxiety at Jesus, and the division will begin fading away.