Pastors' Blog: 18 Anxiety and Worry, or Inner Peace?

‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’ (Phil. 4:6-7)

‘Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you.’ (Ps. 55:22)

Anxiety and its effects upon us

THE Greek word merimnao meaning ‘to be anxious about’ (as in Phil. 4:6) or ‘to worry’ (as in Matt. 6:25,27-28,31,34) is part of a family of Greek words having the various meanings of ‘distraction’, ‘cares’ (as in 1 Pet. 5:7 and Ps. 55:22), ‘to disunite, ‘to divide,’ and ‘division.’ So anxiety and worry refer to that stressful state of disequilibrium within our being which is brought about when our thinking and feelings (i.e. our mind and our heart) are being controlled and dominated by any given disquieting issue.

Medical research has shown that when a person is in an anxious or worried state, then adrenaline is released into their body, temporarily boosting their immune system and increasing their heart and breathing rates, so that more oxygen is sent to their brain in order that they might then cope with the situation they are in. As this inward state of stress continues, nervousness begins to develop along with irritability, restlessness and fatigue. This often leads to sleeplessness and lack of concentration, and can also cause loss of appetite, headaches and high blood pressure. As the person attempts to cope with the situation they are in, this inward state of disequilibrium and its associated stress often leads to tensions and problems in relationships. When a person suffers frequently from anxiety, their immune system eventually weakens, leaving them vulnerable to viral infections, and they may develop anxiety disorders such as panic attacks. In extreme cases, the person may suffer from depression; they may develop an alcohol dependency, and they may even contemplate suicidal thoughts. Research tells us that women are more likely than men to suffer from anxiety and its associated disorders.

Worry and anxiety invariably have the effect upon us that they dominate and control our thinking, our emotions and our perspective on situations, and therefore our responses as well. For example, when Martha was faced with having to cook for all the guests in her home on the day Jesus came to visit, she put practicalities first and evidently rushed into trying to prepare everything as soon as she could, rather than sitting and listening to Jesus as Mary was doing. Her heart and mind were distracted by this wrong focus and she started to get stressed, becoming anxious and troubled as she tried to carry on alone, overburdened with what she was doing. Her stress continued to mount and ultimately she flared up, speaking inappropriately to Jesus in front of everyone present (Luke 10:38-42).

Psalm 55 gives us another good example of the potential effects upon us of anxiety and worry. King David was evidently deeply anxious about a particular situation. It seems that a personal friend had betrayed him (vv.12-14, 20-21) and was causing him trouble by raising up against him a group of other people the effects of whose rebellion were being felt in the entire city (vv.9-11). Many commentators think David is referring here to Ahithophel in the time of Absalom’s rebellion (cf. 2 Sam. chs. 15-18). David became deeply distressed. The thoughts of his mind were troubled (v.2); he was distraught and his heart was in anguish (v.4). He describes his state of fear and trembling, being overwhelmed with feelings of horror (v.5). He was deeply worried, and simply wanted to run away from it all and find a safe place in which to hide (vv.6-8)! Emotionally, he was gutted, experiencing that deep, internal disillusionment and pain at having been betrayed by someone who had once been his close friend, but who had now become his enemy (vv.12-14).

Worry and anxiety are therefore connected to practical, daily issues of life and relationships. Their effects upon us are negative and destructive, affecting us mentally, emotionally and physiologically. Jesus tells us plainly and repeatedly not to give place to worry in our daily lives: ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life… Therefore do not worry about tomorrow…’ (Matt. 6:25,34). Worry and anxiety are fruitless, they cannot change anything, and they produce nothing of good effect within us (Matt. 6:27). They block out from us the sense of God’s presence and make us question his care for us. The worries of life distract our hearts and minds away from the things of God (cf. Luke 21:34), and they therefore choke and strangle the seed of the word of God and quench faith within us, causing the word to become unfruitful (Matt. 6:30, 13:22). Worrying about material things in life (and therefore allowing our minds and lives to be controlled by such thoughts and desires) causes us to demand and crave things, and therefore to consume ourselves in running around seeking after them like everyone else (Matt. 6:32).

So worry and anxiety are not characteristic of life in the kingdom of God, and we cannot afford to give place to them and allow them to dominate or control us. We therefore need to learn how to deal with them on those occasions when we become aware within ourselves that we are being affected by them in situations in daily life.

How are we to respond?

The very pace of daily life, the increasing frequency of change all around us, the problems that challenge us from time to time, and the fact that people tend to have less ‘free’ time in which to seek a place of peace, all make experiencing stress very common today. So it should not surprise us when young or undiscipled believers in particular become worried and fearful, or get anxious and stressed about situations in daily life. They are still relatively weak in their faith and often lack experience in learning about the practical interface between their faith and daily life. Their faith and the level of their growth in Christ are often not yet strong enough to be able to withstand the effects of worry and stress on their hearts and minds, so they are still vulnerable to these.

Hence, the natural response of young or immature believers to worry and stress generally is often similar to that of unbelievers. Unbelievers tend to think that peace is a state of inner equilibrium maintained by the absence of outward conflict. So whenever there is some kind of outward conflict or difficult situation, they soon lose their inner peace. They tend to murmur, complain or even mouth off their stress, often pouring it out on other people. This is, of course, responding out of their flesh through spiritual immaturity (cf. 1 Cor. 3:1-3). As yet such believers still have not really learned the lesson that they must talk with God in prayer about things, in fact about everything. Even though it may be beneficial to talk to other people about our stresses, even at length, yet making a habit of talking out our stress to others may well simply have the effect that it then induces stress in the person or people that we talk to. They become anxious and stressed themselves over the very things that we ourselves are stressed about. Stressful feelings tend to spread stressful feelings around. Similarly, worry spreads worry, fear spreads fear, and anxiety spreads anxiety. And, of course, we may not even reach a place of inward peace anyway, especially if we do not learn to pray about things…

So, even though it may help us to talk to others, yet, as these verses in Philippians 4:6-7 tell us, we must learn to pray to God. It is he who is our refuge and strength, not other people. The believer who has not yet learned to put into practice the principles outlined in these verses and to pray about everything, and who frequently still gives place to worry, anxiety and stress, is a person who has not yet learned the secret of how to live in spiritual peace. S/he has not yet learned that worrying about things does not in fact accomplish or change anything (cf. Matt. 6:27). In fact, continuing to worry does nothing but consume and destroy us. And because they have not yet learned how to live consistently in inner spiritual peace, it is no surprise that they cannot really speak the language of faith and trust in God, as their practical faith and trust in God are consistently undermined by the worries and anxieties they give place to.

Such a believer needs to experience practical growth and discipleship in how to put the principles of Philippians 4:6-7 into practice and to exchange their human anxiety for God’s peace within them. It is only then that s/he can learn how to come out of their anxiety and enter into a state of real inward peace, discovering in experience that, in contrast to the concept of peace that the world holds to, God’s subjective, divine peace within us brings about a state of inner equilibrium in our hearts and minds, even in the midst of outward conflict or challenging circumstances.

The verses in Philippians 4:6-7 contrast two states, that of human anxiety and that of God’s own peace. Human anxiety is problem-oriented and affects our soul, whereas God’s peace is trust-oriented and flows from the effect of God’s presence upon our spirit. The apostle Paul tells us the process by which we can go from one state to the other. It is that in everything by prayer and petition, we present our requests to God. This is also the process that David describes in psalm 55. He went from a state of anxiety and stress to a place of renewed faith and trust through prayer and casting his cares upon the Lord (Ps. 55:16-17, 22-23 and cf. Ps. 56:3-4). Similarly, the writer outlines to us in Isaiah 40:31 that we can go from a place of weakness to renewed strength by choosing to spend quality time waiting upon the Lord.

Paul’s use of the two words ‘anything’ and ‘everything’ in verse 6 implies that this process is an absolute principle. We are not to be anxious about ‘anything,’ and we are to pray in ‘everything,’ i.e. in every situation and circumstance. So there are no exceptions to this principle. We are simply not to give place to worry and anxiety. God would have us to be living in the place of his peace within ourselves; this is his desire for us. The effects upon us of worry and anxiety are such (and can be so negative at times) that we need to recognize them when they are happening to us, and to agree with ourselves that we will proactively address and deal with them. Otherwise, we will simply get sucked down into the whirlpool and mire of stressed-out, anxious feelings which will then dominate our soul and control our thoughts and feelings, and have their own negative effects upon our all-round health as a consequence.

The words in verses 6-7 also clearly imply that it must be possible in every situation through the power of the grace of God, to move ourselves from a place of feeling worry and anxiety into a place in which we are experiencing God’s peace within us. So as we grow and become stronger and better disciples of Jesus, we need to become rooted and grounded in the practical application of this principle in our personal lives. This principle needs to be discipled into the very fabric of our lives. We need to become people who will address and deal with worry and anxiety within ourselves at all times whenever we need to. It is clear from the way in which the apostle Peter refers to David’s words of psalm 55:22 ‘Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you’ in his own words in 1 Peter 5:7 ‘Cast all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you’ that he himself had discovered in his own life the importance and power of ‘casting his care on the Lord.’ These words of David had become important to him personally. He had evidently practised this principle himself many times and found that it worked in his own life. So he too exhorts believers to cast their cares upon the Lord; he passes David’s exhortation on to us. This principle of ‘casting your cares on the Lord’ through prayer and living in God’s peace within ourselves is a point of discipleship in our lives as believers. It is something that we must all learn to do if we are to continue to grow as we should and to walk with the Lord in a consistent way in our lives. David learnt it and Peter learnt it, so therefore we need to learn it as well.

Through prayer to the place of peace

As we have seen above, David described in psalm 55 the state he was in personally, caused by the circumstances he was going through at that time. However, even though he was in such an anxious and stressed-out state of mind and heart, and simply wanted to run away from it all, yet he determined that he would turn to God in it. David knew the faithfulness of his God, and therefore knew that, even though he found himself in such a difficult and traumatic situation, yet God could deliver him from it. It was this fact that spurred David on, to pray and seek the face of God (vv.16-19). He did not forget God, surrender himself to the situation and give up simply because it was all so difficult and stressful. No, he was strong in his spirit, and in his heart and mind he determined that he would be an overcomer in the situation. He knew God could answer him and deliver him from what was happening around him. So he sought God. He prayed. In fact, he prayed repeatedly – evening, morning and noon he cried out in his distress (v.17). These three times of prayer at which David prayed were, it would seem, the traditional Jewish daily prayer times (cp. Dan. 6:10). But this was more than just praying at traditional times. David used these set times of daily prayer to pray repeatedly about the situation he was in and to cry out to God. He prayed, and he continued to pray several times every day about it all, until God answered him.

It was by determining to walk together with God through the situation, and by repeatedly seeking his face in this way, that David managed to cast his cares and anxieties off himself and onto the Lord (v.22). This is the inner secret of getting victory over anxiety, worry and internal stress in our lives. It is the subjective working of the strength and grace of God by his Spirit within us, as we regularly and repeatedly spend time in his presence, which dissolves our internal anxiety and worry, replacing them with the peace of his presence. His Spirit within us subjectively strengthens our hearts and renews our faith in God, and so we let go of the problem we are worried about, and we trust him to carry it for us. We know that he has heard our prayer. From being in the state of deep anguish and fear etc. that he describes at the beginning of the psalm, through repeatedly praying and casting off his cares onto the Lord, David came back into a state of renewed faith and trust in God: ‘He will never let the righteous fall… But as for me, I trust in you’ (v.22-23). The subjective torment of his internal anxiety melted and dissolved away, and he came into a state of renewed peace in his heart and mind.

It is precisely this principle that Paul teaches in Philippians 4:6-7. If we allow ourselves to get stuck or bogged down in the anxiety, worry and stress that we might be feeling at any given time, then the tendency is for us to struggle our way through problems, rather than resting and believing our way through them by knowing the Lord’s peace within us. This is not to live in denial of problems and circumstances, of course, it is to determine within ourselves that we will come to know and walk in the very real peace which passes all understanding, the peace of God himself which cannot be described, much as if we have positioned ourselves in the eye of the storm, the place of being in God as our refuge and hiding place, resting in his peace while the storm continues to rage all around us. And the key to being able to do this, is practising the principle outlined in Philippians 4:6-7. Isaiah put the same truth this way: ‘You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you’ (Isa. 26:3).

As we learn to pray and seek God in our circumstances, indeed to pray our way through problems and situations, then we learn in experience that God does indeed strengthen us within with his grace and through his word; he does indeed dissolve away our stresses and anxieties; he does bring us into a place of renewed faith and trust, and he does bring us into a place of indescribable inner peace which often contrasts utterly with what we are going through outwardly. The Greek word Paul uses for ‘guard’ in v.7 is a military term meaning ‘to be a watcher in advance,’ ‘to mount guard as a sentinel,’ or ‘to hem in and protect.’ He uses another term in Colossians 3:15 which literally means that God’s peace will be the ‘umpire’ or ‘arbitrator’ in our hearts. This is the desire and indeed it is the call of God upon our lives, that we become people who have learned to live out of his peace in our minds and hearts and in our relationships. We may not be able to change the situation immediately or even for a while, but God will change us subjectively within into knowing and resting in his deep peace. And through knowing this inner peace, we can then respond to our situation out of this peace and therefore handle it much better than we would do otherwise.

Living out of your spirit, not your soul

Daily life for believers is very often a mixture of living out of both their soul and their spirit. I mean this in the sense that, when worries dominate our minds and hearts (i.e. our souls), then we often tend to live out of these worries and we find it difficult to sense God’s presence, to hear his voice or discern his word to us, or perhaps even to respond appropriately in our situation. For as long as we allow ourselves to be controlled by these things, we do not know peace within. However, when we choose to put into practice this principle of prayer and casting our cares upon the Lord, then we can begin to experience the peace of God within, even though we are still in the situation. Doing this gives freedom for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit to minister to us from within, strengthening us in our spirits, and the peace that this then gives us dominates over the worry and anxiety of our soul and dissolves them away. Our feelings and thinking become characterised by deep peace, and we remain strong in faith and trust. Our mind is under the control and influence of the Holy Spirit within us and is ‘life and peace’ (Rom. 8:6). When we are in this place, we are living out of our spirit, i.e. we are living under the influence of the Holy Spirit’s peace within us, emanating from our spirit.

Perhaps the best example of this in Scripture is the experience of Jesus himself late at night in the garden of Gethsemane. As he approached the time of his death on the cross, Matthew tells us that Jesus began to be sorrowful and troubled (Matt. 26:37). The underlying meaning of the Greek words used in verses 37-38 imply that he was in a very distressed and troubled state of soul, filled with heaviness. He was intensely sad and grieved within himself as he faced being separated from his Father (Matt. 26:38). However, he did not simply wallow in these intense thoughts and negative feelings and allow them to control him and distract him from his relationship with his Father. No, in fact he did the opposite. It was precisely because he was in this deeply troubled state of soul that he determined to seek his Father’s face in prayer. And all of this did not happen during the daylight hours, it took place during the early hours of the night when he was no doubt physically tired after a day’s ministry and normally would have gone to sleep like everyone else.

So when he was in this distressed inward state of soul, he determined resolutely to set into motion the spiritual principle of prayer and seeking God’s face. It was putting into practice this principle that allowed him to eventually come back to a place of inward spiritual peace. He fought and overcame the distressed and anguished state of his soul, by releasing the spiritual power that praying and being in God’s presence brings to bear. And he persevered in prayer until he had won through to the place of inward peace and submission, in which his spirit was dominating over his soul, and the peace of God had dissolved away the inward distress he was feeling.

The first time he prayed, he seems to have stayed in prayer for quite some time as he struggled with the separation he faced and with submitting himself to the will of the Father for him (Matt. 26:39-40). However, because he had not yet got to the place of victory within himself, he went away and prayed again in a similar way for a second time (Matt. 26:42). Luke tells us that at some point an angel was sent to minister strength to him (Luke 22:43). It was not until he had spent time in a third prayer session that he seems to have got to the place of victory and peace within himself (Matt. 26:44), and it was then that the betrayer arrived. It was the determination to keep persevering in prayer until he had reached the place of peace and submission that gave him victory over the distress in his heart and mind. His inner feelings of anguish did not stop him praying, they simply made him determined to pray all the more: ‘being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly’ (Luke 22:44).

When we are in anxiety and stress, what do we do? Wallow in it? Complain and pour out our stress onto everyone around us? Give up and run away from God? Or do we determine to overcome what we are experiencing in our soul by persevering in prayer for just as long as it takes, day and night if necessary, until we reach a place of peace again? The willingness to pray and to persevere in prayer until we have broken through to a place of peace and renewed faith and trust, is a mark of a believer who is growing up in Christ. We have to become willing to get up and pray during the night, if necessary, because as we all know our minds can sometimes be plagued by worry and stress as we lie sleepless on our beds during the night. We would help ourselves much more if we got up and spent some time seeking God in prayer, meditating on his word, rather than just staying in bed, tossing and turning all night! No servant is above his master, so if Jesus himself had to do this sometimes, then so will we!

Jesus shared his sorrow with his inner core of disciples (Matt. 26:37) and invited them to pray with him. Yet as we all know, they did not do this, they simply gave in to the temptation to sleep. They were evidently affected themselves by the state of sorrow and heaviness that Jesus was in (Luke 22:45), which is one of the reasons why Jesus invited and encouraged them to pray themselves, so that they too could overcome the effects of it. However, the combination of physical tiredness at that time of night and the heaviness they were feeling, proved too much for them. They drowsed off and fell to sleep twice, even after Jesus exhorted them again to watch and pray (Matt. 26:40-41,43; Luke 22:45-46). Is it any wonder then that they did fall into temptation (Matt. 26:41) and were unable to handle what happened later on in the night, and did not stand with Jesus, but simply forsook him and fled? Their unwillingness to pray when they most needed to, simply surrendering themselves to the way they felt, meant that they were completely unprepared for the spiritual warfare that took place in the hours of spiritual darkness of the events leading up to the cross (Luke 22:53).

Learning to walk consistently ‘in the Spirit’

The battle for many of us lies in learning to practise consistently this principle of Philippians 4:6-7, and therefore learning to live consistently in the peace of God, rather than allowing ourselves to be dominated and controlled time after time by the stress and anxiety of situations, and losing our peace. We need to learn to live consistently out of God’s peace in our spirit, rather than out of the anxiety and worry in our soul. A believer who is growing and maturing in Christ, is one who is learning to walk ‘in the Spirit,’ i.e. learning to consistently put this principle into practice in their life, and to therefore live out of their spirit in peace under the influence of the Holy Spirit within them. To live ‘in the Spirit’ is to live with God’s life and peace in our minds and hearts: ‘the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace’ (Rom. 8:6).

The words of Philippians 4:6-7 are an invitation and an exhortation to do what we need to do in order to be able to know and walk in God’s peace. Furthermore, they imply that this is the inner state that God would have us to be living in consistently as a lifestyle. It is easy for anyone to get perturbed and caught up by worries and stresses from time to time and therefore to succumb to the internal pressure of these. It is easy also to choose to pick up our cares and anxieties once again even after praying about them, particularly in situations where the stress is ongoing. Sometimes, even though we have prayed and have indeed experienced a measure of peace, yet the worry may still continue in the back of our mind, because we have not yet completely cast our cares off ourselves and onto the Lord. We haven’t yet learned to leave things with God; we still somehow think that worrying and being anxious about problems will somehow solve them! And as I said above, the power of the internal pressure on our soul (mind and heart) of such worry and stress, means that we often find it difficult to hear or discern the voice and word of God to us in such times.

However, there is ultimately only one way to deal with all this, and that is to get ourselves into the presence of God as often as we need to, and for as long as we need to, to fully shake the stress and anxiety off ourselves and enter into the peace of God again. In the words of Hebrews 4:16, if we want to be able to live in God’s peace within ourselves, then we have to go to the throne of grace, to receive mercy and find the grace we need to help us in our time of need (Heb. 4:16, cf. 2 Cor. 12:9-10). There is no other way through. And for as long as we are not willing to do this, then we cannot truly live in the peace of God, but will inevitably continue to be plagued by the anxieties and stresses of the situation we are in. Christians who walk consistently ‘in the Spirit’ are characterized by consistent inward peace, because they discipline themselves to put this principle into practice as and whenever they need to, embracing and following Paul’s exhortation: ‘…put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you’ (Phil. 4:9).

It is in our place of refuge, our place of intimacy with God at the throne of grace that we enter the place of God’s deep peace. He is Yahweh Shalom, the LORD our Peace (Judg. 6:24). As we enter into subjective union with his presence, his strength, grace and peace begin to rise up in our spirit once again and permeate our entire being, bringing peace to our mind and heart, and melting and dissolving our anxieties and worries away. By an act of our will, we can then make the conscious choice to let go of the particular issue that is affecting us, to entrust it to him and to leave it with him. We understand and know deep within that he is able and willing to deal with it. And we trust him to do this. Furthermore, as we meditate on the Scriptures in his presence, our spirit discerns and hears the rhema word that the Holy Spirit speaks to us, and this word strengthens our faith as we continue to walk through our circumstance. Praise wells up within our hearts as our faith and trust are renewed, and we begin to freely release this! Our minds are at peace and now focus on whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, and on whatever is excellent or praiseworthy, rather than on the anxieties of our situation (Phil. 4:8).

Living and ministering out of God’s peace

So a mature believer in Christ is one who has learned to live ‘in the Spirit.’ S/he has practised this principle of Philippians 4:6-7 many times and therefore knows in experience its power to help and to change them within, in different situations that they have passed through in life. S/he knows and is well aware of what worry, anxiety and stress are and how these can affect them personally, but they also know what the peace of God is which passes all understanding, and they have experienced how this can sustain them in situations as they have prayed and cast their cares off themselves and onto the Lord.

Such a believer has determined therefore not to let worry and anxiety dominate and control them, and they do not like to react or respond out of these in situations. They want to live in the peace of God. Their desire is to live out of their spirit rather than their soul. They have become what Paul describes as a mature ‘spiritual’ Christian (1 Cor. 3:1, cf. Heb. 6:1). Because they spend time regularly in intimacy with God and live consistently close to him, and because they have learned the secret of casting their cares upon the Lord through prayer and choose to live in the peace of God, their mind and thinking are consistently controlled by the Spirit (Rom. 8:6). They know that their place of peace is in the refuge of the Lord’s presence.

This person still lives daily life just like everyone else, with all of its issues and challenges, but they are consistently awake spiritually and are aware within themselves of how situations in life can potentially affect them, so they do not easily get caught out and trapped into the mistake of giving place to anxiety and worry. They deal quickly with anxiety and worry when these begin to affect them, by determining to go to the throne of grace and get into their secret place with God, so that they can cast their cares onto the Lord and regain their place of trust and inner spiritual peace. The peace of God within them acts as a sentinel or watchman within their heart and mind (Phil. 4:7), and when they become consciously aware within themselves that this inward peace is beginning to be disturbed, then this acts as a signal that they need to respond by practising yet again the principle of these verses, so as to regain their state of inner peace. They have become an overcomer. They consistently live up to what they have learned and attained (Phil. 3:16, 4:9).

They are not greatly perturbed by worry and anxiety in situations. They respond quickly to these and soon regain their place of inner peace. They have learned to pray their way through situations and to walk through them in the grace and strength of God, rather than struggling and stressing their way through them, and thereby becoming emotionally exhausted. Although they can still be touched and affected by anxiety and worry, yet this tends to be only for short periods until they have dealt with these through prayer. Because they respond by praying and seeking the presence of God, it is not long before they hear the voice and word of God in their situation. The word of God spoken to them within by the Holy Spirit brings them back into a place of trust, praise and deep inward peace. So they get hold of the word and promises of God quickly in situations and respond to these through declarations of faith based on the word that the Holy Spirit is speaking to them in their hearts. They know that God is good (Ps. 84:11-12, 145:7,9), that they will live and not die (Ps. 118:17), and that they can trust and not be afraid (Ps. 56:3-4, Ps. 118:6, Isa. 12:2). They can praise and bless the Lord at all times, even in difficulties (Ps. 34:1).

To become an effective leader of others, a believer has to become an experienced and seasoned practitioner of this principle in Philippians 4:6-7, and also of the similar principles contained in verses such as Isaiah 40:31 and Hebrews 4:16. Only then can they minister to others from a position of peace. We can only lead others or minister effectively to them when we are in a position of peace and inward strength ourselves. We can only teach and disciple other believers how to live in the peace of God, when we have mastered it for ourselves. Ministry has many stresses of its own (on top of life’s own daily situations), so effective leaders have learned that they are not of much use to others when they themselves are in worry and stress, so they deal quickly with these in their own personal lives, in order that they may continue to be as effective as possible in ministry to others. Although they are loving and compassionate towards others, yet they do not allow themselves to be easily sucked into and affected by the worries and stresses of other believers. They know that it is only from a position of consistent intimacy with the Lord (and therefore of peace and deep trust) that they can minister effectively to others, praying with them and helping them through their situations. In this way they are a pillar of strength to others in their time of need (cp. Isa. 32:2).

‘Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.’ (1 Peter 5:7)

‘When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid.’ (Ps. 56:3-4)

‘The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid.’ (Ps. 118:6)

‘Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid.’ (Isa. 12:2)

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18 Anxiety and Worry, or Inner Peace?

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