Anxious No More #3 - Praying Our Anxiety
Message Description
Senior Pastor Dr. Kurt Bjorklund continues the message series entitled "Anxious No More," teaching about trusting God with all aspects of our lives.
Message Transcript
Good morning. It's great to be together. Let's pray. God, as we are gathered here this weekend and over the different gatherings around Pittsburgh and online, I ask that you would speak into each of our lives. God, I ask that my words would reflect your word in emphasis, tone, and content. And we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
So, I want you to imagine with me that there are some different people experiencing different situations. So first, let's just take somebody who is in the throes of a marriage relationship that has gone the wrong direction. It started out with all the hope and desire that every couple shares when they stand in front of their family and friends and pledge their love to one another.
But after some years together, the one person who wants it to still work finds themselves feeling like they're grasping at straws with the person who seems to be pulling away. I would imagine that anybody who finds themselves in that scenario finds themselves having some feelings of stress, anxiety.
But imagine, again, the two different people experiencing the same thing. One experiences it not with resignation, but with a peace that says even though this is going in a direction that I don't want it to go, I'm not experiencing it as somebody who's full of anxiety and fretting about what's ahead.
Imagine somebody else who gets a diagnosis like we heard from Leslie where you hear something and you say, this is life changing for me, for somebody I love. For some, you hear that, and it becomes something that is completely devastating and consuming because you say, here are all of the possible negative solutions. And to another you hear that, and there's still a sense of being able to say, even in this, there is peace, because whatever happens, I know that it's not out of control.
Or maybe you're somebody who is around, and the experience is one of saying, my concern is about my future. Maybe it's about what school you'll get into or what job you'll get after school. Maybe it's about an opportunity that you've been waiting for, longing for, and it's finally here, and you're feeling the stress of it. And yet one person can experience that with a consuming stress and another with peace.
We could go on and probably name hundreds of scenarios. And my question is really, what's the difference between a person who experiences something with stress and anxiety and somebody who experiences it with peace? Here's what's almost certain. Whoever you are, wherever you're coming from, whether you're a longtime person of faith or you're just exploring faith right now, at the beginning stages of exploring faith, you will experience unfavorable circumstances in your life. It's just a reality of living in the world we live in. There will be things that will happen that no matter how much you pray, what you do, will happen, and you'll say that isn't what I long for. And the question is, why do some people experience this with a sense of peace and other people experience it with a sense of stress and anxiety?
Now, we've been in a series here in the month of August that we've called Anxious No More. And we don't mean to imply that there will never be anxiety because some anxiety is natural and good. But we're talking about this kind of anxiety that is debilitating, that's diffuse, that isn't specific to a situation that just lives in us over and over. And we're looking at four New Testament passages that speak directly to anxiety. Today we're at one of probably the most famous passages on anxiety, the command in Philippians four that says, be anxious for nothing but in everything through prayer and supplication, prayer and petition, make your request, be made known unto God.
If you have been around church, maybe not around church, here's how you could easily hear this. So, stop being anxious and pray, good luck. Even though it's a good word, it doesn't always feel that helpful because you're like, well, I'm anxious, I have prayed, and I'm still anxious. So, how does this help me? But here's what I would like to just emphasize today. And that is, there's this line that says, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will be yours, basically.
So, how do you get this peace that comes from God? It's an objective genitive, meaning God is the source. How do you get this sense of peace that comes from God that's beyond reasonable when you face a relational crisis, a health crisis, opportunity crisis, or whatever it is that you would be able to say, I know that even in the midst of this, there's a peace that isn't logical to the people around me?
I would like to say that in Philippians four, it's found in cultivating three practices. Now there's four imperatives in this in the original language, rejoice, there's actually five because rejoice is in here twice. So, verse four, rejoice in the Lord, basically. And again, I say rejoice. So twice the command to rejoice. Then there's the command to let your gentleness be evident to all. And then there's two commands, basically. Be anxious for nothing but pray about everything. Two commands come together there, but I'm going to just simply say there are three practices that this points to. These practices are the things that help us actually have this peace that passes all understand.
And so, let's look at this. First is the practice of rejoicing. This is in verse four, which is just simply this phrase that says this. “Rejoice in the Lord always.” The word always here in the original language is not necessarily specific. It just means everything or all things. And so, it could mean in all situations or at all times, or it could just be intentionally vague, meaning it's saying rejoice in everything, and in all times. Then he says, “I will say it again: Rejoice!” Then in verse six, we have this little phrase, with thanksgiving, when it's talking about your request. It says, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving.” And so, the idea is this simple thought that just says that part of the command that God gives us is to rejoice. Now, again, you may hear that and say, well, so God tells me to rejoice. Like I rejoice if I rejoice, and I don't rejoice if I don't rejoice. How is this something God tells me to do?
I remember when I was first a pastor, I went to officiate a funeral, and it was this older woman because everyone was older than me at the time, and her husband had died. I remember I walked in, and it was this weird moment where she was like, oh, I'm just rejoicing. Did you not like your husband? And her point was, she was trying to say I just rejoice in everything. And I'm thinking, your husband just died. It's okay not to be like, whoop, whoop. You're not violating a command of God to not be celebrating in this moment. But there's still something to this command because this command is saying to rejoice in such a way that your disposition is focused on what God has done, the good things, rather than on the things that you don't have.
Have you ever had a Christmas where either you gave gifts to maybe a kid, a child of yours, a nephew, a niece, somebody, and the kid has a room full of gifts but is unhappy? If you've experienced that, that's the lack of rejoicing. Because what it is, is it’s that moment where you're saying I have all this, but what I really wanted was something else instead. Instead of being able to say, look at what God has given.
Here's what praise is, what praise does, what rejoicing does, is it raises the temperature, the threshold for pain. Rejoicing is like spiritual aspirin. Do you know how aspirin works? Aspirin doesn't solve anything for you. All it does is raise your threshold of pain. And what rejoicing does is it raises your threshold of pain because anxiety feeds on our negativity. And when we rejoice, what we do is we become somebody who says here's what God has done, here are the good things, here are the gifts that are all around me. Rather than feeding on negativity, I'll feed on what is good. Philippians four, just a few verses later, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are noble, whatsoever things are beautiful, think on these things. Because when you rejoice, you raise the threshold of pain.
There’s a story told about a pastor who was in a small town. This is probably not a true story, but it makes a point. His church was located in a place where some people would come and want to utilize the church for weddings and funerals and things who didn't really have a lot of affiliation with the church. And so, this one man came in one day and said hey, my brother has just died, and I'd like you to do the funeral here. He said, well, you know, we can do that.
And he said, but here's the thing. I'm prepared to make a very large donation to the church if you will call my brother a saint in the course of the service. And it’s a small town, so he knew this guy, he knew his brother. Everybody kind of knew them by reputation. They were known as dishonest. They were known as people who would cheat people and kind of carouse about the town doing things that weren't necessarily honorable all around the town. And so, the pastor felt like he's in a little bit of a dilemma here. So, he said, sure, I'll call your brother a saint. The funeral comes and he's there, and as he's going through the funeral, he says, you know, this man who lies here before you cheated and lied and swindled many of you. He ran around in dishonorable ways, but compared to his brother, he's a saint.
Now, the way that you position something matters. And to praise, to rejoice, is to say I'm going to focus on what is good and right. So, there's a discipline of practice, but there's also a practice of gentleness here. This is in verse five. It says, “Let your gentleness be evident to all.” Again, there's a command here in the Latin word. And it says the Lord is near. Gentleness here, according to one commentator, this word signifies a humble, patient steadfastness, which is able to submit to injustice, disgrace, and maltreatment without hatred or malice.
Now, that's a mouthful. But what he's saying here is that this word isn't just a me kind disposition, but it's an orientation that says whatever else is going on in this world, however I'm being treated, whatever I think is going on, my disposition that is evident to everybody is one of gentleness. So, it's not aggressiveness, but it's gentleness.
And he says, “The Lord is near.” It could be that he's alluding to the Lord being near and that God is always present, or it could be that he means the Lord is near, as in the coming of the Lord is near. But however he's using this, what he's saying is, be gentle because God sees and there's a future in which God will settle accounts. So, don't assume that you can live without gentleness.
We had our refrigerator quit working recently. If you've ever had this happen, it's a frustrating thing. All the food gets warm, you have to find alternate ways, coolers with ice, and things like that. We ended up having to buy a new refrigerator. The repair wasn't going to be worth it when all was said and done. This is the first time in decades that we've had to do this.
And so, we buy a new refrigerator and think that we have the right size. Anybody been there? And so, the refrigerator comes, and it doesn't fit where it's supposed to go. And again, we measured, it said that it was going to be just the right size, go to push it in, and nothing. And so now, here's why I talk about this with gentleness. Here's my temptation. My temptation in this moment is to push harder, to say this will fit. We're going to make it fit. But you know what happens if you push harder? You scrape it, you damage it, you do things that you don't actually want to do to it. Do you know what I needed to do to it besides get out the little multi-tool and scrape the edge of the cabinet all the way around with a sawdust bomb all over the kitchen? It was gentleness.
Now, the reason I use that picture is, do you know what a lack of gentleness is? It's an insistence that you know how things ought to be, saying I'm pushing this in no matter what. And when you're not gentle with people in your life, what you're doing is you're saying, I'm standing in the place of God for you, and I'm telling you how things ought to be, and you will do damage to that person and to that relationship. When you're not gentle with situations, it's like you're pushing the refrigerator in and you're saying, I know how this should be.
But what the practice of gentleness is, is it's looking at the situation and saying, this doesn't fit right now, and not I accept it in the sense of I'm never going to work for the end that I believe is right, but I'm not going to try to get what I need out of this right now. In fact, when you find yourself being aggressive or critical with things and people in your life, chances are, part of what's happening is you are not being gentle, and your anxiety is because you're trying to be in the place of God in that situation.
Now, again, I'm not suggesting that you don't want a different outcome, but what I'm suggesting is gentleness, this phrase, let your gentleness be evident to all, says the Lord is near, the Lord can work in this situation whether you believe He can or not, and the Lord will settle accounts. So, you can say I can be gentle. So, we have the discipline of rejoicing. We have the discipline, or the practice of gentleness, and then there's a practice of prayer. And this is the part that is usually thought most about where it says this, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” And then the promise, “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Now, there's a lot of research that's been done on prayer in recent days, and what people have found is that people who pray typically tend to be less anxious. What's interesting is that it doesn't necessarily correspond to the identified God that people pray to. And so, you could conclude from that, well, okay, it's just a self-soothing kind of a thing.
According to one group of research among adults who pray, 64% say they pray to communicate with God. Some 55% say they pray because it helps them cope with situations. But only 47% say it helped them reduce anxiety. So even though research says that it's helpful, what that means is many people, when they pray, don't see it as giving God their anxieties.
But here's what some people have said about prayer over the years. One person said this. When we work, we work. But when we pray, God works. I mean, think about how many times you take situations into your own hands and say I'm going to do all of this instead of going to God in prayer.
I'll never forget. Years ago, one of my friends had gotten married and his marriage was not going particularly well. We were talking about it, and I was in my problem-solving mode. I was like, hey, you should get therapy. You should go see somebody. And I'm a fan, by the way, of going for therapy. That's a good thing. But my whole thing was, here's all the stuff you should do. And he simply said, you know what I decided to do? He said, I decided I am going to get up a few minutes early every day and pray for my marriage. And I just thought, do you know what he's doing? He's living Philippians four. Instead of being anxious, he's saying, I'm making my request be made known to God. And so, many times we work instead of pray.
Somebody else said this about prayer, that it's more a way of being than a matter of doing. So many times we make prayer our way of doing something rather than who we are or what we do. Another author said, prayer cannot be taught. It has to be born out of a whole environment of felt need. If I say I ought to pray, I will soon run out of motivation and quit; the flesh is too strong. And then he says this, I have to be driven to pray. You see, prayer, hen you understand who God is and your need, it will be something that you don't have to say I have to check off a list, it'll be something that you say, why would I not take this to God?
And here's what's true, and again, if maybe you’re a person who isn't sure about faith or your journey and you're saying, well, it sounds kind of nice that there's a God that might care, but I don't know. Here's how the Bible presents a relationship with God. And that is, if you have come to faith in Jesus Christ, you've acknowledged your sin before God. We call it the good news. It may not sound good because you're like, why do I want to acknowledge my sin? But it's good news because Jesus has paid what we can't pay. And it isn't about our performance, but it's about the performance of Jesus. When you acknowledge that, the Bible says you become a child of God.
And then Jesus teaches us how to pray, and he says, our Father, who art in heaven. The teaching is that you get to go to the God of the universe, like you go to your dad. Now, for some of us, that might not be a helpful image because we may have had a dad who felt aloof. We may have had a dad who wasn't capable of helping us, but the picture is of the best possible dad and saying, you can go to your heavenly father with your request, you can make them known. And when it says your prayers and your petitions here, this is an oversimplification, but there are two different Greek words. Prayer probably means something that is maybe scheduled or structured, and petitions means your request, your urgent request, your unstructured pleas.
And what this points to is that part of the way that you address anxiety is you pray in a structured way to say, God, here's everything that I'm thinking about. But you also go to God in unstructured petitions, making your request be made known where you're saying, God, here's what's on my heart, here's what I'm hurting with, here's what matters right now. And you notice what the promise is? It says he will guard, Greek word here is a military guard, your hearts and your mind, your emotions and your thinking, is what God will do. He will work to guard your hearts, your emotions, your mind, and your thinking so that your anxiety is secondary to this idea of peace.
And so often, what I believe happens, and I'm guilty of this in my own life, and that is it's like we have all the resources available to us and we don't go to God. Instead, we try to solve it ourselves. It's like this if you've ever been in your house and you are hungry, and you look around your cabinet, refrigerator, and say there's nothing to eat. Now, you may literally have nothing to eat, but at least for me, my experience is there's always something that's available. The question is, am I willing to just look a little bit and take the resource that's available and bring it to bear to my situation? I mean, grilled cheese, it's always there. God has the resources, but sometimes we don't ask because we think that he's uninterested. We think that we need to go it alone, and that we need to figure it out.
Here's the promise again. It's that the God of the universe will bring you peace. Not that he will resolve every situation the way that you want it resolved, but he will work in your life in such a way that whatever it is you're going through, you can say, I know that God has not left me here on my own. And if you have come to faith in Jesus Christ, then that's how you can address anxiety in your life.
One author put it like this. He said, I ask God for strength that I might achieve. I was made weak, that I might learn to serve. I ask for health, that I might do great things. I was given infirmity, that I might do better things. I ask for wealth, that I might be happy. I was given poverty, that I might be wise. I ask for power, that I might earn the praise of people, and I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God. I got nothing I asked for, but all I hoped for. Despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am among all people, most richly blessed.
You see, the reason that peace is possible when you and I face these inevitable, difficult, negative situations isn't because you can go to God and like magic, say God, make my situation better, but it's because God is at work. If you're a child of his, working to bring about an outcome that might even be better than you understand. But that is where faith comes in. Because if you don't have a belief that God is good and he's for you, that he's on the throne, that he's at work in this world, that he cares about your life, then what will happen is you will be filled with anxiety. But if you can come back to that place and rejoice at who he is, practice gentleness and practice prayer, then you can find peace that passes understanding.
God, we ask today, that as we are gathered, that you would help each one of us with the things that are seemingly out of control in our lives, things that are hard, to simply come and offer them to you in a way that helps us to experience a transcendent peace. And father, we pray this today in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Thanks for being here. Have a great week.
