The Anatomy of Anxiety: Quotes of Note

Note: This week I’ve been blogging about my presentation at the CCEF National Conference on “The Anatomy of Anxiety: God’s Prescription for Victory In Anxiety.”

• For Excerpt One Read: The Anatomy of Anxiety. 

• For Excerpt Two Read: Facing Anxiety Face-to-Face with Christ. 

• For Excerpt Three Read: Guard Your Relationship to God. 

• For Excerpt Four Read: It Takes a Congregation. 

• For the Complete Outline Visit: The Anatomy of Anxiety.

• For the Complete PowerPoint Presentation Visit: The Anatomy of Anxiety PowerPoint.

• For Tara Barthel’s Blog/Tweet Summary of the Session Read: Considerable Grace. 

Today I conclude this “mini-series” with some “Quotes of Note” from the session.

Quotes of Note

• Overcoming fear and anxiety is a relational discipleship process, not an exhortation event.

• Facing fear and anxiety is a comprehensive process involving the whole person in their whole life situation.

• If we’re to avoid the one-problem-one-verse-one-solution mentality and experience the relevance and power of God’s Word, then we need a biblical anatomy of anxiety.

• My premise is simple: every dysfunctional, fallen emotion is a distortion of God’s original pre-fall design.

• With vigilance, God puts us in fast motion—the emotion urges us to act quickly in response to a life threat.

• Vigilance is proper, constructive concern for the well-being of others and for the advancement of God’s Kingdom. Vigilance motivates us to implement “tend and befriend” behaviors.

• Vigilance motivates us to be God’s warrior. Anxiety, the flip side of vigilance, attempts to cripple and disarm God’s warrior, turning us into a worrier.

• In self, I am a worrier; in Christ, I am a warrior.

• Worry draws our eyes inward. Warriors look outward. Worry protects self. Warriors are willing to die to self to protect others.

• Anxiety is vigilance out of control. Anxiety is toxic scanning.

• Anxiety is vigilance minus faith in God. Anxiety is vigilance trying to maintain control in a self-protective and self-sufficient way.

• When anxiety strikes, where does it drive you? Do you respond by trusting God and protecting others? Or by trusting yourself and protecting yourself?

• When anxiety stalks, faith wrestles.

• Nothing is more courageous than doing the right thing even when we’re terrified. Nothing is more godly than facing our fears even when our fears are not eliminated.

• Martin Luther, who struggled with anxiety, noted that to deal effectively with life’s daily fears, we must first deal with life’s ultimate fear—separation from God.

• When anxiety strikes, we focus so much on the situation and our feelings that we lose focus on God, or we accept a skewed view of God.

• When we see God as our God of peace, then we can experience the peace of God that guards our hearts and minds.

• I can live an unguarded life because God is my Guard. I can protect others because God is my Protector. I can focus my energies on God and others because God is my Sentinel.

• Seeing God as our Guard helps guard our soul against the attack of anxiety.

• In anxiety, we choose a crippling focus on our circumstances. In worshipful prayer, we choose a healing focus on God’s character.

• When anxiety attacks, attack back with trusting, humble asking.

• Paul is not solution-focused. He’s SOUL-u-tion focused! To address anxiety we have to relate face-to-face with Christ and with the Body of Christ. True ministry is soul-to-soul ministry.

• Paul’s biblical counsel for victory in anxiety involves standing firm in community—with brothers and sisters in Christ, with dear spiritual friends.

• Victory in anxiety comes in community.

• Two questions are central as we fight against anxiety: Who is God? What is my identity in Christ?

• We’ll never experience wholeness in self. However, in Christ we are promised wholeness, integration, harmony, fullness. Paul calls it peace (Phil. 4:7)—a settled rest and confident assurance.

• God’s peace will put a sentinel around your heart and mind. He will garrison your beliefs and images so that in the midst of external stress and internal distress, you can experience core rest.

• The core heart sin with anxiety is failure to trust God. We decide to trust our puny resources rather than to entrust ourselves to Christ’s infinite resources.

• Feeling fearful; guard your relationship with God your Guard.

• Feeling fearful; connect deeply with others.

• Feeling fearful; know who you are in/to Christ.

• Feeling fearful; renew your mind in Christ.

• Feeling fearful; act courageously.

• Feeling fearful, soothe your soul in your Savior.

• Anxiety feeds on anxiety. Avoiding what I fear breeds greater fear. Nothing empowers fear more than fleeing a fearful event. We need to take vigilant action.

• When are you “healed” from anxiety? When you are tending and befriending others even if the anxious feelings remain. When you are protecting others, not yourself, because you cling to God as your Protector.

• Feel your feelings, but don’t surrender to them—surrender them to Christ.

• The Bible recognizes the complex interplay between the body and soul (Gen. 2:7).

• Remember the power of the Gospel. Cling to all of God’s Word—it is sufficient to guide us in our journey toward victory in anxiety and toward helping others to experience victory in anxiety.

Join the Conversation 

I’ll end today’s blog post the way I ended our session at CCEF.

• Related to anxiety issues, what will you do differently in your life and ministry because of our discussion of “The Anatomy of Anxiety”?