A Word from Bob: Welcome to Part 8 of my blog mini-series on The Gospel Where You Live: God’s Prescription for Victory In Anxiety. I’m taking these thoughts from my booklet, Anxiety: Anatomy and Cure. You can read:

• Part 1 at God’s Prescription for Victory In Anxiety
• Part 2 at Anxiety: Stuck Vigilance
• Part 3 at Anxiety: What Difference Does the Cross Make?
• Part 4 at Facing Anxiety Face-to-Face with Christ
• Part 5 at 5 Gospel-Centered Responses to Anxiety, Fear, & Worry
• Part 6 at It Takes a Congregation
• Part 7 at Wholeness in Christ When You’re Falling Apart

Put on the Mind of Christ 

Throughout his letter to the Philippians, Paul emphasizes applying the gospel to our thought lives—saturating our minds with gospel-centered thinking. He says it most succinctly in Philippians 4:7 where he tells us that:

“God’s peace will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

Renew Your Mind 

In addressing our mindsets, Paul does not say that we will no longer feel anxious. Nor does he promise that our situation will change. Instead he is saying:

“Through it all 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.”

Picture it like this. Our vigil detector discerns a threat and screams, “Incoming missile! Take cover!” Or, if you’re a Star Trek fan, “Red alert! Red alert! Shields up! Evasive maneuvers!”

Our emotions and flesh scream, “Take control! Trust self! Protect self!” 

Our new mind in Christ whispers:

“Shh. Quiet. Calm down. Look at this threat with spiritual eyes. What has God promised in Christ? He has overcome the world. He has won the fight, so you don’t have to fight in self-trust. He has won the final victory, so you don’t have to flee in self-protection.”

Paul is not providing the precursor to rational-emotional therapy. He’s explaining that God’s Word must reshape our entire worldview. Our mindset, our perspective, must be focused on Christ and His gospel of grace. God’s peace helps us to reinterpret life based upon God’s perspective and helps us to see life through the lens of God’s promises based upon God’s character. God’s peace brings rationality and spirituality to our emotionality.

This is not pie-in-the-sky thinking for Paul. Remember his life situation and how he places his earthly context in an eternal perspective. “What has happened to me [jailed for his faith] has really serve to advance the gospel” (Philippians 1:12). “Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:19b-20).

If anyone had an excuse to look at life with “eyeballs only,” Paul did. But rather than see life from a temporal perspective, Paul chose to look at life with 20/20 eternal spiritual vision. As a result, instead of protecting and guarding himself, he spent his days witnessing to the palace guards about the One who is the true Guard (Philippians 1:14).  

Put Off Worldly Mindsets: Repent of Self-Sufficient and Self-Protective Thinking

Discussing “sin” and “anxiety” with a person struggling with anxiety can produce…more anxiety…and confusion.

“But it can’t be sin! I would not have these feelings if I could get rid of them. They’re uninvited. Unwanted. Alien. Intruders. Invaders. I have no choice but to feel these fears!”

At one level, this may be somewhat true. We can’t totally control what feelings we experience. However, at another, deeper level, our response to anxiety can be sin; can be a choice.

In fear, we let our brains talk to us, control us, and convince us of lies. In Psalm 42:5, David took control of his thought life. He stepped back and said, “Why are you downcast, O my soul?” To defeat anxiety, we have to take personal responsibility and identify the lies we are believing about God.

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. Paul describes this sinful self-trust as putting confidence in the flesh (Philippians 3:4-5).

We can trace the tracks of mistrust to our sinful suppression of the truth that God is strong and caring, holy and loving, in control and comforting (Romans 1:18-25). Based upon our failure to hold God in awe, we self-protect through flight and fight behavior.

We need to confess our sin of self-trust and self-protection and of mistrusting God and believing lies about God. We need to repent of our sin of turning God’s good gift of “vigilance” into the haunting sin of “stuck vigil.”

One of Mike’s homework assignments was to pen a Psalm of repentance. 

“Heavenly Father, I confess as sin my dishonoring beliefs about You, my doubts that You care and are in control. I confess as sin trusting myself and protecting myself. Empower me by Your grace to choose to put off fleshly mindsets that develop into ruts and routes in my brain. By Your grace, I will put off the old, sinful, habitual, fearful, phobia and worry-filled themes and threads in my thought life. I thank You that You are faithful even when I am unfaithful. Even when I refuse to fear You and choose to fear others, I never need to fear that You will refuse to forgive me. I receive Your grace and forgiveness in Christ in Whose name I pray.”

If Mike and I only looked at his false beliefs from a surface level, then we would have been doing little more than cognitive-behavioral therapy. A Christian approach to anxiety looks deeper—to issues of the heart—because every belief ultimately traces back to how we relate to God, how we view God, and how we view our relationship to God—by works or by grace.

The Rest of the Story 

Join me for Part 9 when we continue to explore the weapons of our warfare by discussing Put On Christ-Centered Mindsets: Take Responsibility for Your Thought Life.

Applying the Gospel to Daily Life 

• Are you looking at life threats with spiritual eyes? Look at life’s stresses through the lens of God’s protective promises based upon God’s faithful character. 

Tweet It

The Weapons of Our Warfare When Anxiety Attacks:

When anxiety attacks, God’s peace will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

God’s Word must reshape our entire worldview.

God’s peace brings rationality and spirituality to our emotionality.

Every belief ultimately traces back to how we relate to God, how we view God, and how we view our relationship to God—by works or by grace.