A Word from Bob: Welcome to Part 11 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
- Part 8 at The Weapons of Our Warfare When Anxiety Attacks
- Part 9 at 8 Ways to Strike Back When Anxiety Strikes
- Part 10 at God’s Victory Action Plan When Anxiety Attacks
Sooth Your Soul in Your Savior
Many of us have been led to believe that anxiety is a purely emotional problem. That simply is not true, as we’ve seen with Paul’s focus on our relational (to God, others, and self), rational, and volitional victory in anxiety. However, it would be naïve to think that emotions are not vitally and intricately related to anxiety.
Emotions Are God-Given
Before we can explore how to renew our emotions associated with anxiety, we must gain a biblical perspective on emotions. Emotions are God-given. They are not satanic. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have them. Adam had them before the Fall. In and of themselves, they are not sinful. They are beneficial, and yes, even beautiful. 
The Psalmist understood this. In the classic passage describing God’s utmost care in creating us, Psalm 139, emotionality is the one aspect of our inner personality specifically referenced. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13, emphasis added). “Inmost being” is kidneys. In Psalm 73:21 and Proverbs 23:16 the kidneys are the place of sorrow and rejoicing, respectively.
In the Ancient Near East, the kidneys were seen as prompting or urging people to action by aroused emotions. The Semitic languages used terms for kidneys, reins, stomach, bowels, and womb to describe the feeling states. As we literally experience and feel an emotion in our physical being, so we feel an emotion in our psychological being. That’s why we say things like, “I have butterflies in my stomach.”
God fearfully and wonderfully created your emotions!
Emotions are our God-given capacity to experience our world and to subjectively respond to those experiences. This capacity includes the ability to internally react and experience a full-range of both positive (pleasant) and negative (painful) inner feelings.
Cast Your Cares on Him
Paul was not exempt from emotionally experiencing his world. Receiving good news from Timothy about the Philippians cheered up Paul (Philippians 2:19). He was honest to admit that had his dear friend and co-minister Epaphroditus died, he would have experienced “sorrow upon sorrow” (Philippian. 2:27).
Paul models that we can learn to manage our moods. “…I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want” (Philippian 4:12). What is Paul’s “secret”? “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippian 4:13).
We quote Philippians 4:13 all the time, yet we fail to realize that the context is about learning contentment while suffering. By soothing his soul in his Savior, Paul found the strength to reject being frightened, timid, scared, and anxious (Philippian. 1:27).
All of Philippians is about learning how our relationship with Christ impacts our inner response to difficult external events. Fifteen times in this short letter Paul writes about experiencing joy in Jesus. We can learn to rejoice in the Lord always.
Emotional Intelligence
Soothing our soul in our Savior does not imply the elimination of emotions, but learning how to respond to our emotions in Christ’s power, for Christ’s glory, and for the good of others.
How do I soothe my soul in my Savior? Recall Peter’s answer. “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). “Cast” means to put a garment on someone who is cold or destitute. When I feel destitute, left out in the cold, I put off my old way of stuck vigilance and consuming, distracting concerns, and I put on trust that God will never leave me out in the cold.
Notice how we respond to our emotions when we take them to Christ. “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith…” (1 Peter 5:8-9). “Alert” is “gregory”—watch like a sentinel!
Feel your feelings, but don’t surrender to them—surrender them to Christ. Turn your stuck vigilance into active vigilance. Be self-disciplined. Grab hold of your wandering, worrying mind. Talk to yourself. Talk some sense into yourself. Then watch. Because Christ is your Sentry, don’t leave your guard post! Unlike Adam in the Garden, oppose Satan—that serpent, that roaring lion. Don’t be intimidated by him. Oppose him—literally—stand up to him, against him!
How? In my own strength? Not at all.
“The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen” (1 Peter 5:10-11).
This is also Christ’s message to us in Matthew 6:25-34. We overcome worry by caring for God’s kingdom while trusting that God will take care of us.
The Rest of the Story
Join me for Part 12—our final post in this dozen-part blog mini-series—Live Wisely in a Fallen World: Jars of Clay.
Applying the Gospel to Daily Life
- In the midst of anxiety-provoking situations, we can learn peace, joy, and contentment. What “emotional lesson plans” can you write from Philippians 4:12-13; 1 Peter 5:7-11; and Matthew 6:25-34?
Tweet It
Emotional Maturity 101 When Facing Anxiety: http://bit.ly/Gospel4Anx11
Emotions are God-given. http://bit.ly/Gospel4Anx11
God fearfully and wonderfully created your emotions! http://bit.ly/Gospel4Anx11
Feel your feelings, but don’t surrender to them—surrender them to Christ. http://bit.ly/Gospel4Anx11
What “emotional lesson plans” can you write from Philippians 4:12-13; 1 Peter 5:7-11; and Matthew 6:25-34? http://bit.ly/Gospel4Anx11
