There seems to be a lot of talk about anxiety these days. People refer to ‘their anxieties’, and the lockdown certainly won’t have helped. 

But I don’t think this is anything particularly new. I remember my grandparents talking about how they worried about things. This was often related to activities my brother and I would get up to (“ooh we did worry about you”), reaching a climax when I ended up in hospital – they wrote me a letter saying how much I’d caused them to worry.

I used wonder what they actually did and would imagine them having ‘worry times’, where they would go into their front room, sit upright, look as though they might cry and shake their heads. 

But anxiety can be, and often is, quite serious. It affects us both mentally and physically.

I suspect that no-one is immune from it, though we are all different in the way it affects us and in the way we react to it. 

The Bible takes anxiety seriously too. We’re probably familiar with verses such as Phil 4:6 (Do not be anxious about anything) and Matthew 6:25 (Do not be anxious about your life), which are presented as commands.

But there are also examples of what might be called ‘good anxiety’. Paul writes in Philippians about Timothy and how he will be genuinely concerned (or anxious) about their welfare. Paul himself refers to his ‘anxiety for all the churches’ (2 Cor 11:28). The Greek work translated as ‘anxiety’ is also translated as ‘care’ in, for instance. 1 Cor 12:25.

How might we distinguish between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ anxiety?

In Luke 10:38-42, Jesus is teaching at the home of two sisters Mary and Martha. Martha is busy serving while Mary is sat listening to Jesus. Martha is clearly overwhelmed, verse 40 says ‘distracted’, and asks Jesus to get Mary to help her. Jesus replies “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

So maybe that’s the clue – something, even a good thing like serving, that takes our focus away from Jesus himself is not good. Martha’s attention was on the task, not on Jesus. The task might have been important, but ‘one thing is necessary’ – focussing on Jesus.

I’ve heard it said that ‘all good theology starts in Genesis’, and it is good to look backwards, as well as forwards, to get a perspective on living in the here and now.

When Adam and Eve sinned, one of their first actions was to hide from God, because they were afraid of him. They didn’t know what lay ahead or how God was going to deal with them. They knew that death had been promised, but maybe didn’t realise what that really meant (after all they were still alive), but they were afraid and anxious. That’s where is all started, and we live with the consequences.

The consequences of the Fall were to bring all kinds of troubles and suffering – including anxieties – into the world.

When writing to a suffering, persecuted church, Paul, in Romans 8:18-30, refers back to the Fall, but also points to a future. A hope of freedom and redemption when sin and death are removed, and life is marked by glory. We may not know a great deal about the life to come, but we do know it will be better than we can imagine. It is also sure and certain, which give us hope.

We are somewhere in the middle of this. There’s a ‘already but not yet’ aspect to living as a Christian. We are already justified and sanctified, but we are not yet complete. Not yet glorified.

So how do we live with anxieties?

In the verses I mentioned earlier – Matthew 6:25 and Philippians 4:6 – we are told not to be anxious, followed by a ‘but’. ‘but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness’ (Matt 6:33); ‘but in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God’ (Phil 4:7).

The point here is about doing something which takes our focus away from ourselves and our anxieties and puts the focus on God himself. 

One of my favourite Old Testament verses is Daniel 11:32b “but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.”

Actions might well include getting medical help for a chemical imbalance, or getting with others who can help with a biblical perspective. Spending time in prayer and the Word is important – vital even – with the aim of being with Jesus and getting his perspective on our lives. We’re back to our chairs!

None of this is a quick fix though. Some of us may have to learn how to live with anxiety for most of our lives. Interestingly, John Bunyan (author of Pilgrim’s Progress) suffered with ‘anxieties of the hart’ throughout his life, but he wrote this towards the end of his autobiography:

These things I continually see and feel, and am afflicted an oppressed with; yet the wisdom of God doth order them for my good. 1.They make me abhor myself. 2. They keep me from trusting my heart. 3. They convince me of the insufficiency of all inherent righteousness. 4. They show me the necessity of flying to Jesus. 5. They press mee to pray unto God. 6. They show me the need I have to watch and be sober. 7. And to provoke me to look to God, through Christ, to help me, and carry me through this world.

He firmly believed in Romans 8:28, that God orders our lives, including our anxieties, for our good. Like Paul he recognised that God’s grace is sufficient in our weakness (2 Cor 12:9).

The perspective comes from understanding that ‘one thing is necessary’.

Or as the Psalmist says:

"One thing have I asked of the LORD,
 that will I seek after:
  that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
 all the days of my life,
  to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
 and to inquire in his temple." (Psalm 27:4)

and again, Paul:

“But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 3:13-14)