“Proverbial Anxiety” || Anxiety in Anxious Times || Week 2

Welcome to part 2 of our “Anxiety in Anxious Times” series. We’re looking at how we can handle our daily anxiety during a very anxious time in our lives. I’m writing this during the COVID-19 pandemic, so there’s a LOT of anxiety right now. We’re going to tackle our anxiety through Scripture and testimony. Today, we’re diving into the book of Proverbs to see Solomon’s perspective on anxiety. There are two areas of Proverbs that are common to hear when we think about beating anxiety, but we’re taking a deep dive into them! So let’s start today’s message entitled, “Proverbial Anxiety”

Let’s start with a more common one, at least to me. Proverbs 3:5-6 says: “Trust the Lord completely, and don’t depend on your own knowledge. With every step you take, think about what He wants, and He will help you go the right way.” Interesting to compare trust with anxiety. I don’t always associate the two terms, but it is possible. To trust the Lord with whatever anxieties you’re dealing with removes the fear that you may be holding onto. It’s a release. It’s a way to remove the weight off your chest and give yourself the chance to breathe. It’s a remedy for anxiety if we think about it enough. Part of having anxiety and struggling with it is struggling to breathe properly or struggling to catch your breath. It’s more so common with panic attacks, but I have dealt with anxiety-related breathing issues. When a panic attack starts for me, I feel a huge weight in my chest form. Like an elephant is sitting on it. The only way I can get that pressure to release is to calm myself down and try to regulate my breath. Once I can get it regulated for a decent period, I can relax some more. One of the best way of getting things off of my chest is to go into conversation with God. To be able to say, “God, I’m not okay right now. Something is eating away at me and I can’t quite figure it out. Help me to discern the cause and help me to let You guide me through this healing process.” It’s been very advantageous for me and hope it would be for you if you try this. The conversation involved just talking through things and being able to see where all the thought patterns of my head are going. As I’m talking, I can see what’s rational and what’s not and then sort through all the junk to dive the root of the problem. Once the root cause is known, then God and I can start the recovery process. God wants us to go him and lean on him. We are not supposed to lean on our own understanding. That’s adding fuel to the flame. We need to lean on God’s mercy and focus on what He’s saying to us. I know sometimes it’s hard to discern his voice from all the others, but when you get to a period of calm. His voice tunes in as the loudest. I promise you that. Let’s look at another proverb.

Proverbs 12:25 says: “Worry takes away your joy, but a kind word makes you happy.” A simple verse that says enough right there. I could end it here, but of course I won’t. I wouldn’t do that to you guys. Reading through the verses that surround this verse, you see that this focuses on comparison. More so the focus on smart people vs. fools, hard workers vs. lazy people, good people vs. evil people, etc. So you see an overall theme of positive vs. negative aspects. So let’s break this down with our verse. We see worry vs. kindness. The Common English Bible actually has an interesting translation of this verse: “Anxiety leads to depression, but a good word encourages.” So the focus is anxiety vs. positive words. We see how kindness can take away anxieties. The focus on positivity can kill off negativity, or anxiety in this matter. I’ve often said you have to kill of negativity with positivity, and apparently, I’m in line with Solomon here. We need to not worry so much. I heard it from the Skit Guys (I believe) that worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere. Worrying is just something to do but isn’t productive, so why do it? Why waste your time on doing something that isn’t productive? Do something more productive with your life that can honor God. Don’t take time worrying that may or may not happen. I know that if you deal with anxiety, this is really hard to do and it’s DEFINITELY easier said than done, but it can happen with intentional practice. We talked last week about not worrying about tomorrow because they will instill its own worry, so focus on today.

This pushes my point to be this: “Don’t worry about tomorrow today. Focus on God and you today and worry about that.” Now, I know I said to NOT worry. Worrying about today and worrying about focusing on bettering yourself for God today is something you have control over. You don’t have control over tomorrow because tomorrow isn’t right now. Tomorrow is tomorrow. Today is today. Seek control over things you can today. Even if it’s reading something on social media or having conversations with friends and family. You can control how your mind perceives certain topics and directions of conversation. You can control whether or not you should continue scrolling through social media or continue the conversation because you are feeling overwhelmed. It’s okay to separate and dive inside your mind. I recommend you talk it out loud, whether to God to yourself. Get it all out in the open and then start breaking down your thoughts. Throw out the irrational stuff and focus on what’s rational and either change it or keep it the way it is. You are strong. You are tough. You will overcome. We will get through all this. 🙂

Stay blessed and see you next week for part 3!