“Take this Anxiety Away from Me” || Release What You’re Not in Control Of || Week 5

Welcome to the fifth week of our series called: “Release What You’re Not In Control Of”. Can you believe we’re in week five already? It’s crazy how time flies like that, but here we are and I am glad you’re here. If you haven’t read any of the messages over the past four weeks, then where have you been? I’m kidding, but I do highly encourage you to read those first before starting today’s message. If you don’t even know what this series is about and are wondering why I’m telling you to read the others. This is for all the control freaks, like me. We’re living in a time of control is non-existent. I’m writing this during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic and there are obviously tons of things going on that are outside of my control. Through scripture and personal testimony, I will walk you through how you and I can handle our controlling tendencies.

This week’s message takes us to the words of Peter and Matthew to see how they link anxiety to control. Two things that go hand-in-hand sometimes. Let’s start today’s message called: “Take this Anxiety Away from Me”.

Let’s start in 1 Peter 5:6-8. It says: “So be humble under God’s powerful hand. Then he will lift you up when the right time comes. Give all your worries to him, because he cares for you. Control yourselves and be careful! The devil is your enemy, and he goes around like a roaring lion looking for someone to attack and eat.” There’s some powerful imagery here, but let’s break it down a little further.

Some translations say to “cast all your anxieties on him”. To cast means “to throw something on something”. Think of fishing, to cast a line means to throw your line on the water. We are supposed to cast all of our discontent, discouragement, despair, and suffering on God, and trust him for knowing what he’s doing with our lives. Along with submission and humility, trust in God is one of the attitudes needed for victorious Christian living. Let’s talking about the part of “control yourself”. In the ESV, it talks about being sober-minded and watchful. Strong confidence in God’s sovereign (possessing supreme or ultimate power) care doesn’t mean that the believer may live carelessly. The outside evil forces that come against us needs to keep us alert. Peter compares the devil to a roaring lion ready to attack. The Greek word for “devil” means “slanderer”; thus a malicious enemy who defames believers. He and his forces are always active, looking for ways to overwhelm us with temptation, persecution, and discouragement. Satan sows discord, accuses God to men, men to God, and men to men. He will do what he can to drag us out of fellowship with Christ and out of Christian service. Satan constantly accuses believers before God’s throne, attempting to convince God to abandon them. Let’s deepen the focus on control and anxiety now since we have some meaning behind what Peter is talking about.

Peter is telling us to control ourselves and be careful. It’s hard to control ourselves sometimes when we feel out of control. We want to freak out sometimes, causing our anxieties to fly faster than a Boeing 747. We think things to death, trying to control different variables of various situations that might or might not happen, but yet we fail to regain that control. The realization of that can push us further into madness because control is slipping away from our fingertips every second. When Peter talks about “God’s powerful hand” in verse six, it refers to an Old Testament symbol of God working through men, always accomplishing his powerful purpose. We need to be humble under this power, which means to have a low or modest estimate of our own importance. It means to realize that our sufferings currently are small compared to God’s powerful plan for us, for He will lift us up when the time comes. We may not realize it, but God is pulling us through a difficult season currently to give us great works on the other side. It’s hard to see, but one of the biggest things I’m seeing currently is an increase in person-to-person communication. I’m not saying in-person communication, but it means checking in with others that we might have talked to in a while. I’m seeing more care towards others instead of focusing on the “me-centric” ideals that most people developed. God is helping us take care of others like Jesus took care of us. Loving our neighbor is the second rule Jesus gives all of us, behind loving God. It’s nice to see, but I do wonder how much of this will continue after we get back to the new normal. That can cause some worries, but verse seven says to cast all of our anxieties/worries to God because he cares for us. Some of us have been silent sufferers during this time, myself included to a point. It’s hard to try and explain how we feel right now because everyone’s emotions are at an all-time high, dealing with the “fear of the unknown”. We worry about how people will react if we open up, how they might judge us, how they might view us afterward, and because we’re working ourselves up so much we then grow silent. Have you ever dealt with so many problems at one time that when someone asks you, “What’s wrong,” and all you can say is, “Nothing.” It’s not because there is nothing wrong, but because there’s so much going on. There’s not ONE thing we can pinpoint as the root of what’s going on. That’s why we need to go to God. To cast everything going on in our heads onto God so that our head can breathe…so we can breathe. Otherwise, if we don’t, we see Satan playing with our already unstable emotions. He’s lurking around in our mind ready to pounce when we let our guard down. He’s ready to strike and kill our soul, our spirit, our ambitions because we weren’t able to control our thoughts and not careful enough to simmer down. It’s tough I know, but it is possible. Let’s see what Matthew can add on to it.

Matthew 11:28 says: “Come to me all of you who are tired from the heavy burden you have been forced to carry. I will give you rest.” We see where Peter comes from now. This is an open invitation for all of us – but phrased carefully enough that only ones who respond to it are those who are burdened by their own spiritual bankruptcy and the weight of trying to save themselves by keeping to the law. The stubbornness of our own sin is such that without a sovereignly bestowed spiritual awakening, all of us refuse to acknowledge the depth of our spiritual poverty. That is why our salvation is in the sovereign work of God.

This is actually linked to one of the original beatitudes. Matthew 5:3 says: “Great blessings belong to those who know they’re spiritually in need. God’s kingdom belongs to them.” This talks about one who is acutely aware of their own lostness and hopelessness apart from divine grace. Jesus taught us that the kingdom is a gracious gift to those who sense their own weak spirit. Let’s get back to Matthew 11:28.

We need to go to God when we’re tired. Tired of all the anxious thoughts. Tired of all the depression. Tired of all the guilt. Tired of the need to control. Tired of just being plain tired. I’m sure some of you have been there. When we’re tired we need to God with all the heavy burdens we’ve been FORCED to carry. Look at the word FORCED. This isn’t always something we’ve chosen to take on, but we’re forced to carry. This includes the thoughts of a variety of things, the perspective of things we might not agree with, the feelings of what others are doing compared to what we think they should do. See what I mean? Some of this comes when we just don’t choose to think this way, but because we’re forced this way. We go to God with it all because it’s doing no good for us to hold on it. We need to take it to God because that’s where we the rest we seek is. It’s in God that we find rest from the persecuting thoughts, the anxieties, the fears of daily life, they want to control. All that comes to a resting point, when we take it to God. We see it here in Matthew and such a good point that Peter reinforces it towards the end of the New Testament.

Go to God. Seek the rest that you so graciously deserve. We’ll see you next week where you may feel called out. I’m talking to my fellow control freaks! See you then. Stay blessed!