Anxiety is one of those weird words that we all use frequently, but it means something different to everyone who uses it.
Some people have anxiety about an upcoming test, while others have anxiety about the loss of a job. One of my daughters dealt with the unrelenting anxiety of a young husband who had just suffered a stroke, while a friend of hers crumpled under the anxiety of a flat tire. We get anxious about how we look, how we feel, and how other people think about us.
There’s plenty of anxiety to go around!
However, because anxiety is such an all-encompassing word, it becomes hard to sympathize with one another’s anxiety when it doesn’t seem like as big a deal as our anxiety. We may roll our eyes and secretly think, “Just get over it,” when our friends are anxious about something that doesn’t meet our criteria for anxiety. Or, we may feel timid about sharing those things that make us anxious because we think they don’t measure up to the anxiety that others face.
If we’re going to learn to do battle with our anxiety, as well as offering help and hope to our friends, family, and acquaintances who are dealing with anxious thoughts, we need to understand WHAT anxiety is and isn’t.
According to good old Webster’s dictionary, anxiety is a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome. It is also a mental condition characterized by excessive apprehensiveness about real or perceived threats, typically leading to avoidance behaviors and often to physical symptoms such as increased heart rate and muscle tension.
I can certainly agree with the last part of that definition. When I am feeling anxious, my chest gets tight, my cheeks flush, and I want to crawl under the covers and never come out again!
The Biblical definition of anxiety paints an even clearer picture. The Scriptures use two different words for ‘anxiety’: deagaa in Hebrew and merimna in Greek. These words convey the idea of being deeply concerned, worried, wholly occupied with, or showing obsessive interest in what weighs heavily on our hearts.
Notice that in that definition, there is no qualifying language to indicate that something has to hit a certain level of awfulness to count as anxiety. That’s why one person’s flat tire can be just as distressful as another person’s broken relationship.
That’s why we need to “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ,” as stated in Galatians 6:2. We can only do so if we refuse to judge the legitimacy of someone else’s anxiety.
Regardless of what causes our anxiety, the problem comes when our hearts become “wholly occupied by or showing obsessive interest” in our anxious thoughts. In other words, we can’t take our eyes off our anxiety. Then, it really has become the metaphorical ‘Elephant in the room.’
Two other words are closely connected with anxiety, and when they are lined up with anxiety, they cause an escalation of emotional distress in our lives. The words are ‘Stress’ and ‘Fear.’ You can picture the relationship among these three words like this:
STRESS——————————-ANXIETY———————————-FEAR
Stress is a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances. Interestingly, many of the challenging circumstances that Jesus spoke of in the Sermon on the Mount fall into the stress category—things like: mourning, being insulted or persecuted, or having people say evil things about you.
Stress is a regular part of daily life. Without stress, we wouldn’t get much done. Stress is a motivator and a tool that God uses to show us when action is needed.
However, when we ignore stress, or when stress goes on with no end in sight, it will almost always morph into anxiety. That anxiety will begin to affect us mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Then, when we allow ourselves to become wholly occupied by that anxiety, too often we will move on to fear.
According to Webster, fear locks us into the belief that someone or something is dangerous and likely to cause us pain. Fear prompts us to view people and circumstances as a threat. While Godly fear produces reverence, worldly fear leaves us in dread. Worldly fear can cause us to doubt even our closest relationships.
Fear is paralyzing. In Psalm 55:4–5, the psalmist paints such a clear picture of the agony of fear when he says,
“My heart is in anguish within me,
And the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
Fear and trembling come upon me,
And horror has overwhelmed me.”
But God’s Word reminds us that we do not need to fear! Isaiah 43:1 says, “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you.” Anxiety is a deep, deep water at times. But before we are swept away and left fearful and in dread, we can claim God’s promise that He is with us in that deep water.
It’s essential to recognize what is causing the inward confusion in our hearts. Is it stress, and is God trying to get our attention? Is it anxiety that has drawn our full attention and blocked us from seeing God’s face? Or, is it fear that has left us in dread?
Before the next lesson, may I encourage you to talk to God? Ask Him to show you what’s going on in your heart. Once we have a clear understanding of stress, anxiety, and fear, we’ll be ready to get into the nitty gritty of winning this war for our minds and emotions.
Megan Scheibner 