Have you ever met someone, looked at their life, and thought to yourself, “How in the world are they surviving?”
This 5th lesson on anxiety will actually spill over into Lesson 6. We’ll linger and closely examine the life of the Apostle Paul. Please believe me when I say that when it comes to life’s stressors and the anxiety that comes with them, Paul Gets It!
Today, we’ll examine Paul’s life and struggles. I think you’ll see just how much his life resembles ours. Although his trials are different, the emotions that stem from them could be any mom’s. In the next lesson, we’ll discover how Paul learned to turn life’s stressors and their inherent anxiety into an opportunity to cling more closely to His Savior.
In 2 Corinthians, Paul is put in the uncomfortable position of defending his authority as an Apostle. He answered, “What gives you the right to tell us what to do?” And perhaps even more, he answered the unspoken question, “Why are you the way you are?” (Ouch!)
2 Corinthians 11:23-27 is Paul’s defense of who he is and why he has authority. In this passage of Scripture, he shares the struggles that he has faced—the stressors of life, if you will. Get ready… The list is crazy!
Paul was:
- Five times beaten with lashes
- Three times beaten with rods
- Stoned
- Three times shipwrecked
- Embarked on frequent journeys that involved
- Robbers
- Misunderstanding by his countrymen
- Danger from Gentiles (the very people he was ministering to)
- Trouble in the city
- Trouble in the wilderness
- Trouble on the sea
- Trouble with false brethren
- Forced into labor and hardship
- Had sleepless nights
- Was hungry
- Was thirsty
- Went without food
- Faced cold and exposure
Wow! That’s a lot of external stressors.
If anyone had reason for anxiety, it was Paul. 2 Corinthians 11:28 is the real kicker for me, though. In the midst of all those stresses, Paul shared the anxiety that weighed on his heart the most. Here is what he said.
“Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure upon me of concern for all the churches.”
In other words, Paul said that despite what was happening that was outside of his control, his real anxiety was for the people that he loved so dearly.
Ladies, can’t you see yourselves in Paul’s life? No, most (if not all of us) haven’t been shipwrecked, stoned, and beaten. But, we have been misunderstood by countrymen (our families), had sleepless nights, and we were turned away by the very people to whom we were trying to offer help. Some of us have been hungry and cold. We’ve faced external hardships that we couldn’t control.
I’ve met women facing such hard external stressors in their lives that I marvel that they are still standing. Their hardships make my own seem trivial. Thankfully, God doesn’t look at it that way. He knows each of us so intimately, and His heart hurts just as much for us (in what may seem trivial) as it does for our friends whose struggles seem so hard.
For me, it looks like one child with a broken arm and another with a broken heart. There are bills that can’t be paid, and someone is complaining about what I made for dinner. There are too many activities, but not enough hours in the day. I try to meet everyone’s needs, but feel overlooked and unappreciated.
But, like Paul, the most significant anxiety that follows me throughout the day and wakes me at night is “the daily pressure upon me of concern for the (little) church that God has entrusted to me,” my children.
In many ways, I can go on autopilot and handle the external stressors over which I have no control, but anxiety about my children can totally derail me. When I’m anxious and wholly focused on my concern about their physical, mental, or spiritual health, I’m of no use to anyone.
Regardless of how difficult external stressors can be, anxious thoughts about the people we love will always be harder to handle.
For Paul, that concern for the church became so overwhelming that in 1 Thessalonians 3:1-2 he says, “Therefore when we could endure it no longer, we thought it best to be left behind at Athens alone; and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith.”
In other words, Paul chose loneliness over living with the uncertainty of how his beloved young believers were faring. His anxious thoughts over their welfare dictated his decision to remain alone.
If Paul were with us right now, I think he’d tell us that he understands our anxiety about our loved ones. He would probably have stories to share about his own anxious thoughts.
However, he wouldn’t stop there. Paul found the secret to “taking captive” those anxious thoughts and turning them into a closer walk with Jesus. Isn’t that what we want?
Anxiety is not our friend! In the next lesson, we’ll learn the first steps toward dealing with our anxiety in God-honoring and permanent ways. Until then, remember that if, like us, Paul had to fight against anxiety, we are not alone.
Trust me, Help Is On The Way!
Megan Scheibner 