What To Do When Fear and Anxiety Try and Overcome You

Saying we have faith in God, and actually living it out, are two different things. The truth is that sometimes it is quite difficult to not be anxious and not to fear the worst. Countless times in my Christian life I have seen God answer prayers and do things that far exceeded my petitions. Yet, just this past week as I faced surgery to remove my gallbladder, I wrestled with anxiety. I barely slept Tuesday night as I just couldn’t get a grip on my fear. I hate medical procedures and this particular surgery played right into my fear. I prayed and I prayed, and I remembered all the times God has brought me through the storms and trials of my life. Yet, I couldn’t let go of the fear.

He did it again yesterday. Things couldn’t have gone better than they did. I am home recovering and yet, even though God brought me comfort and even some joy in the midst of that surgery, I find the temptation to fear the recovery. Me, the guy who does nothing but preach how we must trust God, struggles to overcome his fears.

The good news in all this is that even when we waver in our faith, God the Father, though Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, understands us and never let’s go of us. I love what the psalmist tells us about God in Psalm 103:13-14, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” God knows we are frail, we are weak, and we struggle in our humanity. Yet, He has compassion for us in our weakness.

This is no excuse for our sins, of course. It doesn’t mean we should just give up trying to trust Him. The Gospel is good news because Jesus died for us, which demonstrates the compassion we read of in Psalm 103. And when Jesus ascended back to Heaven to be with the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit back to dwell within each and every believer. It is the Holy Spirit who teaches us, guides us, and comforts us in our times of need. He even helps us to pray when we don’t even know what to pray as Romans 8:26 declares to us that “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”  

We are in good hands, when we are in the hands of God.

This does not mean things are always going to go our way. This morning my Bible chapter was Acts, chapter twelve and in this lesson, we are reminded that God is sovereign. This means He is in control. Which means we are not. Take time to open your Bible and read this chapter. A lot happens in the twenty-five verses.

King Herod arrests some of the church men and severe persecution begins. James, the brother of John, is put to death. Then Herod has Peter arrested. Things look really bad at this point. Certainly, fear would be a normal reaction for Peter and the others in light of James’ execution. The first lesson we can find here is an important one. Sometimes God allows physical harm and even death to come to His children at the hands of evil men. Sometimes, He protects them. James dies, apparently without any type of trial. Peter is spared, at least pending a public trial. There is a temptation to ask why James, why not Peter? The answer is simply that God’s ways are higher than ours, and there isn’t always an answer that satisfies us. One of God’s greatest attributes is that He is sovereign. He knows what He is doing, He sees a much bigger picture than we. We are called to walk in faith.

Walking in faith, as we know, can be difficult. The next lesson in this story is to see how they responded.

Acts 12:5
So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church..

The importance of prayer cannot be overstated. The church not only prayed, they earnestly prayed. The NASB uses the term fervent. This wasn’t just some words spoken out loud with little emotion, it means they were talking to the living God in heart-felt devotion and faith in God.

There is another important aspect to this prayer. It was the church that prayed, not just individuals. When I went to the hospital for my surgery yesterday, I had already a multitude of Christians praying for me. People were praying for me who go to many different churches. It doesn’t matter which building you go to or what denomination is written on their sign, the Bible teaches us that the church in its purest form, is made of every single believer who is saved by their faith in Christ. The Book of Acts talks a lot about the unity that exists within the world-wide church and when it uses the term that is its meaning. It honors God when we unify as the church.

God answers these prayers for Peter in a miraculous way. We see an angel show up, we have a bright light in the cell, and then Peter’s chains simply fall off him. The gates open on their own and Peter walks out following the angel. A true miracle.

Not good news for the guards, who Herod quickly executes. Herod’s anger continues to grow and in another display of God’s sovereign power, because Herod refused to glorify Him, an Angel of the Lord appears, and Herod is eaten by worms and dies.

Is that a wild chapter, or what?

Take some time and read this chapter over. Meditate on it. The truth we come to is simply this; God is sovereign, and He is in control. We will not always understand what He ordains and allows, but no matter what, we must walk by faith, not by sight.

The battles of life are hard. There will be some things we simply won’t understand, but we cannot fall into the trap of why this and why not that. We must build our faith and we do that through reading our Bibles, being part of God’s church, fervently praying without ceasing, and letting the Holy Spirit be our guide, our teacher, and being the power in us to do