09.01 | To Become Non-Anxious

Matthew 6:19-34

“Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Matthew 6:31-33

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Do not be anxious.

Those words clatter into our cultural moment like a battering ram. Sociologists, therapists, politicians, teachers, statistics and anecdotes all attest that we live in an anxious society. Global uncertainties meet with individual fears to make anxiety one of the lead characteristics of our age.

The words of Jesus, into this context, feel like they could be insensitively simplistic, trivialising the circumstances that bring us anxiety and ultimately instructing us to do the very thing we lack the tools to do.

Look a little harder.

Jesus never actually treats people like this. He knows the human condition better than anyone. He knows what you can and cannot deliver. He spoke these words not just for those sitting on that mountainside, but to speak into the very heart of your life today. And He was, and is, never trite with pain.

However,

He did,

and always will,

call us towards a life that is impossibly possible.

It is possible because non-anxious living is actually a step into reality. To live without anxiety is to walk each day in the full knowledge that, whatever circumstantial, material, emotional, physical challenges we may face, the reality of the Father’s endless love for you is always the greater reality. That when you stand in the situations that bring you greatest anxiety, the truth of His love is of greater substance, however much you have yet glimpsed it. That when you stand to speak, check the bank balance, confront that colleague, or step into that nightmare scenario, every time, the truth of His love is your absolute reality. More than the faces in the room, the consequences you fear, and the battle that rages within. It is possible because this is not a nebulous trust in a fantasy; it is reliance on the most concrete thing in the universe: the heart of the Father.

And it is impossible, because the transformation of your inner world is always impossible. 

The transformation of your heart into a non-anxious environment does not ultimately happen because you try harder, read the best content, see the best therapist, or form the best habits.

These things might help, but they won’t ultimately fix it.

The transformation of your heart comes, rather, through your simple availability to the One in who works impossibilities in your soul. This work is beyond you, but it is not beyond Him. When we do things to try and help settle our anxious hearts, we lay these practices before the Holy Spirit, asking Him to come and use that space to make us whole. The transformation of you and I, from the cortisol-pumping, sleep-deprived, palpitating, neurotic nail-biters that we can be, into the glorious peace of non-anxious living that Jesus puts on display before us today, requires the inner working of the Spirit in us, to move us, day by day into the impossible possibility of the non-anxious life.

Some practical advice from Jesus that helps:

Focus on today only. Leave tomorrow for tomorrow. I have found this to be among the greatest pieces of practical, spiritual advice I have ever received.

Look to the Father. Habitually. Even when you feel you cannot see Him, tell your soul that He is good. Words you speak to your heart have more power than you realise.

Pursue one thing first. In every activity—shopping, working, emailing, texting, gardening, running, sleeping and socialising—bring back to mind what it would look like to live towards Jesus and His Kingdom in that activity. 

And ask Him for this daily.

Because without Him this is impossible.

And yet with Him, living in perfect peace is utterly, and completely,

possible.

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Reflect:

What gives me anxiety today? What practical thing can I do right now to steer my heart towards the non-anxious life of Jesus?

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Pray:

Father,

You keep in perfect peace the one whose heart steadfastly trusts in you.

I want this to be my heart’s position today.

I bring you my anxieties and worries.

I bring you what I have, and what I do not have,

I bring you my tasks,

And my responsibilities,

And the people that I carry in my heart.

Holy Spirit, teach my soul the steadfast goodness of the Father;

Teach me that His goodness is more real than all I see,

And so flood my whole being with light. 

And Lord Jesus, I place my tomorrow into your hands,

That I may simply live in the present of today.

Help me to walk simply, humbly, and trustingly,

With you and like you

Into a day of perfect peace,

And glorious simplicity.

In your name

And your Way,

Amen.

Old Testament:

For those doing the whole Bible in a year, your additional readings are here:

Genesis 21:8-23:20 | Proverbs 1:20-33