When I was growing up, magicians and conjurers were big entertainment. We used to gather round the TV to watch them. I believe that in places like Las Vegas they still pull the crowds. People love to be amazed. But at the root of all conjuring is the art of misdirection - the ability to trick your audience by taking their gaze away from the place where the real action is.
Friends, anxiety does the same thing. It tricks us. It takes us away from the things that are of primary importance. Listen to the words of Jesus again:
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6:33 NIVUK
I've stayed in towns in Romania with large gypsy settlements. What they used to do was incredibly sneaky and actually very dangerous. When police raided them, they would often find that they had illegally and dangerously rigged up connections to the electricity grid. They were stealing energy, and in doing so were risking both their lives and the lives of everyone in the settlement.
But it wasn't just gypsies. The taxis in one town where I lived were much cheaper than elsewhere. The reason why is because there was an oil refinery outside of the town. There was a large pipe from the refinery into the town. Someone had drilled a hole into it. Taxi drivers simply took their containers to the pipe, filled it up with stolen petrol and fuelled their cars for free. Of course, they had no regard for the loss income for the refinery or the potential environmental damage from spilled petrol. Who cared, provided business was good, right?
Anxiety is a huge thief of time and energy. It does nothing for us at all. In fact, Jesus tells us to seek His kingdom and rule as the antidote to it because worry and anxiety actually question His rule. They cast doubt on whether He can really provide for us. They cast aspersions on His reign.
Anxiety is also an astonishing waste of resources. Think about it: how much time and energy do we spend resolving problems that never occur, thinking about issues that never arise, asking questions where we don't need to know the answer? If ever there was a more wasteful activity, I have yet to find it.
Yet Jesus said these words:
‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’
Matthew 11:28-30 NIVUK
And Peter said these words:
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
1 Peter 5:6-7 NIVUK
And David these words:
Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.
Psalms 55:22 NIVUK
Seeking Christ's Kingdom is not just about accepting His rule and living His way. Jesus purposefully adds "and all these things will be added to you as well" because ancient kings and rulers had a responsibility to provide for their most vulnerable citizens. Jesus is saying here that if we live His way, trusting Him and doing what He tells us, then He will do this for us.
You see, one of the lesser discussed aspects of anxiety is its ability to drive us to carry out wrong things to get what we think we want or think we need. I've seen this. Theft, fraud, menaces, threats... these were all part of life where I grew up. The Bible speaks firmly against this (Proverbs 30:7-9).
I'm not saying that if you seek Christ's Kingdom first, if you live life His way, then you will automatically have a big house and a big car and a big wardrobe full of branded clothes. The Bible does not promise that. However, you will have enough. And you will be content (1 Timothy 6:6-8; Hebrews 13:5-6; Philippians 4:12-13).
And contentment is the exact polar opposite of anxiety.
Anxiety has one last, heinous effect. You see, anxiety is a parasite, and every parasite needs a host. It can't survive without it. Anxiety leads us to carry out countless actions, spreading and dissipating our effort and energy in many different directions, except for the one thing that will solve our problem. Why? Because if we didn't have the problem, then we would have nothing to be anxious about.
This is why the solution to anxiety is to sit down and calmly work out our priorities, putting first things first. This is why the cure to anxiety is to determine which things require our energy and effort and which things are just a waste of time. This is when we stop being anxious about the problem and instead get excited about the solution.
And how do we know what requires our attention and energy? The most important criteria is anything that we control which has a positive impact on our situation. And the biggest thing we can control is our attitude and approach to the problem.
Do you know what has the biggest impact on this? Putting Christ in control. Making Him Lord. Realising that He is good and will always provide for us. Believing that He will not let us down. Knowing that no matter how bad our situation is, He can rescue us from it.
Once we have the calmness, peace and assurance from this, allied to the moral compass and direction which come from submitting to His rule, then we have all we need to control the things we can control and leave the rest to Him. So we see that anxiety is a choice we don't need to make, an obsession we can re-assess and a mis-direction we don't need to be fooled by. In my next post, we will discover that ANXIETY IS A DISTRACTION.
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