‘Tis the Season . . . For Anxiety

1 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. . . . 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Christmas Stress

How many of you would say that the holidays are a “peaceful” time? OK, no introduction needed!

Ironically, it is during this “time of peace” that little peace can be found.

Grand majority of Americans admit to feeling more stressed during the holidays than at other times of the year.

Psychologists point out that holiday stress is of a different character than stress during the rest of the year. People are trying to make the family happy and are stressed about strained relationships.

We even have a song about it - “Twelve Pains of Christmas”

Finding a Christmas tree

rigging the lights

(hangovers)

sending Christmas cards

Five months of bills

facing the in-laws

(Salvation Army)

(Kids wanting gifts)

Finding a parking space

Batteries not included

Stale TV specials

Singing Christmas carols

This is all with the background of the normal stresses of life - the daily issues, threats of war, strained relationships which are made more obvious at the holiday times.

A study has shown that January 8th is the busiest day of the year for divorce lawyers when up to one in five couples will enquire about divorce after the pressures of Christmas. Divorce lawyers call the first Monday after Christmas “Divorce Monday” as divorce filings surge by one-third on the first working Monday after the holidays.

All of this can add up to make us feel as though there is no peace on earth.

This is nothing new. The people of Judah at this time were not in a state of peace, with war threatened literally on every side.

Anxiety is nothing new, and I’m convinced that

while the stresses of the holidays will eventually diminish once the wrapping paper is cleaned up,

there will still be:

Working two jobs

Being a single mom

studying for that test

I’ve got:

all these health issues to deal with

bills to pay ends to make meet

mouths to feed

socks to wash

projects to complete

oil to change

taxes to finish

emails to return

Busyness is a word that describes most if not all of us, and anxiety is its handmaiden.

The cure for anxiety is less about the removal of our external problems and more about our resting in the God who can actually change them.

So, what are you worried about this morning? What is your source of anxiety?

Write it down

Psalm 37

Psalm of David

Acrostic

David must have found himself looking at someone who was not following God and seeing how easy their life seemed.

Can you relate? Did you ever see someone who doesn’t follow Jesus and wonder why they seem to struggle less? Wonder if you would worry less if you didn’t tithe? Wonder if you would have less anxiety if you could get that extra work done on Sunday rather than meet the rest of the church.

“For most of us, it isn’t heresy or rank apostasy that will derail our profession of faith. It’s all the worries of life.”

(Kevin DeYoung, Crazy Busy)

Psalm 37:1–7 ESV

1 Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! 2 For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. 3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. 6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. 7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!

Twice, bookending the passage, David says to ‘fret not’ = to become hot, agitated, excited.

What is it that would make us hot? that would cause us to fret? It is that we see those who do not follow God who seem to have an easier life - less stress, less anxiety, less worries, more things going well for them.

“When our lives are frantic and frenzied, we are more prone to anxiety, resentment, impatience, and irritability.”

(Kevin DeYoung, Crazy Busy)

How many of you become nicer people when you are anxious?

Stress can cause us to become angry, even more stressed and anxious, perhaps even wonder if it is even worth following Jesus at all.

David is going to show us:

Even if you have more problems than someone who doesn’t follow Jesus, you can still have more peace.

Know Jesus, Know Peace. No Jesus, No Peace.

I would argue without Jesus, the only real way to reduce anxiety is to remove the stressor or to ignore it.

Four ways to bring the Prince of Peace into your holiday and every day:

1)Look past your problems and remember your future.

Look out

[1] Fret not yourself because of evildoers;

be not envious of wrongdoers!

[2] For they will soon fade like the grass

and wither like the green herb.

Fear is always an allusion. It is the anticipation of the thing and not the thing itself. It is the anticipation of the thing in relationship to other things and not reality

Worry happens when we are near sighted. Worry happens when we have a near sighted view of our situation

ILLUST - My extreme near-sightedness closes in my world and can raise my fears, but expanding my view corrects the perspective and brings peace.

Worry acts as either a telescope or a microscope

anxiety is about our perspective. How do we change our perspective?

What is projected on the screen of your mind? Pictures of fear or pictures of faith?

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Not talking about the power of positive thinking.

I’m talking about thinking positively about Gods power.

Power of positive thinking says to think in such a way that it attempts to create a reality.

I’m talking about thinking about reality in a way that changes your thinking!

[2] For they will soon fade like the grass

and wither like the green herb.

It will wither unless you water it.

2)Shift your focus to God and his goodness.

Look up

[3] Trust in the LORD, and do good;

dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

[4] Delight yourself in the LORD,

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Trust in the LORD

Opposite = ‘Trust in myself and do ‘whatever it takes.’’

Notice David’s focus. Not trust in himself. Not even trust in “God,”

but trust in LORD — Yahweh - God’s personal name.

The bigger your view of God, the smaller your fears and anxieties become.

Fear is based on an illusion. It is not the thing itself, but an anticipation of what might be.

Because of this, fear can change with our perspective.

ILLUST - my bad daddy moment on the ride at Disney World - Caleigh was afraid not because of anything real, but because of what she perceived to be a problem. As soon as she shifted her focus onto her father, her fear vanished even though the situation stayed the same.

Kids walking with me in the dark

]Your problem doesn’t determine your peace, the object of your trust does. You can be at peace and still have a problem by remembering that in your problem you still have God.

Isaiah 26:3 ESV

3 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

Delight yourself in the LORD

Find goodness not in getting what you want, but in God getting what HE wants.

So many of our anxieties are self focused.

How many of us are really tore up about:

greenhouse gasses

national debt

the homeless

the unreached

One who delights in the Lord will have desires that conform to God’s will for their lives. God will grant what they request

Tremper Longman III, Psalms: An Introduction and Commentary

Create some verse cards to help shift your focus onto God.`

Philippians 4:6-7

Matthew 6:25-33

Isaiah 26:3

1 Peter 5:7

Psalm 94:19

Psalm 46:1-3

2)Shift your focus to God and his goodness.

Look up

[3] Trust in the LORD, and do good;

dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

[4] Delight yourself in the LORD,

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

3)Release your problems to the One who can actually fix them.

Release

Commit to God what is out of your control.

[5] Commit your way to the LORD;

trust in him, and he will act.

[6] He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,

and your justice as the noonday.

‘Commit’ = גלל

literally means “To roll away”

has the idea of rolling an object from one person and onto another.

‘way’ = דֶּ֫רֶךְ

means your way of life

We often get hung up in two areas that end up significantly increasing our anxiety:

Things we CAN’T control.

Things we SHOULDN’T control.

Things we CAN’T control.

What really CAN we control? There is very little in your control so why do you assume the responsibility?

ILLUST - assumed worry - I couldn’t control my daughter when she competed in gymnastics, but I sure felt the anxiety at each meet.

Things we SHOULDN’T control.

Let’s be real for a moment - How much of your anxiety, worry, and stress is from the fact that you truly believe God CANNOT take care of your needs and fears, and how much is from the fact that you really have never even asked him to.

Philippians 4:6

6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. (NLT)

Oftentimes the best way to release something to God is to pray.

trust in him, and he will act.

If you trust your life to God, he will act - ‘make’ something from your life.

If I only had ________ I would be happy.

If only __________ were gone from my life I would be less stressed.

The problem is, this can’t bring true and lasting peace. It attaches your sense of peace to something or someone who will fail you at some time.

True and lasting peace is not found by the addition or subtraction of anything from our lives.

It comes from the releasing our problems from our grip and placing them into God’s hands.

4)Be still.

Wait

[7] Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;

fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,

over the man who carries out evil devices!

[8] Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!

Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.

ILLUST -

In 1985, the Higher Education Research Institute at U.C.L.A. began asking incoming college freshmen if they "felt overwhelmed by all I had to do" during the previous year. In 1985, 18 percent said they did. By 2010, that number had increased to 29 percent. Last year, it surged to 41 percent.

For many of these young people, the biggest single stressor is that they "never get to the point where they can say, 'I've done enough, and now I can stop,'" [one expert] says. "There's always one more activity, one more A.P. class, one more thing to do in order to get into a top college. Kids have a sense that they're not measuring up. The pressure is relentless and getting worse."

(https://heri.ucla.edu/cirp-freshman-survey/)

It is very difficult to accomplish steps one through three on the run.

We are a people with spiritual ADHD.

For a husband to lose his wife because he is always busy at work ends up sacrificing the best thing on the altar of a good thing.

You will always accomplish more by waiting on the God who creates the universe with a word, than you will by exhausting all of your time, energy, and resources in a rush.

The real question is, What will it take for us to be still?

*Pray* Look out - Look up - Release - Wait *Pray*

Conclusion

Maybe you need to confess to God that you have been more focused on your problems than on the God who can actually fix them.

Maybe you need to release what you wrote on your paper.

Maybe you need to be still before you are made to be still.

Sit during the song. Find someone around you who is sitting and pray with them.

Isaiah 26:3–4

[3] You keep him in perfect peace

whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

[4] Trust in the LORD forever,

for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock. (ESV)

Related Media

Related Sermons

Earn an accredited degree from Redemption Seminary with Logos.