Anxiety
Notes
Transcript
Background:
Background:
I thought we would take a break from Acts at least for this week, just to look at what to see what scripture can offer us in terms of comfort, encouragement, etc. in this very interesting time.
The Bible is full of stories of God’s people meeting adversaries and with God’s help, and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit coming out on the other side. Secure in their faith and glorifying God in their actions.
Illustration:
Illustration:
A few years after the book of Acts a man named Aristides wrote to Emperor Hadrian (AD 125) his observations of the Christian community. Keep in mind this was a time were persecution is not uncommon beginning with Nero in 64 AD until 311 when Christianity was to become the official religion of Rome Christians were to say the least unprotected. Here is what Aristides observed:
“Further, if one or other of them have bondmen or bondwomen or children, through love towards them they persuade them to become Christians, and when they have done so, they call them brethren without distinction.
They do not worship strange gods, and they go their way in all modesty and cheerfulness.
Falsehood is not found among them; and they love one another, and from widows they do not turn away their esteem; and they deliver the orphan from him who treats him harshly.
And he, who has, gives to him who has not, without boasting. And when they see a stranger, they take him into their homes and rejoice over him as a very brother; for they do not call them brethren after the flesh, but brethren after the spirit and in God.
And whenever one of their poor passes from the world, each one of them according to his ability gives heed to him and carefully sees to his burial.
And if they hear that one of their number is imprisoned or afflicted on account of the name of their Messiah, all of them anxiously minister to his necessity, and if it is possible to redeem him they set him free.
And if there is among them any that is poor and needy, and if they have no spare food, they fast.”
So how could someone live like that in such an uncertain world? What would compel a group of people to cheerfulness, charity, and self denial. There are many reasons and many passages to which we could turn, but let’s focus on two.
Text:
Text:
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
CSB Study Bible: Notes Chapter 8
8:38–39 Paul’s “grand persuasion” (Gk pepeismai) is in the perfect tense, which indicates a past action that has ongoing impact. Having been persuaded (by God), he stood firm in the belief that nothing could separate him from the love of God. Jesus conquered death and Satan on the cross, ensuring that nothing can change God’s love or purpose for us. We “are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1Pt 1:5).
So all battles have been won, nothing that happens can separate us from the love of Jesus. What a wonderful promise. Amos looked at me the other day and said, “If you lost me that would be really sad” and I said to him reflexively, of sweetheart we will never lose you. I wanted him to feel secure. But the reality was in the back of my mind, I can’t promise that as much as I want to, as much as I hope I would magically become Liam Neeson were he to ever go missing ultimately so many things are out of my control.
Not so with Jesus, all things are under His control all the uncertainty has been vanquished and we can rest securely in Him. So that’s the reality, how do we access that, and apply it to our lives?
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
The formula here is simple but profound. It must however be followed to be effective. Once we are aware of an issue that is causing us anxiety we are called to pray to God and petition Him for resolution. Now, I for one like to sit around all mull things over, worry, re-worry, circle back and make sure I worried about everything that needed to be worried about. But that’s not what we are called to here. We are to pray and let our petition be know to God and receive His peace.
What happens if we are hiking and I have over packed, or I am out of shape and I cannot carry my pack, it is a burden I cannot bear and I am beginning to worry it is going to keep us from getting to camp before the sun goes down. If you who are stronger, or a more appropriate packer offer to take the load I cannot carry I can receive relief, freedom from worry about making camp…unless I continually pick that weight back up that you’ve offered to carry because I think I have to continue to bear the burden I have been relieved of. Now I am risking not making it to camp because I am burden beyond my capacity, and /I have none of the relief you offered me.
It’s like that with the peace being offered above, if I offer it up to God, only to pick it back up a hour later I will not/can not receive the peace He has promised. I am not allowing myself to be relieved of the burden
This peace is the Lord’s direct answer to the prayer that replaces and counteracts anxiety. Things that cannot be fully comprehended can nonetheless be peacefully experienced by those who are “in Christ” (1:1; cf. , ). God’s peace is especially inexplicable when it “guards” (a military image meaning “to take into protective custody”) believers’ hearts in the midst of threatening circumstances
Think of our cheerful, self sacrificing friends we just read about. Their actions were so inexplicable that the warranted a letter to the Emperor
Take-Away:
Take-Away:
Sproul, R. C. (Ed.). (2015). The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) (p. 2115). Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust.
Take-Away:
Take-Away:
I want nothing but smooth sailing for everyone on this call, and for my own family. I read about times of hardship and shutter to think we could face such things. But we have to remember our comfort though often provided by a loving God is not to most important thing. 70, 80, 100 years of comfort here will be nothing compared to eternity. So in his book The Problem of Pain CS Lewis asks us to consider this...
“Let me implore the reader to try to believe, if only for a moment, that God, who made these deserving people, may really be right when He thinks that their modest prosperity and the happiness of their children are not enough to make them blessed: that all this must fall from them in the end, and if they have not learned to know Him they will be wretched. And therefore He troubles them, warning them in advance of an insufficiency that one day they will have to discover. The life to themselves and their families stands between them and the recognition of their need; He makes that life less sweet to them.
If God were proud He would hardly have us on such terms: but He is not proud, He stoops to conquer, He will have us even though we have shown that we prefer everything else to Him, and come to Him because there is 'nothing better' now to be had.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
ADVERTISEMENT