1. Pray About Everything (verse 6).
2. Find Peace in God (verse 7).

If you were here last week, you know that we have placed some Biblical Counseling Resources in the Narthex. Further, you know that I recently noticed that one of the slots was empty. With a bit of investigation, I figured out that it was a booklet entitled, “Overcoming Anxiety” by David Powlison. With so many people taking this booklet, I thought that it would be appropriate for me to spend a few weeks preaching about Anxiety.

I think I hit a nerve. I had more feedback on my message last week than any other message in recent memory. I think it’s because anxiety hits us all.

This past week, we received in the mail an advertising magazine. It was from Rock Valley College, our local community college, promoting the college. It contains all sorts of news about the college. A message from the president. Some faculty awards, Some student awards, The magazine highlights some programs of the college. some stories of former students who have gone on to some great things in life. Basically, it’s promotional material for Rock Valley College.^[1]

On page 9 of the magazine, there is an article entitled, “Reduce Stress Through Time Management.” The article is aimed to help students succeed at school. It reads,

It is no secret that effective time management can lead to greater classroom and job success. Time management can also help minimize stress and anxiety. According to the Stress Management Society, symptoms of stress due to poor time management can include mood swings, fatigue, inability to focus, depression, and forgetfulness. By understanding how to manage time effectively, we can accomplish tasks more efficiently and have more free time to spend on things we enjoy.

I mention this article because last week we began looking at the issue of anxiety. And here, in this magazine promoting our local Junior College, was an article addressing the stresses of student. Stress is simply another name for anxiety. And anxiety is a universal concern. Whether you are a student or a mother or a boss. Whether you are a Christian or a non-Christian. This world in which we live is fallen. And all of us will have stresses in our lives, which can easily bring us to anxiety. For students, the stress and anxiety can come through poor time management. This article is seeking to help students manage their stress and anxiety. It gives six recommendations to help students with their time management, to help reduce stress. Here are the points with a brief summary after the points.

1. Use a planner or calendar (paper or digital). With such a tool, you don’t have to worry about forgetting anything.
2. Track your time. As you reflect on how you spend your time, you can begin to reclaim it.
3. Set Goals and make lists. When you make lists, you can identify due dates, which will help you prioritize all of your tasks.
4. Don’t multitask. Turn off your phone, turn off your TV, tray to finish a task before moving on to something else.
5. Create a routine and take breaks. You should work around the time that works best for you, whether you are a morning person or a night owl.
6. Reward yourself. Positive incentives can be a great way to keep you motivated.

All of these are great recommendations to help you in your reducing your stress and anxiety. I would encourage you in all of them, whether you are a student or not. But these strategies are focused upon dealing with the stress and anxiety that might come with facing future projects and deadlines. Not all anxieties are of this form.

For instance, there are anxieties that come in our lives as a result of financial stresses. And it’s not hard to find good counsel to help reduce financial stress. I just googled “How to overcome financial stress,” and a bunch of articles and videos popped up.

For instance, I found an article from helpguide.org.^[2] The article was entitled, “Coping with Financial Stress.” At the top of the article was a photograph of a couple looking over some bills with obvious tension of how to deal with it all. The article gave some very helpful advice. Again, what follows below are the tips with a brief summary of the tips.

Tip #1 – Talk to someone. Talking with family will help them to understand why you are anxious and may help to put things in perspective. Talking to a financial counselor can help with the details of managing your finances better. Then there was an advertisement to talk with a therapist: “Get Professional help from BetterHelps’s network of licensed therapists.”
Tip #2 – Take inventory of your finances. Figure out all of your income sources Track ALL of your spending. List your debts.
Tip #3 – Make a plan–and stick to it Identify your financial problem. Devise a solution Put your plan into action Monitor your progress. Don’t get derailed by setbacks.
Tip #4 – Create a monthly budget Plan for your everyday expenses, like food and groceries. Include your annual expenses, like insurance and property taxes. Set up automatic payments.
Tip #5 – Manage your overall stress. Exercise Sleep Eat healthy Be thankful for the good things in your life.

All of these things are super helpful for those facing anxieties because of finances. I would encourage you in every one of them. But again, these solutions are specific to the anxieties that come upon you when you are facing financial stress.

Anxieties may come as a result of relational conflict. There are people in your life who are stressful to you. Parents, spouses, co-workers, neighbors, cousins. Google is just waiting for you to type in, “How to handle relational anxieties.” and you will find more reading material than you need. Anxieties may come from thinking about some future deadline. Anxieties may come from the anticipation of the death of a loved one. Anxieties may come from your concerns for your children. You simply need to google and you can find much advice on how to deal with your anxieties.

But when it comes to the Bible, the Bible doesn’t work that way. In other words, when it comes to fighting anxiety in your life, the Bible doesn’t give you a bunch of practical tips of things that you must do to overcome your anxieties. The Bible takes another approach. The Bible doesn’t focus on reducing our anxieties. The Bible focuses upon on walking rightly through our anxieties. In other words, the focus of the Bible isn’t so much on making your anxiety go away, as much as it is on how you will deal with it in a godly manner.

Last week, we saw how to fight anxiety by thinking about it. My message last week was entitled, “Thinking About Anxiety.”

Last week, we looked at Matthew, chapter 6, where Jesus gives his word on dealing with anxiety.

Matthew 6:25-34
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 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. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

In this passage, Jesus tells us to think about our anxiety. Think about the birds. God provides for them. Won’t he provide for you? Think about your anxiety. You can’t change things by worrying about them. So why are you anxious? Think about the flowers. God has made them beautiful without any effort on their part. Will he not clothe you? The flowers are soon to be burned. But you were created it his image to live forever. Will he not clothe you? Think about the Lord. He is your heavenly father, who cares for you.

So, whatever it is that makes you anxious, know that your heavenly father knows about your troubles. And he cares about you. So, you are in good hands. “He will never leave you or forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).

Whenever you are anxious, think about your heavenly father. think about his love for you. This is where the gospel comes in. God has given his Son for you. His Son came to die on the cross for you, if you would but believe in him. Paul said it well, "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32).

Such is the love of God. If he gave us Jesus, will he not care for us? Of course he will.

When anxiety is coming upon you, THINK! Think about your anxiety. Think about how the Lord knows your circumstances. Jesus says that “even the hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matthew 10:30). Certainly Jesus will take care of you. It’s what Jesus wants you to do. He wants for you to “Think About Your Anxiety."

Well, this morning, as we look into the issue of anxiety again, we come across another way in which the Bible counsels us to deal with our anxiety. Paul counsels us in our anxiety to pray. Thus, the title of my message this morning: “Praying About Anxiety.”

My main text this morning is found in Philippians, chapter 4. It is found in verses 6 and 7 from that chapter.

Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I trust that you can see in verse 6 how Paul simply lays it out there. "Do not be anxious about anything." I trust that you can see how all-inclusive this is. Paul is saying, Don’t be anxious about the projects and deadlines coming your way. Don’t be anxious about the financial pressures in your life. Don’t be anxious about the difficult people in your life. Don’t be anxious about your future health. Don’t be anxious about the opinions of others. Don’t be anxious about the unknown. "Do not be anxious about anything."

Now, Paul doesn’t merely leave us there. He gives us the universal solution to anxiety: Prayer. This is my first point.

1. Pray About Everything (verse 6).

This is exactly what Paul says in verse 6, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." Notice Paul uses mentions prayer and a bunch of synonyms: prayer, supplication, thanksgiving, and requests. These four words all direct us to speak with God.

When you face anxieties in your life, you should pray. When you are anxious about how house project that needs to be done before winter comes Pray. When you are anxious about the mortgage payment due at the end of the month. pray. When you are anxious about a the family dynamics during the upcoming holidays, pray. When you are anxious about the results of your blood test, pray. When you are anxious about some family secret coming out, pray.

Don’t be anxious, but pray. The hymn by Joseph Scriven says it well,

When anxieties come your way, is this your first response? Do you take it to the Lord in prayer? When anxieties come your way, is this your continual response? Do you take it to the Lord in prayer? When Paul writes, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God," he isn’t merely talking about the onset of anxiety. he’s talking about the recurrence of anxiety. he’s talking about every time that anxiety rears its ugly head in your life, pray.

One commentator said, “There is nothing too great for God's power; and nothing too small for his fatherly care.”^[4] God is ready and willing to help. He simply wants for us to turn to him.

This is really helpful. Because, try as you might to apply all of the practical advice that is available to you as to how to reduce stress and anxiety for your own particular struggles, it may not ever go away. And if it does, it will probably be replaced by some other worry in your life. If you are anxious about an upcoming deadline, there’s always another deadline. If you are anxious about the mortgage payment, just wait until next month. If you are anxious about your relationship with a co-worker, when they leave the company, and you don’t have to deal with them again, there will be another co-worker come into your life.

So, don’t focus all of your attention upon eliminating your anxieties. That’s like playing “Whack-a-Mole.” That carnival game, where you take a mallet in your hand and you hit the moles as they come out of their holes. As soon as you deal with one mole, another one comes out of his hole that we need to whack. It’s never ending.

In fact, this is the reality of our lives. We live in a fallen world. Troubles and trials are all around us. As Job 5:7 says, “May is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.” As soon as one trial goes away, another one pops out of its hole. And as soon as we knock that one down, there is another one that pops up.

I shared last week of the anxieties that I have every week, as I prepare to preach. as soon as I finish a sermon, there is always the next one. Paul calls me to pray, to deal rightly with the sermon anxiety that I face. I shared last week of the anxieties that I have often in dealing with people, especially in confronting sin, or being confronted in my own sin, or being corrected in my failures to lead the church well, But as soon as one difficult person is dealt with, another one comes along. Paul calls me to pray, to deal rightly with people of the church.

I also have anxiety about my leadership of the church. I see pastors leading larger churches. It gives me anxiety that our church is small. Am I a sufficient leader? Can I carry through with all I have said? Paul calls me to pray, to discern how best to lead the church.

With this anxiety of mine, I was encouraged with my regular reading through the Bible. In my Bible reading this week, I read 2 Corinthians 2:16, where Paul was speaking of his ministry, how some receive the gospel as the aroma of life, and how other reject the gospel as the aroma of death. He said, “Who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Corinthians 2:16). Then, he wrote in the next chapter. "Our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Corinthians 3:5-6).

I have anxieties about upcoming events. We are launching small groups. I have been anxious about the content of the material that we will use. I’m anxious about how well they will go. I’m anxious about leading them well. Paul calls me to pray, to trust him. I’m anxious about projects that need to get done, like repaving the parking lot, like keeping the church clean and looking right.

These things are never ending! And to all of this God says, “Pray.” Now, we need to realize that the prayer isn’t the magic bullet to remove the problems from us. The prayer is for grace to walk with us through the difficulties we face.

Do you remember when Paul was experiencing his “thorn in the flesh”? We don’t know what the thorn in his flesh was, whether it was a person or a health concern or even a demon. But it was a problem that he didn’t like. He wanted it gone. So, he prayed. He writes about it in 2 Corinthians 12. He says, "Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:8-9).

It may just be that your thorn in your flesh is leading you to anxiety. And it may just be that you are praying for God to have the source of your anxiety removed from your life. And it may just be that God says, “No, I’m not going to remove that which is causing you to fret.” You may be discouraged by this. You want the cause of your anxiety to be removed! You want the thorn removed. but the news is greater! God’s grace is sufficient for us through our trial! The Lord is with us.

I’m not sure if you noticed this in Philippians 4, but what precedes our text? What comes in verse 5? “The Lord is at hand.” The Lord is near! We need not worry, because God will walk with us through our trials. His grace will be sufficient for us! This could even lead you to your joy.

When the Lord said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul responded, "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

When the anxieties in our lives are bringing us down and making us weak, it’s precisely then when the Lord is strong in our lives. That’s why we need to pray. We need God’s grace to walk us through the anxieties in our lives. John MacArthur said it well, “The real challenge of Christian living is not to eliminate every uncomfortable circumstance from our lives, but to trust our sovereign, wise, good, and powerful God in the midst of every situation.”^[5]

In Psalm 55:22, David writes, "Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you." That’s the idea. When we have burdens and anxieties, we should pray, and cast them upon the LORD. The promise isn’t that he will remove them from us. The promise is that he will sustain us through them. That’s why we pray. God wants for us to pray. He wants for us to live in humble dependence upon him!

Peter connects humility and praying to the Lord with our burdens. He writes, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you" (1 Peter 5:6-7). We say our prayers to God because he cares for us. Well, let’s move on to our second point. Not only should we "Pray About Everything," we should also ...

2. Find Peace in God (verse 7).

In verse 7, Paul writes, ...

Philippians 4:7
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

This is the result of our praying, not that trials in our lives will be removed, but that the peace of God in our lives will watch over us. In fact, isn’t peace the opposite of anxiety? Anxiety is that feeling of unease, that brings tension into the air. But peace is the feeling of calm, that all is well.

Truth be told, we won’t remove the troubles of our lives. Jesus said to his disciples, "In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). Jesus is saying that troubles will be the reality of our lives.

Paul knew the troubles of life. Do you realize that when Paul wrote Philippians, he was in jail! (Philippians 1:7). Paul knew that he would be in jail before he was ever arrested. When speaking to the Ephesian elders at Miletus, he said, "And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me" (Acts 20:22-23). This could have given him all sorts of reason for anxiety, both before his imprisonment and during it. Yet, from what we read in Philippians, we know that he was at peace.

In chapter 1, he writes, "I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ" (Philippians 1:12-13). In other words, as Paul was in prison, he had opportunity to share the gospel with the guards and all of the prisoners. I’m sure that his peace in the difficult circumstances was making its mark upon all who heard.

Do you remember when he was actually in prison in Philippi? The peace that he had in God led he and Silas to pray and sing hymns to God. The other prisoners were listening to them (Acts 16:25). I’m sure that these fellow prisoners marveled at the how they could have such peace in such difficult situations. And when the earthquake happened and the jailor found out that nobody escaped, he cried out to Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30). Paul replied. "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household" (Acts 16:31). The jailer believed. And he was saved from his sin. His household believed. And they were saved from their sin.

What led this jailer ask this question? I believe that it was the peace of God in Paul’s life in a difficult situation, that the jailer noticed that something was different about Paul and Silas. It’s when you have peace that doesn’t make sense that it makes an impact on those who are watching your life. That’s why God often uses trials in our lives to give us opportunity to bear witness to him. Because anybody can have peace, when all is well with you. But when things are hard all around you, and you have every reason to be anxious, yet, God’s peace is present, That’s when it makes an impact.

I think that something similar was going on when Paul wrote Philippians. He was in jail, exhorting those in Philippi not to be anxious, but to pray to the Lord and to find their peace in the Lord! It was a peace that made no sense to those around him. Paul said that this peace "surpasses all understanding."

This is the peace that Jesus promised to give his disciples. On the last night before he was betrayed, Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid" (John 14:27). This is the peace that Paul is talking about. He’s talking about the peace that Jesus gives to us that leads us not to fear the trials that we face.

Notice what this peace will do, it will "guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." That is, the peace of God will come into your very being, and form a protective shell around your heart and your mind, to help you think the way you ought to think, to help you feel the way you ought to feel. to help you through the things that are giving you anxiety in this life. Isn’t this the problem with anxiety? It’s the thoughts of our hearts, that are thinking wrongly. We desperately need to think right about anxiety.

So, when everything in your life is giving you reason to be anxious, and you pray, God’s peace comes and guards to you to think and feel the way that you ought. It is the peace of God that has come.

My exhortation is this: "Find Peace in God."

What is dangerous about googling to figure out all of the techniques of how to overcome your anxieties, is that it might work! It may well lead you to trust in your techniques, rather than trusting in God. Jeremiah Burroughs said, “All outward peace is not enough; I must have the peace of God.” That is, the peace that comes from God.

And so, I would encourage you to deal with your anxieties in the same way that Paul tells us to deal with it. PRAY. And find God’s peace in your life.

This sermon was delivered to Rock Valley Bible Church on September 4, 2022 by Steve Brandon.
For more information see www.rockvalleybiblechurch.org.

[1] RVCBridge - (a publication of RockValleyCollege.edu) - Summer 2022.

[2] https://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/coping-with-financial-stress.htm

[3] Joseph Scriven (https://hymnary.org/text/what_a_friend_we_have_in_jesus_all_our_s)

[4] William Barclay, The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1975), 77.

[5] John MacArthur, Anxiety Attacked (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1993), 34.

[6] Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment.