Antidote to Anxiety
I think it’s fair to say that the year 2020-21 were stressful years for the global population. The COVID-19 pandemic was a large part of that, but people are also worried about the government, the economy, their health, their jobs, their loved ones, and their futures. In 2022. Omicron arrived.
A survey of 3,013 adults conducted on behalf of the American Psychological Association (APA) in 2020 showed stress levels in American adults as the highest since these levels started being recorded, and “marks the first significant increase in average reported stress” since the survey began in 2007. According to the APA, parents are more anxious than adults without children, reporting stressors related to education, basic needs, access to health care services, and missing out on major milestones. The poll found that nearly 80% of adults say the coronavirus pandemic is a significant source of stress in their lives, while 60% say the number of issues America faces is overwhelming to them. Australia faces the same type of stress.
Dr. Arthur C. Evans Jr. APA’s CEO said: “This survey confirms what many mental health experts have been saying…: Our mental health is suffering from the compounding stressors in our lives…[which] will have serious health and social consequences if we don’t act now to reduce it.”
It’s 2022 and people are still overwhelmed. And there is not much hope out there. One medical website asked and answered the question: “Can you cure yourself of anxiety completely? The short answer is, No.” They go on to explain that anxiety is partly a genetic condition and can thus never be cured completely.
Friends, I have good news: I have found a vaccine for anxiety! And I will give it to you right now – for free.
All you have to do is…. turn to John 14.
Jesus is talking to his disciples the night before he goes to the cross. He has told them that he will be betrayed and that he is going back to the Father. They are understandably shaken, afraid, anxious, upset, and troubled. What antidote will Jesus offer to cure that anxiety?
3 REALITIES TO HOPE IN SO YOU WILL HAVE PEACE IN TROUBLED TIMES
1. THE PERSON OF CHRIST
John 14:1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.“
Anxiety is a condition that starts in the mind and affects the body and behavior. Stress is the puppet master that pulls the strings of your thinking and behavior. Jesus injects his cure precisely where the anxiety resides: in the heart: “Let not your hearts be troubled.”
You can’t always change your environment, but you can change your thinking. The first dose of Christ’s remedy is to focus your thoughts, attention, faith on… your God.
“Believe in God; believe also in me.”
Trusting in the person of Jesus is the most potent cure for anxiety I know. To trust in a person means that you consider their character. Jesus is saying that when your heart is troubled, trust in God. You know who he is, you know what he is capable of, and you know his character.
Stop letting your feelings steer your life. Let your faith steer your life!
Phil 4: 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand.
If you put a little toy soldier next to a molehill and take a picture, the molehill looks like a mountain. But if you put an actual Army Ranger in full gear next to the molehill and take a picture, it’s not a mountain anymore, you don’t even notice the clump of dirt.
Jesus is not a toy soldier, he is a warrior, armed with power, and he is on a mission to accompany you through whatever valley you are going through: The Lord is at hand.
When you zoom in on your fear, to exclude Jesus, of course, it will cause anxiety. Frankly, if Jesus weren’t real, good, and in control of everything, nothing could convince me to have peace.
Always keep Jesus in the picture. Keep your perspective. God has got this. Jesus is God. Trust in God and trust in Jesus.
2. THE PREPARATIONS OF CHRIST
John 14:2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
Here Jesus reveals something that is absolutely mind-blowing. Many people think of Heaven as a place of clouds and rainbows with us playing harps for eternity. That is not even close.
The New Heavens and New Earth represent physical reality, an actual place. It is a world, with buildings, roads, agriculture, animals (living creatures), industry, and exploration. God could make cities with a word like he did with nature. But he doesn’t. With Earth, God created a paradise of natural resources and put humans in it to cultivate and improve it by inventions and technology and mining and experimentation.
God could have made a world with bridges and sky-scrapers, espresso machines, cars, cellphones, and WiFi – but he didn’t. God gets glory from his creatures exercising their own creativity, ingenuity, and diligence. The image of God is manifest in the various ways his diverse creatures produce cultivate and exercise their creativity.
And it appears from Jesus’ words here that some sort of construction is going on in Heaven too.
14:2 In my Father’s house are many rooms.
The word is monai which could mean mansion, dwelling place, or room. This monai is in the Father’s house. So, in modern language, I would translate this as a suite. And those units are under construction. They are being prepared.
I imagine Jesus as the project manager, not the bricklayer. But when he says he is “preparing a place,” it implies he is somehow involved in the project. If I had one person designing, constructing, and decorating the perfect dwelling place for me, I would want that person to be Jesus, wouldn’t you?
You might have this burning question: How do we get to this perfectly customized suburb in the sky?
3. THE PAROUSIA OF CHRIST
John 14:3 And if (since) I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
This promise refers to what theologians call the parousia of Christ. The word parousia is a Greek term for “coming, arrival, or physical presence.” This word is used 24 times in the New Testament and 17 of those refer to the glorious coming of Christ.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 says that Jesus will come again, physically, to gather his saints to himself.
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Let that sink in for a moment: Jesus is coming back to earth again… to get you.
He wants you with him in his home.
Jesus has not forgotten us here. There is nothing that can keep him from keeping his promise and coming to get you. He is getting everything just right for us. And he will come back. You can bet your soul on it.
CONCLUSION
Do you have rising anxiety levels from watching the news?
The disciples heard troubling news too, but they also heard the ultimate comfort. Hope in the person of Jesus, in his preparation of heaven for you, and in the certain return of your Savior.
Clint Archer
