Counselling Moments

Hey, everybody, welcome to Counseling Moments with Pastor Kevin, the podcast that helps us connect the significant moments of our lives to Scripture. Thank you for joining me for another episode of Counseling Moments. And you know what, Sergei, we're going to restart that.

Today, I want to just address the issue of anxiety a little bit. Not every aspect of anxiety because it's just too big of a topic for such a short podcast, but I want to talk today about the error of eradicating anxiety. What do I mean by that? That seems crazy, that we wouldn't want to eradicate anxiety.

But I think there's a mistake, there's an error here to be identified in eradicating anxiety. Anxiety runs rampant today and adds encumbering weight upon our souls and our bodies. Anxiety takes a toll on our souls and on our bodies.

We call it stress, and anxiety creates stress, which takes a toll. But I want to remind us that anxiety is also an important topic in Scripture. God cares about our anxiety.

He cares about our anxiety. Scripture mentions not fearing or not being anxious hundreds of times, over 150 times for sure in Scripture it makes direct reference to not fearing or not being anxious. So God cares a lot about such things.

But with all of this, I want to argue that we are not trying to eradicate anxiety. But when God says, fear not or do not be anxious, isn't that what He's aiming for? And I think ideally, ideally our goal ultimately is to not be anxious at all, period. But I think that can fall into the realm of sort of this perfectionism that we will not attain in this life.

So the idea of eradicating anxiety completely in our lives in the here and now is not realistic because not fearing and not being anxious is part of our sanctification. So that's one piece. I also want to say that we're not trying to eradicate anxiety, but we're looking to respond to it with God, with God, alongside God, as faithful to Scripture.

And where is the line between sinful anxiety and proper anxiety? There is such a thing as proper anxiety. And it isn't so much a line to be crossed, it is a direction in which we move, which is so true of so many other issues in our lives. It's not so much a line to be crossed, but a direction in which we move, which is why I like to talk in terms of being oriented and reoriented and walking and moving or at least facing in the right direction, or at the very least, stop moving in the wrong direction.

God puts us in places where we are vulnerable and in danger, where it is proper for us to feel anxiety and fear. We are weak and vulnerable, limited people in a dangerous, often hostile, futile world, and it is proper to feel, it's a place where it's proper to feel anxiety and fear. In these places, it is helpful for us to feel fear and anxiety, because these are the very conditions that are designed by God to drive us toward Him in our dependence and faith.

So to eradicate anxiety is to eradicate the impulse to move towards God as a strong tower, as a refuge, as a Savior, when we encounter dangers of many kinds, physical, emotional, mental, spiritual danger. But our anxiety is the very thing that's meant to drive us toward God, and I think that is what God is saying when He says, fear not, do not be anxious. He's saying, rather than keeping your eyes on that which is threatening you, turn your eyes toward Me, the One who will rescue you and save you and protect you and guard you.

All right? Anxiety becomes sinful when we ignore God or neglect God or forget God and depend on ourselves and our own devices to create what turn out to be insufficient solutions. And while anxiety intensifies, intensity is not the main factor here on whether or not we consider anxiety or fear to be sinful. But our anxieties certainly intensify when we are relying on insufficient means and insufficient power to meet our fears, to meet the dangers in our lives.

But at any point, and this is why I say intensity is not a factor in whether or not our fear or anxiety is sinful, because at any point we can come to Jesus, and He will receive us and help us. Call upon Me in your day of trouble, and I will help you, and you will glorify Me. Right? At any point, we can turn away from anxiety.

We can take our eyes off that which is threatening us and turn our eyes to Jesus and run to Him. So, Jesus calls us to not be anxious, and His rebukes should be seen and viewed as invitations rather than reprimands, I think, primarily. God is reprimanding us.

He is admonishing us. But these admonishments are not condemning, but they're invitations to come to Him. And we should view them primarily as these are rebukes, but they are invitations and not reprimands.

They're not condemning. That's what I mean by that. When you speak with someone experiencing anxiety, we do what we are always meant to do.

We move toward Jesus with them. So, when we're with somebody else who's experiencing anxiety, we want to do with them what we are called to do for ourselves, which is to move toward Jesus. We're to bring them to Jesus.

We can do that through prayer. We can do that through Scripture. If we understand the person well enough, we understand their fears enough, and that we understand and we understand Scripture enough that we can say, here's a piece of Scripture to connect to your piece of life right here and now.

And we can start small. We don't have to understand everything comprehensively. We just want to understand Scripture and the person in front of us accurately to the extent that we can so that we can deliver Scripture in a helpful way that doesn't feel trite or like a Band-Aid or just saying, you know, I want you to be better so that you're not a burden to me.

But we're actually seeking to speak the truth in love, speak it for their benefit, speak to help them, and that requires us to grow in knowledge and skill. But we can do this at any level of knowledge and skill, even if it just means I'm not comfortable, I don't know what to say, but I can pray with you. I can bring you to God through prayer.

And we're always doing that. We never graduate from that because we are not the change agent. We're not the one who ultimately transforms.

We're not the Savior. Only Jesus Christ is the Savior. An example of this that I want to use when we're talking about not eradicating anxiety, but rather taking the occasion of anxiety and fear to move us, to encourage us to turn towards Christ.

Let's take a look at this account from Matthew 14, and we're going to go to Matthew 14. I'm going to start in verse 25. This is where Jesus walks on water.

He calls Peter out of the boat. So let's follow along. We're going to look at Peter's incident of walking on water, and I'm going to point out a few things along the way.

Immediately, he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.

But the boat, by this time, was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, It's a ghost.

And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid. And Peter answered him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come out on the water.

And he said, Come. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid.

And beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt? And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, Truly, you are the Son of God.

A couple of things I want to point out from this passage. First of all, Jesus apprehends their fear when they see this figure walking on the water. And they're like, It's a ghost.

Like, what is this? And they're afraid. They're terrified, it says. And Jesus assures them, Do not be afraid.

Why? Because it's not a ghost. It's not a terror in the night. It's me.

I'm coming to you. Therefore, you don't have to be afraid. This reorienting truth of who's actually walking toward them.

It's Jesus, not some terrible ghost. And so they don't have to fear. We see bold faith.

We see Peter saying, Lord, if it's you, call me to come out to you in the boat. And Jesus calls him, and in faith, he steps out of the boat in the middle of a storm, in the middle of this windy storm that's preventing them from crossing the sea. And he gets out, and he's walking on the water toward Jesus.

But then what happens to Peter? His eyes are distracted. He's walking towards Jesus. I mean, this is amazing.

I can't imagine getting out of a boat in the middle of a storm with confidence that I'm going to walk on the water and walking toward Jesus. It's just amazing. But his eyes are distracted.

It says that when he sees the wind, and what does that mean? I mean, you can't see the wind. It's just moving air. But what I'm sure what Peter is seeing is he's seeing the effect of the wind.

By seeing the wind, he sees what the wind is doing. He sees this giant wave that's been stirred up by the wind coming towards him. And when he focuses on the wave, when he focuses on the threat, rather than on Jesus who called him out of the boat, he becomes afraid, and he begins to sink.

And what does Peter do in this moment, this moment when he's sinking now, and this wave is coming? He's been distracted, but he calls out to Jesus. He cries out to Jesus, Lord, save me. And notice how Jesus responds to Peter.

He doesn't begin with an analysis of Peter's faith. He immediately reaches out and takes hold of Peter and lifts him up, saves him from sinking. And then they get into the boat, and the waves and the wind cease.

Amazing. Now, he does say to Peter, he does draw attention to this issue of faith. Oh, you of little faith.

But I think, why did you doubt? And that's indeed a proper question. Why did Peter doubt? He was walking on the water. Jesus had called him out of the boat.

He doubted because he got distracted. He looked at the threat of the wave, and he forgot in that moment about Jesus. But as soon as he was captivated by fear, as soon as he began to sink, he cries out to Jesus.

And Jesus immediately rescues him. Jesus reorients Peter because Peter is now sinking and distracted. This sinking into the water completely reorients Peter.

And he remembers Jesus, and he calls out to him, and immediately Jesus rescues him. And they get into the boat, and the waves are calmed. But he does point out this issue of faith versus fear.

But I think he's doing it in a way that says, keep your eyes on me. When you're distracted, when your fears seem like they're going to overwhelm you, and you're feeling that anxiety, call out to me. Call out to me.

I will save you. And so, notice that when the wind ceases, the worship begins, right? And we're not always worshiping in calm waters. We are often worshiping in the middle of the storm.

I think that's what, when Peter cries out to Jesus, he's saying, he's saying something significant about who Jesus is. He's the only one who can save me out here. I'm sinking.

The waves are coming. Jesus is the only one who can save me. So, in that sense, worship has already begun.

But when they see the power of Jesus, not just to walk on the water, but to rescue Peter and to calm the sea, they worship. So, scary situations reveal who God is for us in Jesus. Scary situations actually reveal to us who Jesus is for us, and who God is for us in Christ.

He is a Savior, and He is saving us ultimately. He's saving our souls. Nothing can shake that.

We have an inheritance that is kept in heaven for us for the day of His return, that it's imperishable, it can't be stolen, it won't rust. It's just, it's secure. And, but He's also rescuing us in the temporal troubles that we face every day.

He's protecting us. Now, you might say, well, I went to the doctor and I got a cancer diagnosis. How is God protecting me there? And we are not protected from all the bad things that can happen to us.

But our faith is protected. Our faith is empowered and strengthened, especially in adverse situations and in suffering, so that we will continue to cry out to God. We will continue to depend on Him.

We will grow in dependence on Him. We will grow in faith in Him, so that we are helped. And we don't want to do that tritely with other people.

Just trust God and everything will be okay, right? We don't want to be trite about that. Fears are real. The dangers are real.

And Christ is the one who saves us. And we want to be winsome about that. And we don't want to just love in word, we want to love in deed.

We want to enter into another person's life who's suffering. And we want to be a partner with God and being a helping hand to that person. We're not just going to say, be warm and well-fed and not provide the means of warmth and a meal.

So that's where we cannot be trite. We're not just saying, hey, trust God, as if we're saying, hey, get over it. We are investing ourselves and bringing others to bear into the lives, into each other's life, so that we can face the adversities of life together in Christ.

We can point one another to Christ. We can embolden faith and not let ourselves be overcome by fear. So I don't think our call is to eradicate anxiety.

The error is that we forget that anxiety and fear of real threats or imagined threats call us back to Christ. They embolden our faith because we run back to the one that we belong to. So that's what I want to share with us today.

So let us not disparage people who are fearful or anxious, but rather let's point them to Jesus, the one who rescues and saves. Thank you and God bless.

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.)