When God Calls It Sin – Part 2 – #3 Anxiety

About this Series: “When God Calls It Sin” was originally a 5-week study I had lead in 2019 for an adult Sunday School class at my old church.

The outlines and lessons were based on Jerry Bridges’ book “Respectable Sins,” which I highly recommended for anyone serious about confronting the sins in their own hearts that are often overlooked.

For the blog, I am adapting my own notes and slides from the class and posting them almost verbatim. Since each class was an hour long, however, I will be dividing segments of each lesson into separate posts for easier reading.

Jump To:

• Part 1 (Introduction)
• Part 2 (Ungodliness || Unthankfulness || Anxiety || Frustration || Discontentment)
• Part 3 (Pride || Selfishness || Judgmentalism)
• Part 4 (Anger || Impatience & Irritability || Envy, Jealousy, & Related Sins)
• Part 5 (Sins of the Tongue || Wordliness)

Part 2 Segments:

1. Ungodliness
2. Unthankfulness
3. > Anxiety
4. Frustration & Discontentment

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Anxiety

Other than love and humility, the character trait of anxiety is talked about more than any other in the New Testament and can often be referred to as “worry” or “fear.”

Whereas you or I may attempt to encourage someone by saying “don’t be afraid,” when the Bible says “do not be anxious,” it has the force behind it of a moral command. It is the moral will of God that we not be anxious. Or, to put it quite bluntly: anxiety, in general, is a sin.

It is sinful for a couple of reasons. First of which is the fact that anxiety is the polar opposite of trust in God.

In Matthew 6, Jesus teaches that our heavenly Father takes care of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. If He cares for their needs, will He not much more take care of our own temporal needs?

In 1 Peter 5:5, the apostle reminds us that God is opposed to the prideful, but gives grace to the humble. And it is with that humility in mind that he goes on to instruct us on our anxiety:

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, CASTING ALL YOUR ANXIETY ON HIM, because He cares for you.

1 Peter 5:6-7 LSB

Not only does he tell us to cast our anxiety on God, he also tells us how (by humbling ourselves and recognizing God’s “mighty hand“) and why we can and should do so (“because He cares for [us]“).

When we give in to our anxiety, we are, in essence, believing that God does not truly care about us or is not mighty enough to take care of whatever circumstance over which we may be anxious.

There is another reason that anxiety should be seen as sinful, and the doctrine of God’s sovereignty guides us to it.

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Several years ago, during our 4th of July celebration, my youngest niece (about 3 years old) was playing a little too hard and hit her head, causing her to briefly lose consciousness. Her mother, my sister, was understandably panicked as she announced she was rushing her to the hospital.

The first reaction of my whole family, myself included, was one of panic and worry and doubt. We were all anxious (and praying) as we waited for word from my sister. Eventually, my niece turned out to have suffered no major injury and was home shortly.

Now, at the time, our worrying seemed like a perfectly normal and acceptable human response to the events that took place. After all, it did cause us all to turn to the Lord in prayer!

But in retrospect, I have to wonder if our worry and doubt wasn’t rooted in a sinful lack of trust in the Lord’s sovereignty and providence. We were failing to remember that the Lord was in control and orchestrating even this event for His glory and for our good.

This does not mean that God has promised things will always turn out well as long as we have enough faith. That teaching is wholly unbiblical.

This is also not to say that we should not react swiftly and urgently during a medical emergency. But we should not be anxious or filled with worry! Even if and when things do take a turn for the worse, we need to remember that it was still God’s doing; it was still His will and it would have been worked out for His glory and our ultimate good.

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In that example, we see how anxiety can so easily become one of our “acceptable” sins: at times it can seem like such a reasonable and understandable response to a particular situation.

But what seems reasonable to us can still be sinful, and often is, and the Bible never speaks of anxiety in any other terms; anxiety is never taught to be reasonable or acceptable.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares Yahweh.

Isaiah 55:8 LSB

Side Note: I understand that there may be some medical or mental conditions that are beyond our control, and sometimes those conditions could lead to sinful thoughts and behaviors. I honestly do not have an answer for how God view those situations (ie: bipolar disorder or clinical depression); my knowledge on the subject is limited to what Scripture says about what is and is not sin.

There have doubtless been many studies on the subject of anxiety disorders, medication side effects, and the like. Unfortunately, we do not have time to delve deeper into those here.

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Another very common way that anxiety can appear is when we consider the future. Where should I go to college? Will I pass my exam? What will happen to my kids if I should die?

Or maybe it’s more of a current situation. Did I marry the right person? Am I working where God wants me?

With that, we are going to watch a clip from an episode of Wretched TV that deals with making Godly decisions about your life. God does care about the big decisions and life choices we must make, so how do we know what God’s will is?

In this clip, pay attention to the theology of providence that Todd Friel presents; it just may be the antidote to your worry and anxiety.

The video is obviously more specific to the “life decision” topic than to that of anxiety, but the host makes an important point that wherever you are in life, whatever you are going through, is God’s will and a part of His ultimate plan.

So rest in that and be anxious for nothing!

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