John MacArthur - Anxious for nothing: Gods cure for the cares of your soul

ANXIOUS FOR NOTHING

Published by David C Cook

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without written permission from the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible , Copyright 1960, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. (Public Domain); NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com; SCO are taken from the New Scofield Reference Bible, King James version, 1967 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Reprinted by permission; TLB are taken from The Living Bible , 1971, Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60189. Used by permission; NLT are taken from the New Living Translation of the Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. The author has added italics to Scripture quotations for emphasis.

LCCN 2011942708

ISBN 978-1-4347-0297-5

eISBN 978-0-7814-0761-8

1993, 2012 John MacArthur

First edition published as Anxiety Attacked by Victor Books in 1993 John MacArthur, ISBN 1-56476-128-2.

The Team: Alex Field, Amy Konyndyk, Jack Campbell, Karen Athen

Cover Design: Nick Lee

Cover Photo: Shutterstock

Third Edition 2012

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to the staff of Grace to You who lent their editorial expertise to this project. Particular thanks goes to Allacin Morimizu, who arranged and edited this book from sermon transcripts.

INTRODUCTION

Anxiety , fear , worry , and stress are familiar words in our day and familiar experiences to many. More and more were hearing of an extreme form of anxiety referred to as a panic attack. Some time ago, I observed one close at hand in the emergency room on board a ship. Such extreme displays of anxiety are becoming frighteningly common in our society. They usually are related to an unfounded fear so overwhelming and so overpowering that it clutches a persons heart, forces the heart to beat faster, produces chills or perspiration, and makes the person to feel completely unable to cope with the moment.

One woman wrote grippingly of her experience in an article titled I Was a Prisoner of Panic Attacks. She began, While interviewing with my prospective employer, something terrifying happened. The windowless room where the interview took place closed in around me, the air became thin. My throat tightened and the rushing in my head became deafening. All I could think was, Ive got to get out . My mind and heart raced for what seemed an eternity as I feigned composure. Somehow, I made it through the meeting without giving my interviewer a clue I had been seconds away from fleeing his office or passing out on the spot. I endured a rush of the fight-or-flight instinct one usually experiences in life-threatening situations. The reality, however, was that she wasnt in a life-threatening situation.

Anxiety is, at its core, an inappropriate response in light of the circumstancesvery different from the cares and concerns in life that cause people to attend to business in a responsible way. Stress and pressure, instead of being things to avoid, strengthen us to accomplish the challenges God sets before us in life. The apostle Paul wrote that apart from the unrelenting external pressures he had to face, such as persecution, hardship, and imprisonment, he also had daily upon him the internal pressure of concern for all the churches (2 Cor. 11:28). In spite of that, he had room in his heart to feel the anxiety of others, for he went on to write, Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern? (v. 29). He wouldnt have had it any other way, though. In fact, that kind of response to pressure is what Paul looked for in those who would serve with him. Note how he commended Timothy to the Philippian church: I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare (Phil. 2:20; cf. 1 Cor. 4:17).

Anyone who knows and loves Jesus Christ is capable of handling pressure like that. The wrong way to handle the stresses of life is to worry about them. Jesus said three times, Do not be anxious (see Matt. 6:25, 31, 34). Paul later reiterated, Be anxious for nothing (Phil. 4:6). Worry at any time is a sin because it violates the clear biblical command.

We allow our daily concerns to turn into worry and therefore sin when our thoughts become focused on changing the future instead of doing our best to handle our present circumstances. Such thoughts are unproductive. They end up controlling usthough it should be the other way aroundand cause us to neglect other responsibilities and relationships. That brings on legitimate feelings of guilt. If we dont deal with those feelings in a productive manner by getting back on track with our duties in life, well lose hope instead of finding answers. When left unresolved, anxiety can debilitate ones mind and bodyand even lead to panic attacks.

I am concerned about the solutions some Christians offer to the problem of anxiety. A survey of the books put out on the topic by evangelical publishing houses is telling. Most are formulaic, anecdotal, or psychological in orientation. They contain a lot of nice stories but not many references to Scripture. When Scripture is employed, it is often incidental and without regard for its context. Scriptural concepts are often boiled down to single terms and presented something like this: If you do [term 1] and [term 2], then God must do [term 3].

Even more troubling to me than that superficial approach is the disdainful attitude that Scripture, apart from modern psychology, is inadequate for dealing with anxiety and lifes other woes. It contradicts the biblical truth that our Lord Jesus Christ, through His divine power, has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence (2 Peter 1:3). My concern over this issue prompted me to write Our Sufficiency in Christ .

The potential danger of believers being encouraged to take a psychological approach to anxiety became especially clear to me as I read of a young Christian woman named Gloria. She sought counseling after years of worrying about her weight. She submitted herself to a well-known Christian clinic in Dallas and began extensive therapy. Because the clinic advertised on a local Christian radio station and was named after men who wrote books widely available in Christian bookstores, Gloria assumed it was a safe place for a Baptist ministers daughter to place her trust. It was the beginning of a nightmare that eventually led to her remembering a variety of bizarre, unspeakable crimes her parents had supposedly committed against her and accusing them in court.

D Magazine in Dallas picked up the story and reported it in depth. They discovered that there was no independent evidence to corroborate any elements of Glorias story and that Gloria seemed to have been programmed with the perceived expectations and suggestions of her therapist, whose records showed he had counseled a string of patients with similar memories.

One of the most shameful tragedies in life is that some children are abused by their parents, but there is absolutely no evidence that such a horror is tucked away into the far reaches of the mind, accessible only by a specially trained therapist. Amnesia is not a common thing in post-traumatic stress disorder, explained one expert quoted by D Magazine . The opposite is the case: Theres a preoccupation with the event. She is totally alienated from the people she needs most because she has been led to believe lies about them. Her anxiety is unrelieved. What a frightening end to a young womans quest to end worries about her weight!