You and I, like every human who has ever lived, will experience anxiety and fears. We’ll manage some of our fears more easily than others. But at times, we can be debilitated by fear and anxiety and act unloving and unkind as a result of trying to control what we fear.

Whether our anxiety and fears find their power from the real possibility of the damage or death a virus can inflict, from a list of other fears we live with, or some unidentified—even imagined—threat that feels as real as the air we breathe, we all seek to know rest from our worries.

Unapologetically, I do not integrate secular solutions in my counseling, though I will use secular diagnostic studies and insights. Why? Because I know that God has much to say about the struggles of the daily lives of broken people living in a fallen world. I know that the secular wisdom of man (where God is not in view) will never offer what God has done or said as the real comfort and rest we seek. It may direct you to better self-talk, but not to the One who is sovereign over all things.

PROTECTING WHAT YOU LOVE

From the very day we are born, we begin to interpret the world around us. As fallen people living in a fallen world, we are not only born with propensities to fear, but we also grow up in a world full of sinners and intended and unintended dangers that threaten what we love. The information we have gathered from experiences—combined with information that is coming at us in the moment—compels us to figure out how we protect what we love.

This situation has all the potential to put us into low-grade anxiety or throw our lives into chaos with debilitating panic, fear, and heart-felt dread. Many people will use both experience and current information to determine and respond to a present danger, while thinking little about the possibilities in the future. Others, however, will respond to danger—whether interpersonal, circumstantial, or physical—with a high-alert tension and sometimes overwhelming panic in the present and in their thoughts about the future.

What are finite creatures with infinite potential dangers supposed to do? How do we not worry or be anxious about what lies ahead?

GOD’S RESPONSE TO YOUR FEAR

Sometime in your life you might have been rebuked for your fear or told that you were sinning against God because you were afraid. That was a misrepresentation of what God wants to make clear to us. Scripture is replete with God’s speaking to His children about the danger we face, and His voice is one of comfort and understanding. He never tells us that we, or what we love, do not face danger. He does not treat our fear of this broken world as high-handed sin against Him. No, His words are like those of a gentle and loving father assuring his children that he sees them and what they face and that he is with them.

Similar but so much better are the words of our Heavenly Father! Not only does He speak words of comfort, but He is also sovereign over all things. Unfortunately, it is here that things can get messy for us and where biblical counseling can be of great help. There are at least two areas of struggle we face with finding rest in God’s promise to be with us when we face danger: questions of His sovereign care and kindness and understanding our heart’s demand for the things we love and have determined we cannot live without.

THE GREATEST PLACES OF YOUR ANXIETY AND FEAR

In moments of trouble, God can seem small, uncaring, and far away, even when the Bible tells us that His hands hold all things together, that He is sovereign over all things, and that He created all things out of nothing. Too often in the face of trouble, we don’t tend to believe these things are true.

We have a Heavenly Father who knows how complex, complicated, fickle, and foolish we are, and the truth about Him doesn’t easily find a resting place in our hearts. In addition, we can find ourselves trying to take matters into our own hands without understanding where our responsibilities end and where God’s provision and care begin. Most times, we think that is the question to be answered, but the real problem is that we aren’t truly sure about the character of our God, who claims to hold power over all things.

Or, we wonder what God has to say about the complexities and struggles of living in the 21st century from a book written over 2,000 years ago. What real help and comfort can it offer?

One of the most profound statements about anxiety and fear I have ever heard was spoken by David Powlison, one of the kindest men I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting and the privilege of being taught by. He spoke with a biblically immersed, God-centered wisdom when he said, “The things you love more than God will be the greatest places of your anxiety and fear.” This statement exposes the complexity of our trust of God, because it is not just about His character, it is also about how our good desires for the things that God has created can turn into needs and must-haves.

TRUE REST FROM YOUR FEARS

God is inviting us to not only know Him, but also to identify the very things that enslave us. God is not asking us to make great and bold professions of our faith and love for Him. He is inviting us to step out of the slavery of our “needs” and live in the promise of His love, care, and provision. That is the starting place of understanding the desperate places in our lives and where we bring honest hearts to God for freedom and trust.

Start an honest conversation today about what you love more than Him. It will be challenging to shine His light of truth on those places, but the payoff is His transforming presence of grace and a true resting place from your fears.

The struggles that we face from the effects of the fall of man and the resulting sin were left by God to be the very reasons we would reach out in our brokenness to the One true God who sent the Rescuer of our hearts.

This work is complex because we are often blind to what enslaves us. We were never meant to do this alone. Find a trusted friend, pastor, or counselor to help you see the truth about the desires that control you and distort the closeness, love, and character of God. Trying to find rest for your fears in anything less is trying to find rest in the fleeting brokenness of this world.