Sunday Highlights – Anxiety

I love what Jenni does for Crosspoint on her blog where she recaps the outline from the sermon for her blog readers.  It may feel a little like simple regurgitation but as a non-attendant at the church I love getting any snippet of wisdom from Pete’s sermons.  I always, always enjoy Chris’ sermons at North Rock Hill so why not share?  Not everyone has time to check out the podcast, so yeah, I’m gonna start doing this weekly I think.  Rambly enough? Here we go.

This series has been about Vital Signs.  This week our blood pressure is about anxiety…surprise!

Chris listed several symptoms of anxiety from an article in Time.  And yes, I wrote them all down.

• mood swings
• depression
• tired
• angry outbursts
• eye-twitching
• fragmentation of the mind (mind is always 100 different places)
• checking out (sort of like daydreaming)
• paranoid/suspicions (always assume worst case scenario.  a card from your husband means he’s cheating and trying make up for it)
• weight gain/loss
• panic
• fatigue
• self-medicating (drugs-prescription or not, alcohol and may I add food?)
• irritable
• reckless
• headaches
• spending money
• stomach issues (ulcers, etc)
• high blood pressure

As Christians, instead of leading the world to peace and contentment we follow the world to find peace and contentment.

The Time article recommended the following things to help with anxiety: therapy, drugs, tranquilizers, exercise, lifestyle changes.  While Chris pointed out that medication has its place as well as exercise (obv) those are often not dealing with the real issue.

Philippians 4

We need to live so others can mimic us and live like Jesus as Paul did.

The one thing: I can have peace and contentment through intimacy with Jesus regardless of my circumstances.

If you have to manage your anxiety, it’s in control of you.

From Philippians 4, here are some Biblical points on how to deal with the root cause of our anxiety

1 – You have the Holy Spirit.  You must ask yourself: When is Jesus enough?

2 – Constantly approach Him specifically and thankfully with requests.  This should be all day, any time you find yourself becoming anxious.

3 – Dwell on good things.  Anxiety is a very me-centered issue.  Move from Me to Him.  You can’t live with the peace of God until you live for the God of peace.

4 – He redefined the often misinterpreted “I can do all things through Christ”.   This is not a message of blessings but whether you are in a state of riches or poverty, you find contentment and can do it all with Christ.  In riches, be humble and be generous.  In poverty, you still have Jesus and He’s more than enough.

John Ortberg says we need to abandon pursuit of peace and contentment altogether and pursue Christ.

Recommended book: The Life You’ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg.  I bought this from the church two weeks back and it has so much great stuff in it.  Highly recommend as well!

Good stuff, right?  A great reminder for all of us!  He’s enough!