Anxious Biblical Quotes

Telling someone they shouldn’t judge is not biblical. In fact, Scripture actually commands us to judge but to do it carefully, rightly, humbly, and without hypocrisy. And the whole point of judging one another is to protect the church and restore the sinner in repentance.

Please do not take life advice from someone who is in the middle of a major crisis. Unless they are gleaning from time-tested, biblical wisdom and pointing you to Christ (not yourself), it would be wise to hit the pause button on that hot mess and just wait and see how it all pans out over the next ten years or so.

The seminaries have generally been so covetous of academic recognition, and so anxious for locus within the ethos and hierarchy of the university, that they have not noticed how alien and hostile those premises are to the peculiar vocation of the seminary. Thus the seminaries succumb to disseminating ideological renditions of the faith which demean the vitality of the biblical witness by engaging in endless classifications and comparisons of ideas. All this eschews commitment and precludes a confessional study of theology.

I entrust my spirit into your hand. Rescue me, LORD, for you are a faithful God. (5) What a way to go. What a way to pray as you go. In Luke’s account of the Crucifixion, the words of Psalm 31:5 are the last Jesus prayed before he gave up his spirit and died.118 Some biblical scholars believe these words were also the first prayer every Jewish mother taught her child to pray before going to sleep at night. When Jesus prayed this prayer on the cross, he added “Father” to it. Jesus died, it seems, the way a child falls to sleep in his father’s arms.119 Falling to sleep has long been regarded as a prefigurement, a kind of rehearsal for dying. My mother taught me a prayer as a child that I prayed at night. For years it was a comfort, a sweet, innocuous palliative, until I thought about the words I was praying: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” That bit about dying before I wake kept me awake, but not indefinitely. As anxious as I got about the possibility of dying while I slept, I still succumbed to sleep. I eventually had to give up and let go. The choice was not whether to fall into sleep but how: in trust and hope or in fear and despair. The same is true when it comes to dying.

Canopus, lure of the dissolute and the anxious, where Hadrian and Antinous, like Cleopatra and Mark Antony before them, amused themselves in 130, and which made sufficient impact on Hadrian for him to give its name to part of his palatial villa at Tivoli, also lay on a tributary of the Nile west of where the river runs today. From the fourth century onwards a series of natural disasters wiped Canopus off the map. The rise of Christianity had long destroyed the temples and removed the treasures of pagan religion, and the depravity against which both ancient and Christian commentators had inveighed came to a truly biblical end.

Acting like a man means developing a non-anxious presence that sees the big picture, remains calm in a crisis, and won’t cave in under pressure. Godly men respond; they don’t react.

To the men and women who keep a sacred appointment on Sunday morning. Bewildered by seductive voices, nursing wounds life has inflicted upon them, anxious about matters that do not matter. Yet they come to listen for a clear word from God that speaks to their condition. And to those who minister to them now and those who will do so in the future.

When you look at your world, it’s easy to find reasons to be anxious.

When you are anxious, remember that your God is guarding you with His peace.

Because true biblical love doesn’t keep score. It doesn’t expect rewards in return. It tells the truth. It believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. It never fails. Love is a Person. Love is willing to suffer. Love eternally gave of himself to others.

Like the Biblical Israelites, Americans who are afraid want to put their trust in actors who can effectively protect them, but rather than turning solely to the Lord, modern citizens might choose to put their trust in government experts.

Passivity is one of the main enemies of biblical masculinity and it’s most obvious where it’s needed most. It’s a pattern of waiting on the sidelines until you’re specifically asked to step in. Even worse than that, it can be a pattern of trying to duck out of responsibilities or to run away from challenges. Men who think conflict should be avoided, or who refuse to engage with those who would harm the body of Christ or their family, not only model passivity but fail in their responsibilities as protectors. Running to the battle means routinely taking a step toward the challenge — not away from it. Instead of running and hiding, it means running into the burning building or into any other situation that requires courage and/or strength. It means having a burden of awareness and consistently asking yourself, “Is there any testosterone needed in this situation?” That doesn’t mean being a fool who just rushes in, but simply being a leader with the instinct to go where the need is. So show leadership, protection and provision in your family, work, church, and community by consistently moving toward the action. Demonstrate your availability by consistently asking those you encounter, “Do you need anything?” Watch for needs and challenges in whatever situation you’re in and cultivate a habit of running to the battle. Keep your head Whether it was a bear attacking his sheep, Goliath looming in the distance, Saul hurling a spear at him or any other crisis David faced, he moved toward the action with calm resolve. He didn’t panic. He was a man of action and engagement. When there is a crisis, leaders don’t panic. Crisis reveals character and capacity. This is the point when true leaders are distinguished from others. So keep your head. Be anxious for nothing (Phil 4:6-7). Time is wasted while you panic. Just step forward. Be unflappable and resilient.

Difficult circumstances should not cause us to be anxious, they should cause us to trust God more.

When we fail to heed this command, we demonstrate we have little faith in Him because we are the idol of our own lives. And that is when big anxiety kicks in. Anxiety says, “I’ve got this. I am trusting myself.” God says, “I’ve got this. Trust me.” When you submit to God and allow Him to reign in your life, you cannot descend into anxiety. Here is how that works: z You read, study, and ponder God’s Word. z Your Bible teaches you to do what you can do to address the situation but trust God for the outcome. z Something challenging, hard or scary happens. z You remember that God is sovereignly controlling every single detail of your life. z You are calm in the storm. z The storm rages harder and you begin to worry, but you remind yourself that there is no need to be anxious because your King has all things under His sovereign control. z You are acting like the obedient servant whom God loves as He reigns in your life. z You have peace knowing that God works all things for your good and His glory. Perhaps you think this is too simple. Well, perhaps you have simply made your anxiety issue more complex than it needs to be.

How is the condition of our heart altered? No more important question can be asked in psychology—or philosophy. The biblical answer is clear. The heart is changed through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Christian theology ultimately focuses on that relationship, which is available to all who trust in Christ. According to the Bible, there is no other way in which the heart and the human person can be significantly changed. In the Old Testament, only a personal relationship with the Lord, the covenant God, could cause a life to change. David asked God to work in his heart: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Ps. 51:10); “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts” (Ps. 139:23). In the Book of Ezekiel, God’s role in renewing the human heart is stressed: “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God” (Ezek. 11:19–20).

Is there a better way to walk in the will of God? The answer is a resounding yes! There is most certainly a better way. It’s an old way. It’s a biblical way. It’s Jesus’ way. Listen to Jesus’ explanation of the way of God in the Sermon on the Mount: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:25-34).

These four verses tell us what God wants to do with us. He doesn’t want to simply eliminate your anxious thoughts: He wants to remake you. Fix you. Change you. Improve you. Conform you into His very image. God does not just zap you and change you; God’s Holy Spirit changes you as you read His Holy Spirit–inspired Word. Want change? Read your Bible. And read it right! Unfortunately, many people read the Bible wrong and never find the comfort they seek.

If you believe that your omnipotent God is for you and nothing can befall you that is not from His beneficent hand, then you would not be anxious. When you are worried, you are simply not trusting your God.

There is a fine line between sinful anxiety and planning for the future. We can and should prepare for the future; we just can’t sin as we do so. To be sure, there is much that can cause anxiety these days, but Christians are called to fear not (Luke 12:23). z We are commanded to not be anxious about the future (John 14:1). z We are called to have our emotions under control (Galatians 5:22–23). z We are warned that anxiety about the future is an insult to God (Matthew 5:25–39). While we might be comforted by the fact that every human being on earth has committed the sin of anxiety, that does not let us off the hook. We are accountable for our emotions. Fear of the future is common, but it is not acceptable. That is why you must be aware of which feeling you are actually having. If you are sad because of sin, death, or disaster, that is fine. If you are sad because you are worried about tomorrow, that is not fine.

God-given emotions can be enjoyed rightly or abused sinfully. It is up to us to make sure we act like God by having the right emotion at the right time for the right reason. And know this, when you cross the line into sinfully anxious, then God has already forgiven you and He stands ready to help you grow and not think like that again. Why? Because you have a sympathetic high priest who wants to fix your thinking so you can have the same joy that He has (John 15:11).

Our God is not mystical. God doesn’t sprinkle fairy dust on us to calm us down when we are anxious. God is a cognitive God who works in us through our brains. His ordained means to accomplish that is the Holy Spirit–inspired Word.