We are in the “New Year Resolutions” season, and according to Webster’s Dictionary, a new year resolution is a promise to do something DIFFERENT in the new year. Every year, many US citizens set out to live differently by committing to improve their life circumstances to achieve happiness. Their resolutions focus on improving health and fitness circumstances, financial circumstances, career circumstances, traveling circumstances, and for some, their addiction circumstances. Though the focuses are all different, they each have something in common. They are all circumstances. Our culture has led us to believe that to have a successful life, we need to have a “happy” one, and to have a happy life, we must live within happy circumstances.
As believers, we are shown through the scriptures that circumstances do not play into measuring our ultimate self-worth or internal assurance in Jesus Christ. We see a prime example of this in the book of Philippians as Paul writes the “Epistle of Joy” while living through one of life’s most unhappy and anxious circumstances in prison. If our life’s circumstances play such an integral role in the final determination of our life, then how was Paul able to write the Bible’s official letter of joy while in one of the unhappiest of circumstances? Simply put, joy and happiness are not the same thing. Happiness depends on external circumstances, while joy depends on internal assurances. Paul did not allow his circumstances to diminish his joy! His joy and ultimate reliance and trust are in the internal assurance of Jesus Christ.
As believers of Jesus Christ, we are not guaranteed or promised happy circumstances or a life free of anxiety. In fact, we are almost assured the exact opposite. In John 16:33, Jesus states, “I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous. I have conquered the world.” We as believers in Christ may not be promised happy circumstances, but we are promised something greater, eternity with Jesus Christ, the one who has conquered the world.
Regardless of our belief or acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we all experience anxiety. We may not all experience anxiety the same way, but we all experience some form of anxiety. Why? Because circumstances and situations create anxiety. So, what do we do if we, as believers, are not guaranteed a life without anxiety? How do we manage it? How do we live in a world with anxiety and unhappy circumstances? We do precisely what the Bible tells us to do! In Philippians 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, states it VERY clearly! “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” God wants us to bring our anxieties to Him! God WANTS your circumstances of anxieties!
Handing over all your anxiety to God is easier said than done. Why? Because we are all sinners! As sinners, we want to control everything, we want to fix everything, we want to do it on our own, and we want to be the ones to deliver! It is only after we are exhausted and defeated and fail to deliver that we turn to God and accept that it is not our job to deliver.
Typically, we only see our circumstances from our view, and that view is only a tiny piece of the picture. In contrast, God sees the WHOLE picture. God sees everything! This is why you will never find anything in the Bible describing God as an anxious God. He sees it all!
Anxiety ultimately has a way of blinding us. It blinds us from seeing what God is doing in our lives and, as a result, forgetting who is ultimately and truly in control and responsible for delivering. Anxiety is often a result of us focusing so much on what we cannot see and failing to trust in what God sees.
The One ultimately in control of delivering is the ONE who knows us best, loves us the most, and created the ENTIRE universe, and HE is in COMPLETE control. He, the ONE who conquered the world, is in COMPLETE control of all our circumstances. Our goal as believers is to live like Paul and not allow our circumstances to diminish our joy. A joy that can only be found in the ONE who conquered the world. We, as believers, have an internal assurance in Jesus Christ, and that assurance has the strength to conquer any anxieties and circumstances.
John 3:16 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.