The Cure to an Anxious Soul: Living in Light of Luke 12:22-34
Year by year, Americans are becoming more anxious. According to a poll from the American Psychiatric Association, Americans are more anxious now than they were at this time last year, and they were more anxious last year than they were the year before. COVID-19, family safety, politics, income, and health are all factors in our increasing anxiety as a society. I have my own thoughts concerning why anxious feelings are ever-increasing around the country (lives lived mostly online, 24-hour news cycle, social media, increased vitriolic language against those against our frame of mind, and more), but that is not the scope of my post here.
In this short post, I want to call Christians away from the pull of anxious feelings regarding our current climate or circumstance, and toward Jesus’s cure for anxious souls. When we look around our communities, it’s easy to be swept up into the anxious feelings of the age. If we aren’t guarded against anxiety, we can become overwhelmed by the political clamor, outrage, and general uneasiness of today. If we merely fall in line with the temperature of Twitter and Facebook and CNN and Fox News, we’ll succumb to the stress and anxiety of society.
I want to argue that we are called to something different though. Jesus calls us out of the anxiety of the age. In fact, in Luke 12:22, Jesus commands us to not be anxious about our lives. This is easier said than done, right? But I think the gospels are clear: Jesus wants his followers to live lives that are not anxious, but instead are modeled after his own life. What is this different lifestyle, then?
To begin with, I think a life free of the anxious feelings of this age is impossible without the Spirit. A life free from anxiety is reachable only with the supernatural rebirth found in salvation found in Christ alone. At this point, Christians are marked by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, and one result of this indwelling is the ability to pursue sanctification. A tenet of sanctification and the lifelong pursuit of holiness is the putting off of anxious feelings. So a Spirit-filled life is a life that is free from anxiety more and more as one progresses through life.
While the Spirit sanctifies us throughout our lives, we might still struggle with anxious thoughts and feelings. What do we do, then, when we struggle with anxiety? We look to the Word! In Luke 12:22-34, Jesus offers the cure for the anxious soul. Within the passage, Jesus tells his followers who are struggling with anxiety to trust in God’s care, adoption, and love.
Trust God’s Care
Jesus recognizes that his followers will struggle with anxiety and being pulled into the anxious fervor of their age. But then our Savior calls to memory God’s good care of his own people. God, in His wisdom and power, provides food and care for the ravens (Lk 12:24) and clothes the beautiful lilies of the field (Lk 12:27). In fact, God is so sure to feed the ravens that they do not even worry about their next meal (Lk 12:14). They are confident in God’s provision and care for them. A quick reminder: birds and grass are not made in the image of God. However, birds and grass are taken care of by God and serve as a small reminder of his care toward his children.
We, as human beings, are made in the very image of God. And more so, as his redeemed people, are part of his covenant family. God has brought us in, and he is a good Father (more on his Fatherhood below), and he will take care of his children. If he will send Christ to die for our sins—meeting our greatest need—will he not then meet our lesser needs of provision? By saving us through Christ, God has provided the greatest care. And when we look around and see his beauty displayed in the fields and forests, we can know for sure that he will take care of us. Each bird, each flower, each blade of grass is a resplendent reminder that we serve a God who will care for us.
In the whims and worries of the world, we are told by Jesus to slow down and look around. Look at the ravens. Look at the lilies. Consider them. God has taken care of them, in his infinite wisdom. Beloved, how much more will he take care of you? Look around and trust his care. If he feeds the ravens and clothes the lilies, he will meet your needs. We can even be confident and assured that God will care for us.
Trust God’s Adoption
What, then, is the basis for such confidence in God’s care? We can be confident that God will sovereignly care for us because God has adopted us into his very family! In his grace, God has not only redeemed us from our sins through Christ but has given us the blessings of that redemption. One of the glorious blessings of salvation is adoption by God. We were once “by nature children of wrath” (Eph 2:3). To be sure, being a child of wrath is a reason to be anxious. To remain in the state of wrath will bring anxiety to anyone.
But God, being rich in mercy and abounding in steadfast love, covenanted before time began to adopt “children of wrath” into his very family, making them “children of God,” as it were. And God’s gracious adoption of his children is as sure as the redemption accomplished by Christ. If you are in Christ, you can trust that you have been adopted into the family of God. In other words, your adoption is blood-bought by the shed blood of Jesus. And if you have been adopted into the family of God, you can be sure to receive God’s gracious and tender care.
God is the ultimate Father, the Father to the utmost. Of all the virtues of fatherhood, God displays each of them to the maximal degree. His fatherly love is unmatched, and his care is unhindered. So when Jesus says, “For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them,” (Lk 12:30), he actually means it, and we can actually trust our adoption. A good father knows his children’s needs, even before they bring them up. Because God knows every part of every one of us, he knows our needs—all of them. If he is our Father, he has already met our deepest need, that of salvation. It is his “good pleasure to give us the kingdom.” He delights in saving us. He delights in caring for us. He delights in being our Father, and we can trust our adoption.
Trust God’s Love
Finally, as we consider God’s care and his adoption, we can trust God’s love in times of anxiety. God cares for us and delights in adopted us into his family because he loves us. God is maximally loving because “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8). In times of anxiety, when the fears from within and outside of ourselves seem like too much, we can trust the one who is love. That means God’s love for us does not lessen when we cool in our love and trust of him. God’s love is constant, steadfast, and covenanted to us.
God’s love for us is trustworthy. When the cultural sand sinks, we can trust God’s love. It’s the same as it ever has been. It’s worth returning to time and again. God’s love for us is a well that will never run dry. So Christian, run back to God’s love in times of anxiety and trust that God will love you and care for you as his very own child.