Peace in Uncertain TimesSample

Anxiety in the Wilderness

Anxiety has a way of ruling over us. Although many of our concerns are legitimate—like having money to pay the rent and buy food—some of them are nonsensical. We envision future catastrophes and spend our days worrying about what might never happen, creating an emotional wilderness for ourselves.

Anxiety isn’t new. The prophet Isaiah addresses the problem: 

“Wilderness and dry land shall be glad, and desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus. . . . Say to those who are hasty of heart, ‘Be strong; you must not fear! Look! your God will come with vengeance, with divine retribution. He is the one who will come and save you’” (Isa 35:1, 4).

Isaiah realizes that there is a time and season for everything. He proclaims that God will bring the people out of the wilderness (their exile in Babylon) and back into their land. There is an answer to the anxiety, pain, and worry that they feel about the future. His words ring with prophetic certainty because He knows them to be true—they are Yahweh’s words.

Jesus also addresses anxiety when He says to His disciples, “For this reason I tell you, do not be anxious for your life, what you will eat, or for your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens, that they neither sow nor reap; to them there is neither storeroom nor barn, and God feeds them. How much more are you worth than the birds? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to His span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?” (Luke 12:22–26).

Why must we worry? Why must we strive over things we cannot change? Ultimately, everything in life is a matter of depending on God.

What are you worrying about today? Spend time in prayer asking God to help you trust him for what you cannot change.