Anxiety: How To Confront It, Cast It, & Carry OnSýnishorn

Carry On

What’s the Biblical response to the mounting anxiety in our lives? As we saw in the first day of this plan, we must first confront our anxiety honestly, recognizing our stressors for what they are. Second, we take the Lord up on his offer to cast our anxieties and worries upon him, for He cares deeply for us. Finally, as we will see in this final entry of this reading plan, once we have confronted our anxieties and cast them upon the Lord, we must carry on in the work the Father has created us to do.

Once we have cast our concerns upon the Lord, we carry on with our lives and our work in a whole new manner. We rise up from our confession full of faith. We believe that God has graciously taken our anxieties upon Himself and that He has become our burden-bearer. We trust that, because God cares so much for us, He does not desire for us to exist in a perpetual state of anxiety. He does not want us anxiously obsessing over the things in our lives that we can’t control. So, He takes them from us. That which brought us worry and a disquieted spirit no longer rests on our shoulders. Therefore, we need not be fixated on the anxieties of the past. We are able to carry on with great freedom. 

We see this truth in Jesus’s call in Matthew 11 when He said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Jesus knows that we get stressed. So he calls us to come to him in faith. To hand over our burdens. And, in turn, to receive rest. Not a passive rest, but an active relief. Relief that is activated by trust. Relief that then motivates us to live and work without worry, but with great freedom and boldness.

Each of us has been given unique work to do for the glory of God and the good of others. When we launch a new business, ship a product, create a piece of art, finish a presentation, or sweep a floor, we aren’t just doing a job—we are being God’s hands and feet at work in the world, serving the human community. But it is impossible for us to do our best, most creative work out of a place of fear and anxiety. I pray the Scriptures from this reading plan give you the strength to confront your anxieties, cast them upon the Lord, and carry on in the work the Father created you to do with the utmost boldness!

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