Unbound: Freedom in a Digital WorldSýnishorn

I love to cook. It’s one of my favorite things to do. I have an assortment of pots and pans, but my favorite pan to use is my non-stick sauté pan. It has great balance and flips an omelet with ease. It drives me crazy when I see someone cooking with my pan and using a fork, spoon, knife, or anything metal! I get pretty worked up over it and people think I’m crazy. It has caused more than one skirmish in our home.

Yet, I know that it only takes one little scratch in the nonstick coating on that pan to bring about the demise of my favorite pan. I’ve seen it happen so many times. Suddenly, around the cut in the pan, food starts to stick and the coating slips further and further away. That’s why I’m so protective of my pan.

I think anxiety can be the same way. It seems like no big deal. It’s just something we have to deal with, but soon it becomes a severe weakness as it builds in our hearts. The things that used to not bother us now stick around and cause corrosion at the core of who we are.

Paul calls upon the church to not be anxious about anything. In other words, a little anxiety is never alright. We should strive to eliminate all anxiety in our lives, but we must be careful in how we seek to do this. The biblical scholar Stephen Fowl notes the connection between freedom from anxiety and devotion to prayer in this passage. He writes,

"One of the most striking things about the command to be free from anxiety is that, by connecting it to the command to pray, Paul makes it clear that freedom from anxiety is not a matter of self-mastery. Stoics, although they used a different vocabulary, also sought freedom from anxiety. This, however, could really be achieved only through a self-mastery which rendered one indifferent to the ups and downs of fortune. In contrast to this, Paul ties the Philippians' prospects for freedom from anxiety to their commitment to bringing their requests to God in prayer. Rather than seeking freedom from anxiety through self-mastery, Paul's admonition presumes that freedom from anxiety comes only through prayerful, grateful acknowledgment of dependence on God."

We are to present our requests to God through prayer and petition in every situation. When this happens, Paul says God’s transcendent peace will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. The way we deal with the corrosiveness of anxiety is through prayer. God’s response is to offer us his peace, which then guards our hearts. Often, when we feel anxious, we pacify this emotion with our phones, hoping they will drown out the noise. Yet, we know well that it is only the peace of God in prayer that can genuinely bring peace to our anxiety.

Prayer is something we learn over time. As we practice prayer, we grow in our endurance and focus in prayer. In time, prayer leads us to meditate on that which is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy. In prayer, we learn, at the deepest part of who we are, that “the Lord is near.”

We cannot expect prayer to be a quick fix for anxiety anymore than we expect to suddenly be able to pray undistracted for extended time. They both come hand in hand. Our phones can either be an unwelcome distraction from our prayer time or a useful tool to increase stamina and focus during prayer.

Practice prayer today by setting a timer on your phone for three minutes to pray. During these three minutes, set your phone out of arm's length and do not check it (even when you think the alarm should've gone off by now!) Spend the three minutes handing over your anxieties to God. Continue to increase the length of time little by little in the coming weeks, months and years. If you get distracted during this time, offer yourself grace. Simply come back to prayer without judging yourself. It takes time and endurance, but God will strengthen you through the years.