On Refusing to Panic
A component of biblical faith
Wars. Societal tension. Cultural chaos. Assassinations. Online vitriol and slander. The list goes on. If we allowed ourselves to dwell on the current societal environment of the day, we’d go insane. Actually, we’d panic. We’d bury our heads in the sand, scream, and go numb. Because we look around at what is happening and, well, it can be maddening. We, as Christians, are being slandered, ridiculed, and even murdered (not just talking about Charlie Kirk . . . have you seen the news in Nigeria?). If we take our eyes off of Jesus, we will succumb to the chaos around us and go into straight panic mode.
We can’t do that. We must refuse to do that.
“Faith is the refusal to panic,” D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said. “It is quiet confidence in God, even when everything around us seems to be giving way.” Apart from our redemption in Christ and his promise to restore all things, we would panic. But our faith in Christ—his sovereignty, his love, his kindness, his mercy, his eventual stomping down of his enemies!—allows us to refuse panic, to stiff-arm insanity, to stop the chaos from entering our minds.
We have every reason to hope for a perfect future (in Christ) even as the world goes haywire. We have every reason to believe that things will be made right by God even as things seem to be spiraling out of control. We have every reason to trust in the Lord because he’s the Creator and Sustainer of all things and his plan will be accomplished.
The faith we exercise in the Lord—a faith that is a gift from him—helps us walk through life’s valleys. B.B. Warfield wrote,
“A firm faith in the universal providence of God is the solution of all earthly troubles.”
The answer is not our faith, of course. That’s simply the instrument we use to look to Jesus. The answer resides in God’s providence and sovereignty; it resides in his mercy and goodness and longsuffering; it resides in his eventual justice. We don’t have to fear, to worry, to panic. And part of how we do this, in our faith, is by ensuring we don’t look to our will, but God’s.
If we were concerned about everything going our way, it would indeed lead to panicking. We’d take our eyes off Christ, our faith would falter, and we’d be trapped by the panic around us. But we must not do that. With a faith-filled heart in the sovereignty of Christ, we can look to him as we go through life knowing he has everything in control, and that even though the world is looking scary, he has the entire universe in his hands—including us as his children. Everything’s going to be okay.
Look up, friend, with eyes of faith, and rest in Christ.
So good. Our peace-not-panic is contrasted with unbeliever panic-not-peace during The Great Depression. See: https://open.substack.com/pub/rogergroves/p/biblical-guide-to-good-health-when?r=5o921z&utm_medium=ios
As someone with chronic anxiety, I thank Him everyday for being in control. The best comfort is knowing the ultimate end is a good one, that will get you through some hard times. I trust Jesus when He says that tomorrow has enough worries for itself without us adding to them, and we can't change yesterday, so Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.