The Unbelief of Anxiety

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Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

I’ve begun reading John Piper’s book Battling Unbelief, and the first chapter is on anxiety. I think we can all relate with battling anxiety. We all deal with it to varying degrees; we all must reckon with it. We can’t push it away and ignore it. That will only make it worse.

In his chapter on anxiety, Piper, I think rightly, pinpoints two things related to anxiety. First, he writes of different associations with anxiety. In other words, our feeling of anxiety causes us to sin in different ways. If we’re anxious about finances that might cause us to be greedy, stingy, commit theft. If we’re anxious about a certain situation, it might cause us to be abrasive and snippy with our spouse. Anxiety produces all kinds of sin.

But anxiety, or the root of it, stems from unbelief in the promises of God for us in Christ Jesus. We get anxious because we fail to believe the promises of God. It’s easy for us to throw our hands up and say, “Woah, hold on! What about clinical anxiety?” I think there’s a place for that, but it’s a nuanced discussion and doesn’t really pertain to what we’re talking about.

What we’re talking about is how our own unbelief in the Lord’s promises causes anxiety in our hearts. We are the “ye of little faith.” Most, if not all, of our anxieties—about food, finances, relationships, work, etc.—would be diminished if we simply believed what God has revealed to us. And it’s not as if we can say God didn’t address the issue of anxiety—he has clearly spoken many times on this.

God doesn’t want his children to be anxious. He doesn’t want us to live life like that, but it’s also a command because we know where anxiety comes from. It doesn’t appear out of thin air; it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. We have anxiety, like I said—and like Piper said—because of unbelief. Whatever it is, there’s an area we’re not truly believing the Lord’s promises.

If we want to fight our anxiety, we need to fight our unbelief. We must remember and believe that the promises of God for us in Christ are far superior than the promises of sin. If we truly believed that God cares for us far more than he cares for the birds of the air, then we’d never get anxious. If we truly believed God will fulfill our needs just like he causes the rain to fall, then we’d never worry. We must believe God is going to love and take care of us.

Take heart, friend. Believe in the promises of God for you and ask God to help you overcome and fight the unbelief of anxiety.