The Anatomy of Anxiety

Part 28: Passages Providing Peace That Passes Understanding

Note: For previous posts in this blog mini-series, visit: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, and 27.

Big Idea: Does worry, doubt, or fear get the best of you sometimes? Do you wonder where anxiety comes from and how to defeat it in your life and the lives of those you love? Then we need a biblical anatomy of anxiety. We need God’s prescription for victory over anxiety.

Passages for Defeating Anxiety, Fear, Worry, Phobia, and Panic

In our past few posts, we’ve applied numerous biblical principles for defeating anxiety when it attacks. We’ve emphasized applying Scripture in context in a dynamic, relational way so that we avoid the dreaded “take two verses and call me in the morning.”

While all of Scripture is relevant for all of life, different passages have specific themes that we can relate directly to finding peace that passes understanding. Here’s a brief sampler listing.

*Joshua 1:1-9

*Nehemiah 1:7

*Psalm 27

*Psalm 31

*Psalm 34

*Psalm 37

*Psalm 42

*Psalm 46

*Psalm 55

*Psalm 56:10-11

*Psalm 77

*Psalm 91

*Psalm 92

*Psalm 109

*Psalm 116

*Psalm 118:6-7

*Proverbs 3:5-6

*Proverbs 12:25; 14:30; 17:22

*Isaiah 26:3-4

*Isaiah 40

*Isaiah 41

*Isaiah 57

*Habakkuk 3

*Matthew 6:25-33

*Matthew 10:26-31

*Matthew 11:28-30

*Luke 21:14-15

*John 14

*John 15

*Romans 5:1-8

*Romans 8:1-39

*2 Corinthians 10:3-7

*Philippians 4

*1 Thessalonians 5:17-18

*2 Timothy 1:5-12

*Hebrews 2:14-16

*Hebrews 4:12-16

*Hebrews 13:5-6

*1 Peter 5:6-11

*1 John 4:17-18

Keeping It Real

Which of the preceding passages can you apply to your life today?

The Rest of the Story

In our next post, we’ll discuss how to renew our minds—how to have mental healing when fighting against anxiety.

Join the Conversation

What passages do you use to find victory over fear, worry, stress, anxiety, phobia, and panic?

 

Tags: Anxiety, Fear, Peace, Scripture, Worry

Yesterday I connected with a new friend on Facebook. He posed some vitally-important questions to me about the sufficiency of Scripture and the science of psychology.

These are much-debated and extremely-significant issues. His wording of the questions is the best, most succinct that I’ve seen.

Questions to Ponder

“Bob, I’d like your opinion about some things:

1. Do you think there are any useful principles that the science of psychology has come up with that are in harmony with the Word of God?

2. In your opinion are all of the truths that a Christian psychologist can effectively apply to his counselees found in the Bible?

3. If not, can you give any examples of such truths that are not found in the Bible?”

Your Thoughts?

So what do you think? How would you respond to each of these well-worded questions about the relationship between the sufficiency of Scripture and the science of psychology?

*Note: If you find yourself upset that I am saying that some biblical counseling is only half biblical, then I would ask you to be sure to read my comments at the end of this blog post. Thanks!

My Premise

Some modern biblical counseling considers the seriousness of sin—sinning, but spends much less time equipping people to minister to the gravity of grinding affliction—suffering. When we provide counseling for sin, but fail to provide counseling and counselor training for suffering, then I am of the conviction that such biblical counseling is only half biblical!

Whatever Happened to Sin?

Some might object, “So, are you watering down sin? Are you saying that Christ came to heal our suffering and not to save us from our sin? Are you saying that our primary problem is our suffering rather than our sin?”

No. Actually, anyone who omits suffering in their biblical counseling is watering down sin!

Unlike the Church Fathers, unlike the Reformers, unlike the Puritans, and most importantly, unlike the Bible, we tend to make Christ’s victory over sin predominantly individual and personal, rather than also corporate and cosmic. Christ died to dethrone sin. Christ died to defeat every vestige of sin. Christ died to obliterate every effect of sin—individual, personal, corporate, and cosmic—including death and suffering, tears and sorrows, mourning, crying, and pain.

That’s why twice in Revelation, John shares the blessed promise that, “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21:4; see also Rev. 17:7). Christ died to defeat every enemy, every evil, including the devil who holds the power of death (Hebrews 2:14-15), and the last enemy—suffering and death (1 Corinthians 15:25).

Yes, of course, in the evangelism and discipleship process, our first joy is helping someone who does not know Christ to surrender to Christ so his or her sins are forgiven. And, of course, as we disciple one another we want to help each other to grow in their victory over sin’s tentacles.

Whatever Happened to Suffering?

However, our calling from Christ is also to minister to one another concerning sin’s effects—including suffering. That’s why we are called to weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15). That’s why we are called to comfort one another (nine times in 2 Corinthians 1:3-11). That’s why the New Testament calls us to a parakaletic ministry (to come alongside to help, comfort, and encourage one another in suffering). That’s why the New Testament uses the word parakaletic over 100 times!

Christ’s Cross defeated our deprivations—the evils we suffer, and our depravity—the sins we commit. Frank Lake explains Christ’s victory over both:

“The very powers of evil, standing in the shadows behind ‘the mystery of iniquity’ and ‘the mystery of suffering,’ were dethroned by Christ’s active, obedient submission to their onslaught. Therefore, He reconciles to God by His Cross not only sinners, but sufferers. Not only memories of culpable sin which condemn the conscience, but the memories of intolerable affliction which condemn faith as a delusion, these too are confronted by the fact of Christ’s Cross. These passive evils, which are not of the soul’s own making, are not accessible to a pastoral care which can talk only in terms of the forgiveness of sins. Such sufferers are usually not insensitive to their status as sinners. They have sought God’s forgiveness. But, like Job, they complain of the comforters whose one-track minds have considered only the seriousness of sin, and not the gravity of grinding affliction” (Lake, Clinical Theology, pp. 24-25, emphasis added).

Lake makes several astute points.

1. Academic Theology: As we have said, Christ’s died to defeat sin and sins’ effect—death and suffering, depravity and deprivation.

2. Spiritual Theology: “Passive evils” are what some today called “innocent suffering.” Not that anyone is innocent (or sinless), but that some suffering is not directly due to our own personal sin: the woman who is raped, the child who is abused, the cancer patient, the parents of a dying child, the victim of a drunk-driving accident, etc.

3. Pastoral Theology: Counseling such individuals, they typically understand that they are sinners. They want to know if their pastors, counselors, and spiritual friends understand that they are sufferers! If we do not, if we preach them a sermon on sin, then we are like Job’s miserable counselors with their false theology that God is a tit-for-tat God and that every incident of suffering is directly related to one’s personal sin. (See John 9:1-3 for Jesus’ theology of innocent suffering/sufferers.)

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be known as a miserable counselor. I want to be known as a comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed biblical counselor!

Frank Lake again explains what that looks like.

“Clinical pastoral care has, as its introduction, the task of listening to a story of human conflict and need. To the extent that our listening uncovers a situation which borders the abyss or lies broken within it, we are nearer to the place where the Cross of Christ is the only adequate interpretative concept” (Frank Lake, Clinical Theology, pp. 18-19).

Sin and suffering—they both offer us the opportunity to provide wisdom found only in the Gospel. When we skirt our biblical counseling responsibility to minister to the suffering, we limit the limitless power and infinite relevancy of the Cross of Christ.

When we talk about the sufficiency of Scripture but in practice deny the relevancy of Scripture to address human suffering, then we have watered down sin and we have diminished the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ!

When we understand the Cross of Christ, then we practice biblical counseling that combines the sufficiency and the relevancy of Scripture and that unites counseling for the sufferer and for the sinner.

Where Do We Go from Here?

Tomorrow we’ll start addressing the following vital questions.

*So, has anyone else in Church history ever said we must focus on both sin and suffering?

*So, what would it look like to focus on both sin and suffering?

*So, what’s your definition/description of truly biblical counseling?

*Note: Why I Am Addressing This Topic

All who have followed my ministry know that I am about bridge-building and not about wall-building. You might wonder then, “Bob, why blog about something that is surely to be controversial?”

Those who follow my ministry also know that I am about equipping God’s people to change lives with Christ’s changeless truth through comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed biblical counseling and spiritual formation.

Biblical counseling that fails to deal with suffering, fails the test of comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed biblical counseling. I would be a hypocrite to my calling if I remained silent.

Others might wonder, “Are you talking about a particular ‘model’ of modern biblical counseling, or about a particular person or persons who are writing today?”

No. I am not. This is not an attack against. These blogs are not directed toward any one person or group.

These blogs are directed to all of us—myself included—who love biblical counseling. They are for all of us—myself included—who need good Bereans to help us to assess how biblical or unbiblical our approaches to biblical counseling truly are.

I write to help, not to hurt. I write to equip, not to attack. I write to start a conversation, not to finish one.

Please join the conversation.

Welcome to a multi-part Blog on The Future of Biblical Counseling. We need clarity on the issue of what makes biblical counseling biblical. I invite you to join the conversation.

Dream Number One: Biblical Counseling Will Be Scriptural

Yes, I know, “Duh!” But hold that thought. While it seems so logical that biblical counseling would be and should be biblical, theologically and scripturally this is often untrue.

Some who claim to be biblical counselors simply follow a shallow one verse, one problem, one solution mentality and approach. Others who claim to be biblical counselors in actuality rarely use the Bible for developing their approach and practice to counseling.

The Supremacy of Scripture: Colossians 2:2-3, 8-9

Biblical counseling will cling tenaciously to the supremacy of Scripture. In Colossians 2:2-3, 8-9, the Apostle Paul reminds us that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Paul also warns us not to be taken captive by the empty and hollow so-called wisdom of this world, but instead rely totally upon the fullness of knowledge and insight we have in Christ.

The Sufficiency of Scripture: 2 Peter 1:3; 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Biblical counseling will cling tenaciously to the sufficiency of Scripture. In 2 Peter 1:3, the Apostle Peter teaches us that we have all that we need for life and godliness. In the Word of God, the Spirit of God, and the people of God, Christianity provides us with all we need for godly living. According to 2 Timothy 3:16-17, the Scriptures, rightly interpreted and carefully applied, offer us all-encompassing insight for life—so that the biblical counselor is thoroughly equipped.

The Profundity (Profound Depth) of Scripture: Philippians 1:9-10; Hebrews 4:12-16

Biblical counseling will cling tenaciously to the profundity of Scripture. The Scriptures deal in the most profound ways possible with the real and raw life issues we all face on a daily basis. God’s Word provides the depth of insight and knowledge that empowers our love to abound more and more, and allows us to discern what is best and right (Philippians 1:9-10). The Bible is the sharpest sword in the universe, able to divide and discern the depths of the motivations of the heart (Hebrews 4:12-16).

The Bible provides us with the interpretive categories for making sense of life experiences from God’s perspective. By building our counseling models on Christ’s gospel of grace, we obtain wisdom for bringing people healing hope, the stimulus for change (God’s glory), and the understanding of human motivation that energizes these God-honoring changes.