Subject

Anxiety

The worry that eats tomorrow, and what to do with it.

Also called: worry, fret, care, troubled heart, afraid for tomorrow, cast down

This subject covers the worry a person carries about what has not happened yet, and what Scripture tells him to do with it. Terror in the face of something present belongs to Fear. The years spent between a promise and its answer belong to Waiting.

What Anxiety covers, and where it stops

On this page, 6 sections

Across the canon
Where Scripture speaks
The whole account
The voices
The words underneath
Subjects beside it

12 passages

Where Scripture speaks

The passages this subject stands on, in canon order.

In great fear and distress, Jacob divided his people into two camps, as well as the flocks and herds and camels.

Genesis 32:7BSBJacob greatly afraid and distressed before meeting Esau

In her bitter distress, Hannah prayed to the LORD and wept with many tears.

1 Samuel 1:10BSBHannah's bitterness of soul poured out in prayer

Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken.

Psalms 55:22BSBcast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee

When anxiety overwhelms me, Your consolation delights my soul.

Psalms 94:19BSBin the multitude of anxious thoughts, God's comforts delight the soul

Anxiety weighs down the heart of a man, but a good word cheers it up.

Proverbs 12:25BSBheaviness of heart makes a man stoop; a good word lifts it

Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My right hand of righteousness.

Isaiah 41:10BSBfear not, be not dismayed, for I am with thee

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?

Matthew 6:25BSBJesus asks why the fed and clothed still take anxious thought

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:34BSBtake no thought for tomorrow; today's trouble is enough for today

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord replied, “you are worried and upset about many things.

Luke 10:41BSBMartha, careful and troubled about many things

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe in Me as well.

John 14:1BSBlet not your heart be troubled, spoken the night before the cross

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Philippians 4:6BSBbe careful for nothing, but pray about everything

Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

1 Peter 5:7BSBcasting all your care upon him, for he careth for you

Jacob, dreading his brother Esau's approach, pours out his fear to God before the encounter — anxiety answered not by removing the danger but by prayer.Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

Anxiety in Scripture, in full

Anxiety isn't a modern invention. It's in the Bible from early on: the tight chest, the racing mind, the fear of what's coming. Scripture doesn't pretend it away. It meets it directly, again and again, with the same core answer: bring it to God.

Jacob is a good place to start. On his way home after years away, he learns his brother Esau (the brother he wronged), is coming to meet him with four hundred men. Genesis says Jacob "was greatly afraid and distressed" (Genesis 32:7). He doesn't pretend to be fine. He splits his camp into two so at least one might survive, and then he does something better: he prays, pouring out his fear honestly to God (Genesis 32:9-12). Anxiety, faced honestly, becomes a doorway to prayer instead of a dead end.

Hannah carries a different kind of anxiety: the ache of a longing that won't let go. Grieved year after year over her childlessness, she goes to the temple "in bitterness of soul," weeping and praying (1 Samuel 1:10). God doesn't scold her for feeling it. He hears her.

The Psalms are full of anxious minds turned toward God. "Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee" (Psalm 55:22). "In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul" (Psalm 94:19). The Bible doesn't ask people to stop having anxious thoughts on command. It offers something to do with them: hand them over.

Proverbs names the physical weight of it plainly: "Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad" (Proverbs 12:25). Anxiety is treated as something real enough to bend a person over, and a kind word is treated as strong enough to lift them back up.

God speaks straight into fear through Isaiah: "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee" (Isaiah 41:10). The promise isn't that nothing bad will happen. It's that God will be present in it.

Jesus takes on anxiety directly in his most famous sermon. Looking at birds who don't stockpile food and flowers who don't spin thread, he asks why people who are loved by their Father would live as if they weren't (Matthew 6:25-30). His conclusion is blunt: "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" (Matthew 6:34).

Martha gives anxiety a face. While her sister Mary sits and listens to Jesus, Martha is "careful and troubled about many things" (Luke 10:41): busy, scattered, resentful. Jesus doesn't say her work doesn't matter. He says she's letting the wrong thing steal her peace.

Before his own arrest, Jesus tells his closest friends, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me" (John 14:1). He says this the night before the worst thing that will ever happen to him, and offers his peace to others anyway.

Paul, writing from prison, gives the clearest instruction in the whole Bible on this subject: "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God" (Philippians 4:6). Not feel nothing. Pray about everything.

Peter sums it up in one short line: "Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you" (1 Peter 5:7). That's the whole biblical pattern in a sentence: not the absence of care, but a Father strong enough to carry it.

4 voices

What teachers have said

Be not anxiously solicitous; do not give place to carking care, let what will occur; for anxiety cannot chance the state or condition of any thing from bad to good, but will infallibly injure your own souls.

Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible

Written before 1832.

so he giveth his beloved sleep--that is, His providential care gives sleep which no efforts of ours can otherwise procure, and this is a reason for trust as to other things

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871

If I do not worry about the one that strays and gets lost, even the one that is strong will think it is rather fun to stray and get lost. I do indeed desire outward gains, but I am more afraid of inner losses.

Augustine of Hippo · Sermon 46:15

Written before 430.

But because we must always be anxious, always attentive; and because the Word of God leaps forth like a young goat, or like a fawn, the soul must always be vigilant and strive for what it seeks and desires to hold.

Ambrose of Milan · On Isaac and the Soul, 5.38

Written before 397.