Free Dictionary.com defines anxiety as:
1.(a) A state of uneasiness and apprehension, as about future uncertainties
(b) A cause of anxiety: For some people, air travel is a real anxiety.
2.Psychiatry: A state of apprehension, uncertainty, and fear resulting from the anticipation
of a realistic or fantasized threatening event or situation, often impairing physical and psychological functioning.
3.Eager, often agitated desire; my anxiety to make a good impression
Let us discuss the first definition. “Anxiety is a state of uneasiness and apprehension about future uncertainties.” If a company is undergoing major changes, a person may experience anxiety regarding his or her future job stability. Similarly, if one faces a life-threatening disease, that person can experience anxiety. Parents can have anxiety over their children’s future. Parents worry after their death, the fate of their handicapped children. A person can experience “anxiety over air travel,” thinking of sudden loss of life if the plane crashes.
The second definition is psychiatric in nature and states that anxiety is “a state of apprehension, uncertainty, and fear resulting from the anticipation or fantasized threatening event or situation.’ Anxiety becomes so rooted in a person that he or she becomes fearful of life’s outcomes and begins to fantasize the outcome of the event or the situation. This bondage can impair physical and psychological functioning. Constant anxiety can affect the health of the body and the mind.
The third definition of anxiety is an “eager, often agitated desire to make a good impression.”A person may want to please others or receive affirmation from his or her peers or may want to be respected by others. This desire brings on anxiety.
We learned that anxiety is a state of being uneasy about future uncertainties, is birthed from a desire to please others, and that anxiety can have a lasting effect on our minds and our bodies. Anxiety is a worthless emotion; we need to rid ourselves from it by giving our life-burdens to the Lord.
The Bible tells us in Philippians 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (NIV).
We are commanded not to be anxious about anything. We need to pray and bring our burdens to God, thanking Him that He is in control of our situations. When we hand over our problems to God, we have peace because we depend totally on Him. Anxiety occurs when we do not trust God to work in our situations, and instead, we take control of them. Overcome anxiety the Biblical way by not being anxious about anything, but presenting the problems to God and thanking Him for already working out the solutions.
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