Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - God's Remedy For Your Anxiety

Episode Date: October 1, 2024

Order Jonny Ardavanis' new book, "Consider the Lilies: Finding Perfect Peace In the Character of God (Zondervan)."https://a.co/d/05ov6UlAFind freedom from anxiety as you lift your gaze from the problems and pressures of this world to the changeless and powerful character of your heavenly Father.Is my cancer back? Is my job secure? Will I ever get married? Are my children safe? Our lives are often a chronicle of trouble, pain, and uncertainty--and God's children yearn for peace. Many who wrestle with anxiety and despair know that the Bible calls them to "trust God," but what does that even mean?In Consider the Lilies, pastor, podcaster, and speaker Jonny Ardavanis shows us God's consistent response to those who are worn down by worry and badgered by melancholy: He proclaims His own character. Drawing on that perspective-shifting model, Jonny offers biblical insight on how to ground our thoughts and fix our gaze on who God is.Compassionate, biblical, and timely, Consider the Lilies explores:How dwelling on the character of God is the surest pathway to peaceThe root causes of anxiety and worry in the BibleWhat the Bible says about the integration of our physical and spiritual livesWhy worry grieves God's heart as our FatherConsider the Lilies is for those who long for liberation from their anxiety and fear--and desire to deeply know the God they are called and enabled to trust. If you are starved for hope and gasping for peace, consider the character of your heavenly Father, who welcomes all who are anxious, fearful, and melancholy to trust in Him.Watch VideosVisit the Website Pre-order Consider the LiliesFollow on Instagram

The way that we fight the battle against anxiety and ungodly despair is by feeding truth to our mind and not just checking the box of consideration, but Jesus is going to go so far in his word as to detail the level of contemplation that needs to take place in order for us to live a life of unassailable joy in abiding peace. Welcome back to Dial-In Studios. My name is Johnny Artavanis, and I'm sitting here with Hank the Tank Bowen. Oh, no. Please, no. I tried to escape that nickname when I was in

fifth grade, and for whatever reason, it keeps following me. Well, it fits. All right. So you're a big guy. We've been talking about anxiety and we've looked at some of those different ingredients that contribute to anxiety in our life. And we're going to begin to talk about the remedy that God provides to the anxious in his word. But before we do so, Hank, recap where we've been, what we've talked through in the last few episodes. Yeah, I'll do my best as I'm spilling out of this podcast studio. But over the last few weeks, to summarize maybe where we've been, first, you showed us the spiritual roots, and we looked at some of the spiritual realities from which anxiety might be a temptation.

And then from there, we looked at the physical roots, and you unpacked a little bit of personality traits and kind of natural bendings towards which... Temperament. Yeah, absolutely. And then I think most recently, we looked at kind of the delineation between different types of care and concern. So there's the right care and concern for the things God's put us in a temporary place of responsibility for. You mentioned jobs, our families, etc. And then you delineated the right response from maybe the sinful response or a preoccupation with specific matters in our own life that lead us to not trust God.

Is that right? Yeah, that's right. I think discerning between, yeah, a good and legitimate care and concern versus an ungodly anxiety and worry. And one of the things that we talked about in the previous episode is that many of the things that we're anxious about started as legitimate cares and concerns, but when they're pooled by us rather than carried to God so that He can bear them, and we become sinfully worried because we no longer are trusting in the character of God. And I think what we want to start to talk about in this episode, and it'll really open the funnel for us as we move on from here, is to talk about the significant

remedy that God provides to the anxious in his word. And that is God's unchanging and faithful character is the remedy that our anxious hearts and minds need the most. I think it's worth maybe just as a reminder providing our definition of anxiety again. What's anxiety as we're talking about or as it relates to the scripture? I wrote down, it's the inevitable worry, fear, and unrest that rises in our minds when we direct our gaze

to the problems and pressures and uncertainties of life rather than to God himself. And one of the things that I talk about in the book is that in most of life's seasons, we don't have really a choice in the difficulty or the trouble or trial that we are walking through. We do have, however, a choice where we look, and that's either to our problems and pressures itself or to the character of God. And I'll explain what that even means when we talk about the character of God, because

even in saying that, it can come across a little nebulous, almost as if it's like a magic, you know, like, oh, we just affirm some truths about God, and that's supposed to magically dissipate our anxiety, if that makes sense. Yeah, absolutely. I want to kind of provide some examples, though, of the way that the great physician in Scripture responds to some of the godliest men and women in the Bible who struggle deeply with anxiety. And we've kind of teased these out in previous episodes, but I want to begin to look at some of these characters in this episode in detail and how God responded to them in the midst of their anxiety.

I think the word Tom in Hebrew is used 15 times. It means blameless. It means pure. As I said, it's used 15 times in the Old Testament. And only once is that term used in reference to a man. And that man's name is Job. It says in Job 1 that he was a blameless man who feared the Lord and turned away from evil. Maybe if you're listening, you may be familiar with Job's story, but I want you to just listen with some fresh perspective. Job was a devout, faithful, committed servant of Yahweh. He feared the Lord, turned from evil.

He was a wealthy and God-honoring man. And then in Job chapter one, you kind of get this cinematic-esque picture of his life where it is just falling apart. It says in Job 1.15 that a messenger came and told Job that his servants had been slaughtered. Then in the following verse, it says another messenger told Job that his sheep and servants were consumed by a fire from heaven. Now you may have had a bad day. You actually told me you had a really good

day in the elevator on the way in, but you may have had a bad day, but it's a different level of a bad day when your servants are consumed by a fire from heaven. Then in the following verse, this is three successive verses in a row now, it says, a third messenger reported that the Chaldeans formed three units and made a raid on the camels and took them and killed the servants with the edge of the sword. All of these different successive reports are like little daggers in Job's heart, but the most painful report comes in the following verse. So if you've ever studied the book of Job, here's four verses in a row. It says, first his servants had been Job's heart. But the most painful report comes in the following verse. So if you've ever studied the book of Job, here's four verses in a row. It says, first, his servants had been slaughtered.

Then his other servants and sheep were consumed by fire. Then we read that his camels were killed and other servants are killed with the edge of the sword. Then this one in Job 1.18, it says, another servant came and said, your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house. And behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house and it fell on the young people and they died. Then I alone have escaped to tell you. Now, this is kind of unrivaled tragedy, right? I mean, you've gone through trials, you know. I've walked through some different trials, but it's a whole different ballgame when we read in the scripture of this degree of shock and pain and grief. Now, initially, Job responds in a way that's very famous, very well known. He says, naked I have come from my mother's womb, naked I will return. And then

he says, yeah, he said, blessed be the name of the Lord. I was just alley-ooping just in case, but that's just the first chapter. And in the second chapter, Satan has this kind of dramatic irony going on with God where there's stuff happening behind the scenes. Satan is the one that initially had gone to God and said, you know, Job, does he not fear you for anything? I mean, you've made this guy rich and wealthy. He's got a bunch of stuff. You've put a hedge around him on every side. And that's the reason Job respects you. So first, let me take away his livelihood in chapter one. And then in chapter two, he goes back to God and says, let me take away his health. And so it says in Job 2, 7 and 8,

So in the aftermath of Job losing his family and his servants and his livelihood, Satan then inflicts him with boils from the sole of his foot to the top of his head. And he's sitting in a pile of dirt, scraping his boils with a shard of pottery as his wife tells him to curse God and die. And in Job 2.13, it says, Job's pain was very great. I mean, that is an understatement. Initially, Job responds by trusting the Lord, but the book of Job is longer than two chapters. In fact, it's 42 chapters. And in the middle of the book, in Job 30, Job is beginning to express his anxiety, his despair, and his worry. It says in Job 30 30 verse 16, now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold of me. He says in Job 30, 19, God has cast me into the mire.

That's like a muddy pit. He says, I have become like dust and ashes. I cry to you for help and you do not answer me. He's just saying, where are you, God? I stand and you only look at me. I'm calling out to God. I know he's up there somewhere and he's just looking at me as I'm struggling to survive in a muddy pit. Then he says later on, my inward parts are in turmoil and never still. Days of affliction come to meet me. And then he says, the tune of my life is that of mourning. Meaning if there was a soundtrack behind my life, it'd be wailing and mourning. And here is Job midway through the book,

free falling into a black pit of depression and anxiety. And you have to wonder, right? How does God respond to a guy like this, right? This was a blameless man, a godly man, who's now so deeply entrenched in a pit of anxiety and despair. And you have to wonder, how does God respond to anxious Job? Well, God responds to Job in a way that is reflective of the way he responds to all of his anxious creatures throughout his word. God doesn't respond by saying, let me tell you why this is happening. He responds by saying, let me tell you exactly who I am. And that's the great theme of God's word. And that's the theme of really anybody who wants the peace that can only come from God. The strongest remedy and the surest

balm that God provides to those who are anxious and despairing is a sure footing in the promises and character of God. Job's life had been seemingly shackled to sorrow. But initially, what's interesting is when Job calls God into question, God doesn't respond by answering. He responds by questioning Job, who raises the question in the first place. And if you're unfamiliar with the way that Job unfolds, I think it's pretty fascinating. There's about a four chapter scene where Job calls God into the courtroom of Job's own sense of justice. And God says, oh yeah. And says, gird your loins, Job. And I think that's just interesting because you would

often think of, you know, how's God going to respond? And I think that's just interesting because you would often think of, you know, how's God going to respond? And he responds like this, and I'll let you kind of chime in, Hank. God responds and says in Job 38, 4, where were you, Job, when I laid the earth's foundation? Job 38, 11, do you tell the waves this is how far you shall come and no further? Job 38, 12, have you ever in your life commanded the morning, Job? Job 38, 25. Do you summon the rain? Do you bind the stars? Does the lightning report? I mean, I love this verse. Does the lightning report to you, Job, and ask you where it should strike? Is it by your understanding that the birds soar? Have you ever given anything to God that he should repay you? And God continues along this line of questioning for basically four chapters.

And at the end of it, Job responds, the formerly crippled by anxiety and depression, man, he says, I've always heard of you with my ear, but now my eye see. And he says, I get it. And that's interesting because Job's anxiety and despair would have been understandable, but he says, I repent. And because in light of the character of God, he understands what his anxiety really was. There's so much there. It's really helpful. There's a lot to unpack. I think the two things that maybe leap out to me are one in God's response, he never belittles or downplays any of the trauma Job has just walked through. And then the second point, just I think drawing

the distinction out is God responds to Job with a series of questions that seem to lift his gaze. Even Job in this traumatic experience is forced to contemplate these questions God asks. And you drew out the distinction that that's not a singular case in the case of Job, but rather throughout all of Scripture, God can be seen asking these questions continuously. Is that right? Yeah. I mean, God is the great physician. And so, you know, if you think about when you go to the doctor, the physician asks you different questions because questions solicit self-examination. And so when God comes to anxious Job, he asks him questions. But when God comes to anxious, despairing Elijah, who's sitting under a tree praying that God would kill him,

God comes to him and says, what are you doing here, Elijah? When Moses is anxious and crippled and paralyzed with fear over the prospect of going to Pharaoh and says, I can't go demand that Pharaoh let your people go. I have a stutter. God responds by saying, Moses, who made man's mouth? When David is anxious, God through the Holy Spirit prompts David to write, why are you anxious? Oh, my soul. Again, these are all just self-eliciting questions that you're, they're probing questions. And then Jesus is going to pick up on the same reality in the New Testament. I think I've said it often, but the prescription that Jesus or God provides to the anxious

in his word doesn't change. God doesn't change and neither does the remedy. So when Jesus is interacting with the anxious, he wants them to think. And this is part of the grand theme of the book and grand theme of scripture. When God is interacting with the anxious, he doesn't just say like, oh, they're there. He wants them to engage their minds. And so when Jesus is teaching on a hill at the Mount of Beatitudes, he's saying, okay, everybody look at those birds over there. Do the birds elect captains of food acquisition? Hey, look at those lilies. Who takes care of the lilies? I tell you that not

even King Solomon in all of his glory, the richest man who ever lived is clothed like a lily. And then he's going to prompt them to follow this line of thinking from the lesser to the greater. If God takes care of the birds, the sparrows, two of them are sold for a single penny, it says later in Matthew, and he cares for the lilies, which are basically unseen by every human eye other than by God until they're thrown into a furnace. If God takes care and provides and nurtures them, how much more is he going to care and provide and, you know, nurture you who are made in his image? And so these different questions are getting people to think and consider because, again, faith is not just a thing. It's an exercise. And that's part of the reason why

God is going to ask these different questions is because sometimes we think about faith so divorced from an activity that is taking place in our mind. And that's why Jesus concludes Matthew 6, verse 30 with a rebuke that says, O you of little faith, not the absence of faith, but the littleness of their faith is a reflection of their small view of the character of God.

And this is actually a perfect maybe transition point. I think a key theme you pick up on in the book and that we could talk about here maybe for a second is there's these two different elements of faith. So there's faith in the sense I would normally think about it as the transition or salvation when you move from an enemy of God to a child of God. But then you make the further distinction that faith is also an action. So maybe can you talk a little bit about faith being an action? And maybe the second part to that is how are we to practically grow in our faith?

Yeah, I think that's an important thing to distinguish. I think sometimes we think about faith as something we place. You know, I placed my faith in Christ once upon a time. And so we start to view faith as something that is past. And maybe we still wouldn't, you know, understand and identify it by statements. I walk by faith. But faith is not a thing. Faith is an exercise.

And so we need to kind of walk in faith by Oswald Chambers calls it a spiritual concentration, meaning that we're fixing our gaze, we're fixing our attention, our meditation, contemplation, and dwelling on the character of God. And this is something the believer has to do with the level of steadfastness and commitment. Even when you mentioned, how do we grow our faith, one of the great themes throughout scripture is that the way that we grow our faith, the way that we grow in our faith, and the way that we grow closer into the image of Jesus Christ is what we do with our mind. And we've talked about this in other episodes as we've discussed the renewing of our mind,

but especially as it relates to anxiety, but really as it relates to any subject in the Christian life, whether that be anxiety or pornography, the path to victory and the path to obedience involves the renewing of our mind. Ephesians 4 says that we are to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. It says in Romans 12, 2, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Jesus says that we're to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And one of the main verses that I love is in Proverbs 23, verse seven.

It says, as a man thinks within himself, so he is, meaning that you are the sum and substance of your thought life. Isaiah 26, verse three, you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you. What does that mean? It means the only person that experiences perfect peace is the individual whose mind is stayed on God. And that's why it says in 1 Peter 1.13, prepare your minds for action because Satan can tempt you with lust and he can tempt you with doubt in the promises and character of God.

And the way that we fight the battle against anxiety and ungodly despair is by feeding truth to our mind and not just checking the box of consideration, but Jesus is going to go so far in his word as to detail the level of contemplation that needs to take place in order for us to live a life of unassailable joy in abiding peace. It's very well said. It's super helpful. And so I think capturing the overall thrust of what you're saying is it's actually true of us. This is why Jesus can say ye of little faith. So there is faith to be grown. And then the distinction there again, I think for someone who maybe is struggling with anxiety in the first place, this isn't meant to burden you.

It's not that your eternal standing is in any way insecure, like it's on you to grow in faith, Johnny Art of Annas, but rather to one plagued with anxiety, like take hope. There's actually truths to be had, truths to be meditated upon that can, in a very real way, increase your joy in the Lord as we walk through this earthly challenging circumstances. Yeah. And you talk about like the desire to grow our faith. And in the book, I use the analogy. When I was growing up, my dad would take me to Edison Middle School, and he would throw me baseballs, and we would play home run derby. And when your dad is teaching you to hit a baseball, he doesn't tell you to keep your eyes on the bat. He tells you to keep your eye where?

On the ball. On the ball. On the ball. And sometimes I think in the Christian life, we're so fixated and focused on our faith rather than on the object of our faith, which is Jesus Christ. So how can I grow my faith? How can I grow my faith? All the while, we're maintaining a focus on our faith, unknowingly actually crippling our faith because we've not directed our gaze towards Jesus Christ, the object. I think even going along with that idea of the mind and of growing our faith, you know, as it relates to anxiety, you know, one of the most well-known verses on anxiety and worry is Philippians 4, 6. It says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,

let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. I think a lot of people stop there. But one of the things that we need to understand fundamentally about the way that God responds to the anxious is that God does not just want to remove your anxiety. He wants to replace your anxious thoughts with thoughts of following verse in Philippians 4.8.

After saying, be anxious for nothing, Philippians 4.8 says, Finally, brethren, whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is anything excellent, if there is anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The way that we move forward through our anxious thoughts is not just to pray, God, remove our anxiety, but God, would you replace my anxious thoughts with thoughts of you that are true and honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent,

anything worthy of praise. And then it says, don't just affirm these things. It says, dwell on these things. Your mind, your life as it relates to your anxiety is a product of what you dwell on because that's what worry is. It's dwelling on the problems and pressures of our life, the uncertainties we may face rather than what is true and what is sure. And that is God.

Now, the question that'll kind of set the scene for us in future episodes, if this is the large kind of broad swath way God responds to the anxious is by mounting the pulpit and preaching a sermon on his character, we need one to understand, thank God that he has revealed what he is like in his word. Because if the answer to our anxiety is the promises and character of God, then at that point, we may be already taken for granted. Well, thankfully, the Lord has already revealed what he is like in his word because or else we're just kind of wandering around in ambiguity.

But then I think in the future episodes, what we'll do is just begin to draw out certain threads of who God has revealed himself to be, his different attributes, his different characteristics, the way that he responds to different people at different times in different passages of scripture, his sovereignty, his love, his wisdom, his goodness, how he hears us, how he's near to us, all of those different things about who God is that ultimately buoy our hearts, comfort us, encourage us, and then when necessary, as in the case with Job, rebuke us, because there are four times I've told you in the Gospels that Jesus says, oh, you of little faith, and it's always in reference to a rebuke of the disciples' lack of understanding of who God is. And if that's the rebuke, it's also part of the disciples' lack of understanding of who God is.

And if that's the rebuke, it's also part of the remedy. Yeah, so I think it's a good place to stop, and maybe we can leave it for another time. But it's been helpful to first consider amidst our anxiety that God actually does provide a remedy. And then in episodes in advance, we can maybe go more slowly and actually start to contemplate and discuss who God really is, the best news of all. Yeah. And I think it's important even as you, as we reflected on God's response to Job, God responds to Job, yes, in a rebuking fashion, but we always have to tether God's attributes to God's attributes. It also says that God is mindful of our frame in Psalm 103, and even He knows that we are bruised reeds. And so I think sometimes when we talk about God's response, we think that

He's kind of going like, hey, you know, but He's mindful of our frame. And when He rebukes, He's also still compassionate and gracious. And ultimately, He brings us to Himself in a way that only He can as our heavenly father. And we'll talk about that more in the episodes. I look forward to it. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks so much. All right. Thanks Hank.