Anxiety & Faith

The story of Adam & Eve’s reads like a garden party, at least in the early chapters of Genesis one and two. Life could not have been any better than to live in a garden that God had planted especially for them. However, the garden party was interrupted when Eve was deceived by the serpent who was perhaps the only entity in the garden that did not have their best interest in mind. Please read the first three chapters in Genesis to capture the context of the introduction of anxiety into the lives of humankind.

I believe that the first contact of anxiety is found in Genesis 2:16 when God warned Adam not to eat of the tree of Good and Evil and if he did, he would die. Everything about creation and the garden was about life, living, and abundance. The idea of death or separation from God was unimaginable and this is where I see the first seed of anxiety planted in the fertile soil of the human soul.

Anxiety comes from two words:
• Angst – Sense of fear/doom, sorrow, grief.
• Anguish – Involuntary physical responses affecting muscle tightness, loss of breath, and stress upon internal organs that were unknown to Adam and Eve.

It’s impossible to know what life looked like outside of the Garden but Adam had some understanding since he was created outside of its protected boundaries of the garden and then placed him within it. Adan and eventually Eve were protected him from any of the chaos that could distract them from worshipping and obeying God. Eve knew nothing but the safety and calm of a protected environment. And this may be why she was victimized by the deceitful serpent, but Adam must have told her about God’s commandment because the serpent mentioned to Eve that perhaps God did not mean what He said.

The serpent said their eyes would be opened (intellect, spiritual power and dominance over creation) to become like God, knowing good & evil. And all they had to do was eat the fruit of the tree. However, their souls immediately became narrowed by their rebellion to God’s command. This is what anxiety, and depression does to the human soul. Try to imagine a perfectly round balloon and then two hands on each side of it begin to press toward each other. The pressure begins to stress the balloon, and it becomes misshaped.

For the first time their souls felt the strain (pressure) of being misaligned with God and each other. The serpent promised a greater alignment and fidelity with God and each other, but the opposite occurred. The following consequences devastated God’s plan for humankind.

Consequences for Eve:
• Pain in childbirth
• Husband rule over you (physical and emotional weight).
• Trust would need to be reconciled and restored over the life of their relationship.
Consequences to Adam
• He would be consumed in labor for his food rather managing all that God had provided for him and Eve.
• His years became numbered rather than eternal and he would experience death on the earth that included dread and fear as he managed his responsibilities.

Another example of anxiety is found in Job 7.
• Angst – He could not understand what was happening to him. His question to God and his friends, why I suffer injustice when I did nothing wrong. His soul was wrecked and exasperated as his friends did their best to convince him that he angered God in some way.
• Anguish – He could not sleep, and his skin was covered with boils due to his immune system being compromised from his trauma, loss, and anxiety.

Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior, both conscious and unconscious. Diagnosing Anxiety includes symptoms, blood tests, medications, family history, and recent trauma. Anxiety and all mental health and physical disorders became embedded in humanity through Adam and Eve’s choice to reject God’s provision and command in their attempt to become like Him.

Even though sin has devastated the human condition (soul and body), God has made it possible to become more than our history, choices, and circumstances. Forgiveness changes the trajectory of our lives. He forgives us our sins (trespasses), as we forgive those who trespass (sin) against us (Matthew 6). Anxiety increases in our lives when we withhold forgiveness from someone who has sinned/offended us. God has limited the judgment and negative influence of sin upon humankind to this life. Heaven, our reward of a Christ-centered life has no residue of sin for all eternity.

God’s mercy extends toward humankind through doctors, scientists, therapists, pastors, and medicine. The DSMV lists 297 mental health disorders. These disorders and perhaps additional future discoveries have their origins in the Garden of Eden. For thousands of years science was silent on the physical effects (brain chemistry and stress upon internal organs) due to sin. However, the Bible rang the alarm long before science progressed enough to measure the physical effects of mental health on the body.

Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
• Prayer is talking and listening to God.
• Supplication is asking for what God has promised to do regarding to your needs.
• Thanksgiving is expressing gratitude for God’s provision, mercy, kindness, and goodness especially when your soul is narrowed by anxiety over emotional and physical needs in your life.

Theology

Theology is our attempt to know and understand God through Scripture, history, observation, and practice. Humankind has regularly disobeyed God’s warning against putting their trust and hope in anything other than His commands and holiness. The following Scriptures are a sample set of these warnings.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 Don’t trust in Education (wisdom), Careers (riches) or Strength (health).

• Understanding (sakal) is the capacity to understand, ponder, enabled to understand the work of the Holy Spirit.
• Know (yada) means intimate, personal, and revealed revelation.
We come to an understanding of God in the success and struggle in our life:

Crisis of Faith Include:
• Loss of marriage, prodigal child, declining health, death of a loved one, injustice, gender dysphoria, LGBTQ’s influence on education and politics, job loss, homelessness, etc.

The questions people ask when experiencing a crisis include: who am I and why do I exist? Today’s culture believes that your attractions and gender are fluid and not biological. Genger and attraction become your identity rather than being created as unique, unrepeatable, miracles of God.

The book of Job is dated between 4-7th BCE and is considered the oldest book in the Bible. The book describes the emotional, spiritual, and physical consequences of injustice and spiritual warfare in Job’s life.

Matthew 6:25-33
• Do not worry about food, clothes, or tomorrow
• Stay in the moment: Jesus knows your need.
• Stay centered on Him.
• The pagans wear themselves out in pursuit of food and clothes.
• Tomorrow has its own trouble – seek Him daily and all these things will be added to you.
• Resist trying to control what t you can’t change/control (tomorrow).
• Prayer means submitting your life and needs to Jesus’ provision and grace over your life.

Proverbs 3:5-8 reveal that directing our trust toward God benefits our physical, emotional, and spiritual lives.

Trust in the Lord and lean not to your own understanding, acknowledge him and your paths will be straight, bringing health to your body and strength to your bones.

I consider self-hatred as one of the greatest threat to God’s peace and provision in our lives. We are also called to extend peace into a world full of chaos. Self-hatred includes feelings of shame, guilt, remorse, and regret from the sins that we have committed against God (things we have done) and the consequences of being sinned against (things that have been done to us). Fortunately, Jesus liberates us from self-hatred and God’s grace restores all the disorder that sin creates in our lives.

Hopefully, this information helps you see that God understands your struggle with any of the two hundred and ninety-seven mental health disorders that are common to humankind and how faith and science work together as an act of grace toward us who believe that Jesus is our Lord and Savior.