Where Does Anxiety Come From?

In the book "Conquering Anxiety" by Sara Ann DuBose, the author quotes Mirnirth and Meier's "Happiness is a Choice" which defines anxiety as “an emotion which is characterized by feelings of uneasiness, apprehension, dread, concern, tension, restlessness and worry. The anxious individual often anticipates misfortune, danger or doom.” She also notes that "the Greek word for worry or anxiety in the New Testament means to divide, tear or rip apart. And that the Anglo-Saxon word for it is to choke or strangle [which hearkens to the seed which is tossed among thorns and is choked by the cares and riches of this world]. Anxiety is concern over something we can do nothing about. We neither know nor can we control the future. To worry over the future is a waste of energy. We accomplish nothing. Someone has said, 'Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives us something to do but it takes us nowhere.'" (pp. 7, 86)

There is not one of us who cannot sympathize with this feeling of drowning in our rocking chair of worries. Just to help you relate, have any of these worries ever crossed your mind?

• If I'm single, will I experience fulfillment and purpose?
• Will my marriage succeed?
• Is God trying to punish me by causing us not to conceive?
• Will our children be born healthy?
• Can all my bills be paid this month?
• What will my husband, mother, or friend think about what I said?
• Will I lose this child to drugs, alcohol or disease?
• Does my husband still love me?
• Can I cope being a single parent?
• How could I ever face being a widow?
• Can I deal with aging and declining health?
• Will God judge this country and send a pandemic disease?
• Do I have cancer?
• Will I live to see my children grow up?
• Will my son/daughter get a divorce? What will become of their children?
• Why did he/she let me down this way? (p. 1)

Everyone worries. Jesus even recognized that we would have them (John 16:33). "But take heart!" He reminds us. "I have overcome the world."

So where do all these worries come from? Well, obviously, they come from our circumstances... both past, present and future. They also come from our guilt, both real and imaginary. When this is the case, it's time to probe and ask, "Why am I suffering?" Like David we can say, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Ps. 139:23,24). Then, if God puts His finger on some sin, the next step is confession. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). (pp. 7-8)

Sara Ann DuBose, Conquering Anxiety (Atlanta, GA: Committee for Christian Education & Publications) 1989