Is God Directing My Life Through My Anxieties?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | A listener named Chelsea writes in,
00:00:07.360 | hello Pastor John, thank you for providing so much wisdom
00:00:09.880 | and encouragement through your answers on this podcast.
00:00:12.880 | I've been thinking about how the Spirit speaks to us
00:00:15.660 | among things that are not necessarily evil or wrong.
00:00:20.200 | In those things, does God ever give us an anxiety
00:00:23.640 | or a fear in order to direct us away
00:00:26.360 | from something in our lives?
00:00:28.740 | What would you say to Chelsea?
00:00:30.880 | - Well, first, let me try to imagine some situations
00:00:35.880 | that Chelsea might be talking about, 'cause I'm not sure.
00:00:40.240 | So I need to tell her what I'm thinking she's meaning,
00:00:43.900 | so she'll know what question I'm really answering.
00:00:47.640 | She explicitly refers to things
00:00:49.920 | that are not necessarily evil or wrong.
00:00:53.320 | So the question, it seems, is not whether God
00:00:56.580 | could put a fear of sin in our lives
00:01:00.660 | to direct us away from sin, which He certainly can,
00:01:05.600 | but whether God might use fear or anxiety
00:01:10.180 | to direct her away from something
00:01:13.160 | which in itself is innocent.
00:01:15.220 | So perhaps she might have in mind,
00:01:20.120 | this is what comes to my mind,
00:01:21.580 | should I accept an opportunity
00:01:23.480 | to become a missionary in Saudi Arabia
00:01:26.760 | where you can be jailed for practicing the Christian faith,
00:01:30.520 | or should I move into the inner city
00:01:33.600 | of a crime-ridden neighborhood to live and minister there,
00:01:38.240 | or should I go hunting for grizzly bears?
00:01:40.980 | I don't know what kind of things she might have in mind.
00:01:46.840 | So her question would be, in any of those situations
00:01:49.680 | or others like them, does God give us an anxiety
00:01:54.460 | or a fear to direct us away from them
00:01:59.080 | because those aren't His will for us,
00:02:01.720 | even though they're not bad,
00:02:03.200 | they're just not His will for us?
00:02:04.600 | And here's my answer.
00:02:05.980 | God can and may do this,
00:02:12.160 | but we should never seek to be guided this way.
00:02:18.040 | And the reason I don't think we should ever seek
00:02:21.320 | to be guided through being anxious or fearful
00:02:25.520 | about something that is not sinful
00:02:27.580 | is that Jesus says things like this.
00:02:31.080 | Do not fear those who kill the body
00:02:33.520 | but cannot kill the soul.
00:02:35.500 | Rather, fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
00:02:39.920 | Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?
00:02:42.340 | Not one of them will fall to the ground
00:02:44.120 | apart from your father,
00:02:45.640 | but even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
00:02:48.320 | Fear not, therefore.
00:02:50.520 | You are of more value than many sparrows.
00:02:53.320 | Matthew 10, 26, following.
00:02:55.880 | So it seems to me that Jesus does not want us
00:03:00.520 | to be motivated by fear of what man can do to us
00:03:04.880 | when we are confronted with the prospect of witness
00:03:08.180 | or ministry for Him.
00:03:10.100 | Whether we follow through with a particular path
00:03:15.200 | of mission or witness should depend on other things
00:03:18.900 | besides being afraid of man.
00:03:22.260 | So here's another example.
00:03:23.980 | Peter said to wives who were married to unbelievers
00:03:28.360 | in 1 Peter 3,
00:03:30.680 | the holy women who hoped in God,
00:03:34.680 | the holy women hoped in God, like Sarah,
00:03:37.680 | and you are her children if you do good
00:03:40.880 | and do not fear anything that is frightening.
00:03:44.400 | In other words, hoping in God should give these women
00:03:48.320 | such a confidence in God's care
00:03:51.560 | that they're not afraid of anything
00:03:53.840 | so that their relationship towards their husband,
00:03:57.820 | in this case, is not governed by fear but by humble wisdom.
00:04:02.820 | So they're making choices
00:04:05.080 | not because they're motivated by anxiety or fear
00:04:08.300 | to avoid certain things,
00:04:09.800 | but because of other factors of gracious wisdom,
00:04:14.160 | but not fear because hoping in God
00:04:16.480 | has taken away that fear.
00:04:18.040 | So that's why I say I don't think this strategy
00:04:22.160 | of seeking guidance is one we should pursue.
00:04:25.720 | We should not pursue,
00:04:28.160 | Lord, give me, please, feelings of anxiety and fear
00:04:31.720 | about this non-sinful path as a way of discerning
00:04:34.880 | whether I should take those paths or not.
00:04:37.280 | I don't think we should pray like that or seek like that.
00:04:41.080 | So she may be wondering,
00:04:44.440 | well, then, why did you say
00:04:47.560 | that God can indeed guide us this way
00:04:50.760 | if we shouldn't seek it?
00:04:53.000 | And the answer is that God can use sin
00:04:57.040 | to bring about circumstances that he wants to take place.
00:05:01.040 | We know this from the story of Joseph.
00:05:04.280 | God, in his providence, moved Joseph to Egypt.
00:05:09.280 | That was his will.
00:05:10.440 | Get Joseph down to Egypt.
00:05:12.400 | He's gonna save his people someday.
00:05:14.760 | And how did he get him there?
00:05:16.040 | Through the sinful attitudes of his brothers.
00:05:20.520 | So the fact that God can give guidance
00:05:23.520 | through sinful attitudes doesn't mean
00:05:26.600 | we should pursue the sinful attitudes.
00:05:29.200 | I presume if he wanted to,
00:05:31.720 | he could have gotten Joseph to Egypt
00:05:34.160 | through Joseph's sinful attitudes.
00:05:36.360 | That's not what the Bible teaches,
00:05:37.880 | but he could have done it.
00:05:39.420 | Joseph happened to be a very godly man.
00:05:42.040 | So the fact that God can guide us through our anxieties
00:05:46.720 | or other people's sins,
00:05:48.780 | and those anxieties would be sinful, I think,
00:05:52.520 | doesn't mean we should pursue them.
00:05:55.300 | Now, I just thought of one,
00:05:59.000 | I thought of one other qualification of what I've said,
00:06:02.240 | although it may not be,
00:06:04.000 | maybe it's not a qualification, maybe it's an expansion.
00:06:06.840 | God does guide us, and we should seek to be guided,
00:06:11.840 | away from intrinsically non-sinful behaviors
00:06:16.780 | by causing us to regard them as foolishly dangerous,
00:06:21.780 | which comes, I admit, very close to fear or anxiety.
00:06:28.300 | For example, if someone told me
00:06:31.040 | to walk across the Grand Canyon,
00:06:33.500 | like that guy did recently, on a tightrope,
00:06:36.320 | I would say, "No."
00:06:38.020 | (laughs)
00:06:39.300 | And if they said, "Are you afraid?"
00:06:42.020 | I think the true answer would be,
00:06:44.360 | I would be afraid on a tightrope,
00:06:48.220 | but the reason I'm saying no
00:06:51.460 | is because I am sure I would fall
00:06:55.460 | because I can't walk on a tightrope,
00:06:57.700 | and I think it's foolish, it's foolish of me.
00:07:02.700 | I would even say sinfully foolish of me
00:07:05.540 | to put my life at risk for no good purpose.
00:07:09.220 | That's what I mean by being guided by something,
00:07:12.360 | away from something that is foolishly dangerous.
00:07:15.620 | Or here's maybe a more realistic and helpful example,
00:07:19.060 | a skydiving.
00:07:20.060 | I think that if I were in the military,
00:07:24.160 | and we were in a war,
00:07:26.260 | and it was my job to serve my country
00:07:28.980 | and my fellow combatants,
00:07:31.220 | to jump out of a plane with a parachute,
00:07:33.660 | I could jump out all day long.
00:07:34.940 | I really could.
00:07:35.780 | I think I could get up there,
00:07:37.060 | let's go, pull that thing, come on,
00:07:38.740 | let's go win this battle,
00:07:39.980 | and I'd jump out all day long.
00:07:41.460 | But I will never skydive as a recreation.
00:07:46.460 | It doesn't feel like fear at all to me, Frank.
00:07:48.820 | It doesn't feel like fear
00:07:50.140 | 'cause I'd jump out all day long
00:07:51.700 | if I were in the military.
00:07:53.300 | It just seems foolish to me
00:07:56.620 | to put yourself at risk of absolutely certain death
00:08:01.620 | (laughs)
00:08:03.300 | with one small malfunctioning of a parachute
00:08:07.180 | made by fallible human beings.
00:08:09.260 | So I just think that is foolish,
00:08:11.620 | and therefore I think it will direct me away
00:08:14.900 | from that innocent, in itself, behavior.
00:08:19.460 | So I hope that I didn't complicate matters too much.
00:08:24.380 | But back to my main answer.
00:08:25.820 | Here it is, close.
00:08:27.340 | Even though God can turn our anxieties
00:08:30.700 | for his own sovereign guiding purposes,
00:08:33.500 | this is not a method of guidance
00:08:35.740 | or discernment we should pursue.
00:08:37.580 | - Wonderful, and we have an entire episode on skydiving.
00:08:40.260 | If you want more on this theme,
00:08:41.780 | safety is a myth, it's episode 10, an oldie,
00:08:44.980 | way back in the archive.
00:08:45.980 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:08:46.820 | You can find that old episode,
00:08:48.380 | and you can keep up with the daily
00:08:49.820 | Ask Pastor John podcast online
00:08:51.620 | or through our free apps.
00:08:53.020 | For more, go to our online home
00:08:55.300 | at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:09:00.300 | - Well, when it comes to suffering and pain,
00:09:02.860 | none of us are immune,
00:09:04.660 | and that pain so often feels pointless.
00:09:07.180 | And in fact, the pain in our lives
00:09:08.980 | is not pointless at all.
00:09:11.040 | So what does suffering produce?
00:09:13.300 | What is it doing in our lives?
00:09:15.720 | That's tomorrow.
00:09:16.800 | I'm your host, Tony Garanke.
00:09:17.900 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.
00:09:20.500 | (whooshing)
00:09:22.820 | (whooshing)
00:09:25.140 | [BLANK_AUDIO]