Fear, Anxiety, and Growth in Godliness

00:00:00.000 | Ed Welch is the author of a wonderful book titled "Running Scared, Fear, Worry, and

00:00:10.040 | the God of Rest."

00:00:11.040 | A few years back in the offices of the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation in Philadelphia,

00:00:15.760 | I asked him, "What does anxiety say about our spiritual condition, and how should we

00:00:20.240 | respond in moments of fear and worry?"

00:00:23.280 | Here's how Dr. Welch responded.

00:00:25.640 | Mark 4 and Matthew 13 talk about the parable of the sower and the seed.

00:00:31.360 | And it slips in this one little comment about how the worries of life can be one of the

00:00:37.040 | encumbrances to spiritual receptivity and spiritual growth.

00:00:41.440 | So that immediately puts it high profile.

00:00:44.560 | So if you're a person like myself who's real familiar with anxieties and worries, it says

00:00:49.360 | this is an important spiritual matter.

00:00:52.500 | So right off the bat, it's an important one.

00:00:55.320 | I think one reason the scripture identifies it as an important one is so often fears and

00:01:02.640 | anxieties create this world where the only thing that exists is myself and the threat

00:01:08.880 | to the thing that I love.

00:01:10.040 | And the thing that I love could be something very good.

00:01:13.100 | It's my life.

00:01:14.100 | It's food.

00:01:15.100 | It's sustenance.

00:01:16.100 | It's my spouse.

00:01:17.260 | So it doesn't have to be a bad object necessarily.

00:01:20.440 | But so often fears just condense life to those two things and God is functionally not there.

00:01:29.440 | At least that's my own experience.

00:01:31.760 | And as far as I can tell from looking at other scripture, scripture seems to suggest the

00:01:37.080 | same thing because so often one of the ways out of fears and anxieties is we have a personal

00:01:45.320 | Speak with Him.

00:01:46.360 | Speak with Him.

00:01:47.960 | It's simple, but for those who struggle with fears and anxieties, if they find that they

00:01:54.480 | are more and more quickly able to move from this world that is very, very small, it's

00:02:01.120 | just them and their anxieties, to speaking out to the Lord, that is the mark of wonderful,

00:02:08.680 | powerful sanctification.

00:02:11.440 | That was Dr. Ed Welch, the author of Running Scared, Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest.

00:02:18.720 | And if you would like to hear Pastor John address anxiety, see episode number 281 in

00:02:23.360 | this podcast series, which you can find at our landing page at desiringgod.org.

00:02:28.400 | On the top of the page, click on the tab that says More and then click on Ask Pastor John.

00:02:33.160 | Feel free to take some time to search our collection of episodes.

00:02:36.320 | From there you can send John Piper a question.

00:02:38.780 | You can get the free app and you can do all that from our landing page at desiringgod.org.

00:02:43.400 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:02:44.400 | We'll see you tomorrow.

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