Ed Welch is the author of a wonderful book titled "Running Scared, Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest." A few years back in the offices of the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation in Philadelphia, I asked him, "What does anxiety say about our spiritual condition, and how should we respond in moments of fear and worry?" Here's how Dr.

Welch responded. Mark 4 and Matthew 13 talk about the parable of the sower and the seed. And it slips in this one little comment about how the worries of life can be one of the encumbrances to spiritual receptivity and spiritual growth. So that immediately puts it high profile. So if you're a person like myself who's real familiar with anxieties and worries, it says this is an important spiritual matter.

So right off the bat, it's an important one. I think one reason the scripture identifies it as an important one is so often fears and anxieties create this world where the only thing that exists is myself and the threat to the thing that I love. And the thing that I love could be something very good.

It's my life. It's food. It's sustenance. It's my spouse. So it doesn't have to be a bad object necessarily. But so often fears just condense life to those two things and God is functionally not there. At least that's my own experience. And as far as I can tell from looking at other scripture, scripture seems to suggest the same thing because so often one of the ways out of fears and anxieties is we have a personal God.

Speak with Him. Speak with Him. It's simple, but for those who struggle with fears and anxieties, if they find that they are more and more quickly able to move from this world that is very, very small, it's just them and their anxieties, to speaking out to the Lord, that is the mark of wonderful, powerful sanctification.

Amen. That was Dr. Ed Welch, the author of Running Scared, Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest. And if you would like to hear Pastor John address anxiety, see episode number 281 in this podcast series, which you can find at our landing page at desiringgod.org. On the top of the page, click on the tab that says More and then click on Ask Pastor John.

Feel free to take some time to search our collection of episodes. From there you can send John Piper a question. You can get the free app and you can do all that from our landing page at desiringgod.org. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you tomorrow. 1 you you