5. Patience and Humility Are Required
For the anxious person, and for the person(s) offering biblical counsel, patience and humility are required. The anxious person often wrestles with a desire to have or feel more control over certain circumstances. A patient, humble reliance on God—a childlike faith—is a needed posture while wrestling through anxiety. Much anxiety, although not all, is sinful, and as such, a humble reliance on the Scriptures and the calls to repentance contained therein need to be humbly embraced. For the counselor, a needed reminder is that working with a brother or sister who wrestles with anxiety also requires patience and humility. And patience is required, in that it can often be long, difficult work (1 Thess 5:14). Humility in that we must not view ourselves as the Messiah, or with a prideful self-focus concerned more with our ability to help versus focusing on God’s work in that person’s life (1 Pet 5:5). Quick fixes are often not the answer, and a counselor who is focused more on their record as a counselor rather than being a servant of Christ will often do more damage than good.
These lessons are not the only lessons I’ve learned, nor are these five given in exhaustive detail. Rather, these five simple lessons have been my experience over many years, and lessons I still need to incorporate in greater fashion in my own life. I have wrestled with anxiety. I have sat with many anxious persons. The hope of the Scriptures, the resurrection of our bodies to come, the glory of the gospel, and the call to repentance and trust are all wonderful ropes to cling to in the midst of anxiety. Until our Lord returns, and the believer’s anxiety is completely vanquished, let us press forward and with the Psalmist exclaim, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?” (Ps 56:3-4)
This article originally appeared here.
