If the statistics can be believed, they’re pretty shocking: 18% of U.S. adults reportedly suffer from anxiety disorders – including “general anxiety disorder,” characterized by persistent, excessive, and unrealistic worry about everyday things.
 
I suppose that’s understandable for secularists of all stripes, given the sad state of today’s world. But it really shouldn’t be an issue for those who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ. After all, He has commanded us not to fret 365 times in the pages of the Bible; shouldn’t we obey Him?
 
It's true that, now and then, I find myself back on my pre-salvation worry treadmill. But the Holy Spirit has given me a new line of thinking to pursue – one that almost invariably sends my fears packing.  Perhaps you’ll find it helpful.
 
Whenever I find myself worrying about a particular trial, I talk to God about the situation, casting my care upon Him because He cares for me (1 Peter 5:7). I then meditate on a few simple truths:  

1. God is sovereign over His entire creation – including every last cell in my body and every circumstance I face. He understands my situation perfectly. And He has everything under complete control, ready to serve His good and perfect purposes.
2. He has promised to make all things work together for good to all who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28) – and that would include me. I have seen this happen time and time again in my own life, and in the lives of Christian friends. It helps to review some of these remarkable events from His point of view, and to remember how disastrous they seemed initially from our limited human perspective.
3. I can’t know what blessing He has in store for me through this trial; I can be sure He does, however. So I ask Him not to remove the trial but for His will to be accomplished through it. And I try very hard to mean it every time.
4. He has already told me how to handle such fears, and I need only recall His instructions. Philippians 4:6-7 is often a great place to start: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
5. He has also shown me the big picture of His lifelong care for me, especially via Psalm 23. I love to think through every word and phrase of this beloved little chapter, drawing on the insights provided by the late Phillip Keller in his precious book, A Shepherd Looks at the 23rd Psalm.  

 
I have yet to emerge from this meditation without feeling great spiritual refreshment – and welcome freedom from whatever was worrying me in the first place.

Silly me. Since my conversion to Christ in 2000, I’ve been obsessed with the modern world’s refusal to even acknowledge God – let alone to repent and trust in Him for eternal life. I’ve thought of it as a special kind of stubbornness reserved exclusively for Him, a Satan-driven love of sin that blinds the majority of people to the truth about where we came from, what we’re doing here and where we’re going.
 
“If we can only get these people to consider Christ,” I’ve thought time and time again, “then the Holy Spirit can point them once and for all to God and His word. Absolute truth will win!”
 
Now I’m wondering how I could have been so blind to the flaw in this strategy: Because in today’s world, absolute truth no longer exists.  
 
What woke me up was seeing a new Family Policy Institute of Washington video in which a short white guy interviewed students on the campus of the University of Washington.
 
To set the stage, he asked them about the current debate over the accessing bathrooms and locker rooms based on “gender identity” and “gender expression.”

Their comments were eye-opening. “Bathrooms should be gender neutral,” said one, and the others agreed, using frighteningly similar language.
 
The interviewer then turned it up a notch.

“What would you say,” he asked each student, “if I told you I was Chinese?”
 
The consensus? “Good for you.”
 
And so on.
 
“How about if I told you I was seven years old?” the interviewer said.
 
“If you feel seven at heart,” replied an oh-so-tolerant co-ed, “so be it.”
 
The interviewer was clearly looking for something that would cause someone to say “No, that’s not true!” He tried this, noting elsewhere that he is actually 5’9”: “If I said I was 6’5”, what would you say?”
 
“If you truly believe it,” replied one student, “that’s fine.”
 
“It’s not my place to say someone is wrong,” said another.
 
And there you have it. Faced with an obvious lie, these college students are unwilling -- perhaps unable -- to expose it. Whatever you say, buddy; who am I to tell you you’re wrong? It doesn’t hurt me if you want to think that.
 
It’s true that there are other contemporary influences shaping people’s thinking these days – most notably, the suppression of competing ideas in the public square and, increasingly, even in private conversation. Perhaps that’s why the world has been so quick to embrace false narratives on everything from Marxism to climate change to gender liberation – all while celebrating tolerance as the ultimate good.
 
But at the heart of such Orwellian “goodthink” is the persistent rejection of absolute truth.
 
And if you reject absolute truth, you are by definition rejecting the One who is “the way, the truth, and the life.”
 
I guess our only hope, if the Lord tarries, is that something will cause a future generation to cry out to Him in repentance and faith. After all, it happened repeatedly with the children of Israel in the days of the judges, when everyone “did what was right in his own eyes.”  And the Lord was faithful to forgive them, and deliver them from whatever evil threatened to destroy them.
 
Maybe it’s not too late for us.