Overcoming Anxiety
The second statement is quite short yet carries a great deal of power. It simply says “do good.”
One of the problems that anxiety creates is a “me” mentality. Everything becomes about you, how will this affect me, how will I deal with this. The problem is that you are too concerned about you. I have had people tell me, “I am worried about what everyone thinks about me.” How arrogant! They probably aren’t thinking about you at all. They are probably thinking about what everyone else thinks about them, as well. James 1:27 says, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
To do good is to serve others, and to do so out of pure religion is to serve those who cannot serve you back. Paul exhorts us many times to good works, such as in Titus 3:14, “And let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful.”
Doing good for others is a Biblical method of getting your mind off of all your problems.
Frequently when you serve others, you find that they have worse problems than yourself. To exhort others to trust the Lord and then not to do so yourself would be foolish. I have encouraged people to do many things in service to others. You may spend time at a local nursing facility just talking to those who have no one else. Maybe you know someone who is homebound and needs company or assistance around the house. It could be for someone who is going through a tough time financially.
I believe that this service should be done as anonymously as possible to allow the glory to go to God. My father quoted a song many times as I was growing up titled “Others”. It said in part,
“Help me to live from day to day, in such a self forgetful way,
that even when I kneel to pray, my prayer shall be for others.
Others Lord, yes, others, let this my motto be.
Help me to live for others, that I might live like thee.”
The Christian life that is self focused is not in line with the will of God. It should be centered on serving others. This is the example of our Savior. This explains why He said to take His yoke upon us. His yoke is service, not self-contemplation. His yoke is giving, not taking our burdens upon ourselves. When we give ourselves to doing good, He takes up our struggles and carries them for us.
