The Christian In A Depressed And Suicidal World (part 2)

Christian Hope in the Face of Depression, Anxiety, and Suicide

Oh Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for your salvation. We thank you for your sufficient work on the cross. And it is a joy to gather here today to celebrate your resurrection and to celebrate union with you and the love that we have among one another.

We pray that you would enable us to honor you today in this class and even in all the classes that go on around the church today. Father, we pray that you'd bless all those we're serving in the different Sunday school classes, the teachers and the students, the preschool room, the nursing room, and even in the main service.

Oh Lord, be with our ushers and please be with those who are ministering the word with Pastor Steve as he brings the word today as well. Help us to confess our sins, to rest in you. And Lord, may your name be glorified in all the things we do today.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen. So last week we started to talk a little bit about depression, anxiety, and suicide. We started by looking at some statistics and found them to be rather alarming with a very large increase in number of people who are admitting that they suffer from some sort of anxiety related illnesses, a lot of depression, and certainly the suicide rates are something that we need to be concerned about.

We looked at how the age group of 12 to 27 is the largest to be affected, a number that was shocking to me personally. Like I said, at the age of 12 I was too busy destroying my dad's cars to really be in a sad mood or really be depressed.

But it's an alarming number and something that we need to be concerned about. The church's response and most Christian response so far has been snap out of it or to look away from it or not to deal with it.

And that's why I've been talking about this last week and this week, that that should not be our response. We need to come alongside. Other statistics we looked at, young women tend to be severely affected by this.

They've had a 36 increase in the last 12 years of study. We also looked at the naturalistic worldview, how that particular worldview looks at human beings and our existence here to be nothing more than an accident.

One of the consequences of such a view, apart from it being blatantly sinful and rejecting God, is the fact that people are confused about who man is, who a man is, who a woman is, what is the difference between a man and a woman and an animal.

And such confusion has led to questions about purpose, about identity, and has led to mass increase in drug use, substance abuse, depression, and without a doubt, suicide. As a matter of fact, since the year 1940, that is a 600 increase in the nation of America alone.

We also looked at Genesis chapter one last week. We started with the creation mandate. We get our worth and our value from our creator, who created us in the image of God. That's Genesis chapter one. Any issue around the human psyche or around the human complex psyche in the Bible starts with who God is, starts with sin, starts with our separation from God as a result of sin.

And ultimately it ends with the redemption that we have in Christ Jesus, through the life, through the death, and through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Like I said last week, some of us may have never been through this.

I personally never have suffered from depression. I don't get easily rattled or anxious. And maybe most of you are in this room, I like that. But why I'm talking about this is because there are youngsters in this church, in our own communities, maybe our children, maybe even those that our children go to school with, who are severely struggling with this.

And we need to be able to think about it biblically and come alongside these young people and old people, and help them. Many of them are seeking help. Most of the emails that I've been getting start with this, I know you're a Christian, can you help?

And that's always a good way to go and minister the gospel to them, but also come along their side as they go through this very difficult time. Today I wanna talk about two things specifically, physiology and theology.

They both seem to be on extreme sides of a spectrum as we deal with depression, anxiety, and suicide. But are they really? There are two kinds of people. One are on the extreme side. They only believe in physiology.

That is, they wanna solve the problem only using medicine and therapy. Of course, there's one on the extreme side, on the other side as well, and that is they just wanna talk about theology. They wanna address the issues only from the view of the Bible and deal with any of these issues only from the word of God.

What is wrong with either extremes? Let's start with physiology. What's wrong with that extreme point of view? Very good. Physiology doesn't deal primarily with the sin issue, does it? It doesn't reach the underlying cause of some of these issues.

And I think when you look at it as an extreme view, you never get to it, you never get to God, and that's a big issue. So what's wrong with the other side? Theology only. We know there's a problem, but what is it?

You just have to look in the news to find out what's wrong with that. Yes. So those who believe in the physiology and only in the medicine part of it are usually have an evolutionary point of, have an evolutionary worldview, struggle with who God is, have rejected the Lord and rejected Christ.

But what about those who are on the other side? What do we know about their theology? Who, which kind of church? I don't know if you can call them a church. What kind of, there's quite a few, there is Christian science, but it's more familiar to us.

What is the other one? They do this a lot. The faith, well, the faith healing, the faith healing movement. If you've looked at news, and I don't usually encourage people to look at news, but when you look at the news, you'll see more and more cases where children have been, suffered great injury, usually have been left to die because their parents have been waiting on a miracle from God, and because their pastor said, you don't have enough faith, have enough faith and the child will live.

And there are a number of cases, and if you look at federal court, federal court and the state courts around the country, a number of cases right now in 2018, where you have places where it's ignorance, it's pure ignorance and you've lost children as a result of this.

And most, what I'm trying to get at is most people who only believe and look at that side of things tend to have a wrong view of scripture, tend not to understand the balance between what God has created, right, between the natural world, which is he still reigns sovereignly over, and theology, and they have no balance as such, and they end up wrecking havoc.

The Body as Created and Regulated by God

So what is physiology? Physiology, essentially, it's defined as understanding the way natural living organisms work. How does the human body work? How do organs work? Right, it's not just for doctors to know, it's for all of us to understand at a cursory level.

So I wanna talk about two very small things, I'm gonna spend very little time on it, but to help us understand how the human body works, two examples of it, and what happens when you don't take care of your body, what happens as a result of the norm, falling out of function, the normal function of the human body.

First, the body temperature. What is, for children, what is the, what is a dangerous body temperature? High, high temperature. Many of us are parents here, so you guys know this by heart. Anybody knows?

104. 104, if your child's temperature gets above that, rush them to the emergency room. What about an adult? What's the temperature for an adult? It's around 108, 107, 108 is a very high temperature. At that particular temperature, the organs start to fail, the body starts to essentially disintegrate, and your normal functions are severely affected.

What about the lesser side? What's the lowest temperature your body can get to before your organs start to shut down or fail? You never go that side because it's always increased. Never go the other way.

What, but what is an? Yeah, 87. Yeah, that's very good. So if it drops below 87, essentially you have, you run into a bunch of issues, including death. So if you don't even realize how important body temperature is, it's extremely important for the life, everyday function of our body.

When you exercise in heat, the body naturally perspires, and sweating is a natural way to regulate body temperature. But what about the cold? What happens when you get cold? How does the body, to some extent, regulate the temperature?

Shiver, yes, shiver. Essentially, the lungs start to function more. It starts to inhale and exhale more, and as the lungs work more, it pumps out more carbon dioxide, and just by the work itself, the body temperature is regulated.

It's fascinating to see how the human body naturally can maintain body temperature. But what happens if you can't? What happens, there are medical conditions under which your body does not regulate temperature.

So what happens, if you're in the faith healing movement, you're probably not gonna go and do anything. But if you're careful and you understand the way our bodies are made, you're going to seek medical intervention of some kind, right?

I hope most of us in this are willing to do that. Doctors will use medication, eye stubs, whatever is needed to artificially normalize the temperature of a body. All this to say that it is important to understand physiology, and we can't just shun it on the side, even when we're dealing with something like depression and anxiety.

Medicine, understanding modern medicine is crucial for our existence as well as our sustenance, and we can't deny that. Let's look at one more area in physiology. What do you guys think is the most complex organ in the body?

Sorry? Other than, okay, actually, it's brain, right? It is the brain. Okay, what single activity as identified by neuroscientists can do the most damage to the brain? Single activity. It's considered the number one activity to damage the brain.

Concussion, no, actually, there's one much more simpler than that. No, no, drugs. Well, okay, lack of oxygen is pretty bad, but other than somebody not choking you, how about that? It's very simple. Number one reason.

Trauma, well, that's all violence, but no, holding your breath. Wow, you guys have gone really complex on me. Okay, since nobody got it right, it's a lack of sleep. The lack of sleep is considered by neuroscientists as the most, as a singular activity that's capable of doing the most damage to the brain.

The human body produced waste, and there's a way to get rid of that waste. If you don't get rid of the waste, you get sick. Okay, you get all kinds of sickness. There's only one way the brain can get rid of waste.

There's this fluid, we all know this biology one-on-one, CSF, right, Cerebral Spinal Fluid that's pumped into the brain. It's only pumped into the brain when you sleep, and essentially what this fluid does is it clears the brain of the dead blood cells, okay?

And particularly if you don't get enough sleep and the CSF is not going through the brain cleaning it up, you have this buildup of what's called a beta fluid, which is the primary reason for Alzheimer's found in the last six years, and it essentially gets through and affects your body function.

I repeat, CSF, Cerebral Spinal Fluid, enters the brain only when you sleep, and it needs enough time for you, you need enough sleep so that it can go through the entire brain and clean it out. It's extremely important.

And here's what clinical studies have shown. Why is this part of physiology so important as we look at depression and anxiety and suicidal tendencies? Clinical studies have shown that those with depression and those who struggle with anxiety also lack sleep.

Studies show they severely lack sleep. So it's a cause and effect, but on both sides, okay? So a lack of sleep ends up, it's one of the reasons why people get more anxious and more depressed, but it's also the other way.

Having depression and anxiety also tends to affect the way you sleep. And when it affects the way you sleep, your brain gets murky, affecting the way you make decisions. And also, if you talk, depending on what stage you are in depression or anxiety, there's no way to clear your brain other than by medical intervention.

Most people, most doctors recommend sleeping pills and powerful drugs, and you may need that depending on what stage you're going through. And I can't explain all the stages of depression because if you look at different journals, they have different stages, but they're very complex.

What I'm trying to explain here is,. A, you need to know where you are in that stage and where your family or your loved one or your brother and sister in Christ is struggling because it's important to understand where that is.

So while one fixes medical intervention, the simple fix for sleep is go and get seven to 10 hours of sleep. It's a simple fix, highly recommended by doctors. So just like if your body doesn't flush waste out of your system, in other means, if the CSF does not flow to the brain and flush it out, you tend to get sick.

And the dead cells in the brain tend to cause other illnesses. And like I said, the kind of people who usually don't get any kind of help from doctors and shun medicine altogether are primarily in the faith healing movement.

And like I said, there are several cases of children dying because of people ignoring their children and ignoring any kind of medical intervention because they think it's evil. I have in my study also Amish people or Amish people, however you guys say it, who believe that everything modern is wrong and evil, so they tend to stay away from any kind of intervention as well.

And then of course, some Christians who understand, all Christians understand the false claims of evolution and the dangers of evolution, but some Christians stay away from medical science and modern medicine altogether because of evolution.

So my desire here to talk about this is, it's obvious, right? All of this is obvious for us here at BBC. We understand theology very well, but sometimes we can say no to medicine and to medical intervention just because we're, maybe because of ignorance or maybe because of a lack of understanding of physiology.

There may be times when we absolutely need medical intervention. When it's dealing with body temperature and it's going fluctuating with, lesser than 86 degrees or higher than 108, if you don't seek help, you could get into real trouble.

It's the same with the lack of sleep. So if we deal with these physical conditions using medical intervention, how much more important is it for us, depending on what stage of depression or anxiety you're in, to actually go and seek out medical intervention?

You think it's important? Does this add up? Does this make sense? Because some people are shunning it altogether. Some people are not talking about it at all. Yes. And there's wisdom in that. There's wisdom in, okay, not trusting them.

Okay, I understood that. But my suggestion and my admonition here is, if you're a believer going through something like this, you need both, right? You may be dealing with some kind of therapy and medical intervention, maybe even some drugs, because it's so bad.

Your mind is numb. Your brain can't function anymore because of issues regarding depression because the illness is caused by this. So you need help. Don't you? But along with that, as a believer, you also need help theologically.

This is where the church comes in. This is where we come alongside one who's going through this and sit with them and help them and teach them. I'm gonna go through theology. I'm gonna go through four verses in the Bible specifically.

But if you're a believer, you need both, depending on where you are. Yes, no, I do agree. But I've seen cases where you may need psychotropic drugs to begin something, because the brain is so muddled, it's so bad, that you need something very strong to even get you out of it.

As I was reading some of these journals and even looking at some of the work done by John McArthur in that field, he was mentioning how many people start with that, but they're doing it along with side of elders and people in their church, which help them with the whole psychological aspect of it.

But you may need strong drugs to get you started at some point, because it's so bad, so far along. So that's my concern. I think we don't wanna completely put the medical side aside, and we don't wanna put completely theology aside.

I'm trying to find a balance, which is more towards theology, of course, more towards the Lordship of Christ and the Word of God. So that's why I'm trying to, it's a very complex topic, and I'm not gonna try to be a doctor here and try to fix all of that.

Yes? So, absolutely. Yeah, it's something that I mentioned even last week. Studies clearly show that there's no long-term effect for any of these drugs. In fact, they get you, make you addicted to it, and you're never able to get out of it.

But it doesn't have any long-term effect. You get back into the pattern. It kinda, it's like a cycle, where it gets you back to maybe the first stage, but then you keep going back to the third stage, and the medicine brings you back to the first stage, right?

So it's a cycle, but as you work with men of God, and as you work with people in the church, if you look at it, they try to wean you off of it completely, under the guide of medicine, under the guide of your doctor's advisory.

I don't think you can separate the two cleanly, but the long-term goal is to wean you off of that completely by the grace of God and encouragement of God. But that decision has to be made by a doctor eventually.

But there is no, long-term, most people stick with this forever and ever, and I mean, for as long as they live. That's what studies show, and there's no way to completely get out of it, unless, again, what we see from studies shown in Grace Community Church and other big churches is that as they're in the word, and as elders come by their side, or people in the church come by their side, they're off of it completely.

And I know that from speaking to some of you, instances in this own church that that has been the case. Any other points, concerns? No? So that's physiology. Now, I think we understand why that's so important.

We understand the views on the extreme left where only theology matters, and we're not gonna deal with anything medicine, and the other side is physiology. So we understand the dangers of extreme views, and we need to bring it to what God has created in this world and how to approach it in that manner.

Resurrection, Union with Christ, and Heavenly Thinking

Theology. So let's start with that. I have four verses, but I wanna start with my favorite, which is resurrection, okay? Why does a resurrection matter when it comes to something like this, when it comes to specifically something dealing with a mental health issue?

And how do we as Christians answer this question from that? I have Colossians 3 for a hint here. Amen. And that's why we're here this Sunday, and we're celebrating the resurrection, the Lord's Day. It is to rejoice in the resurrection.

It is primarily because we have hope. Christians have hope, hope that cannot be damaged, hope that cannot be removed by anything that we go through in this life. By any lack, by any abundance, none of those.

But let's think about thinking here. In Colossians chapter three, verses one to four, if you can turn with me there, Colossians chapter three, verses one to four. Mind you, Colossians one and two, specifically one, verse one to two, verse five, deals with the greatness of Christ, the sufficiency of Christ, the preeminence of Christ.

So by the time you get to Colossians chapter three, you're in awe of Christ. You're resting in him, you've trusted in him, and you trust in him and in his finished work on the cross. Here's the mindset that Paul is talking about even as he deals with the resurrection.

Colossians chapter three, verses one to four. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Essentially, this verse is reminding us that we're not citizens of this world, are we?

We're just passing through. We're really citizens of heaven. And where is Christ seated? He's seated at the place of honor, at the right hand of God the Father. Why? Because he's finished the work assigned to him by the Father.

Substitutionary obedience, done. Substitutionary death, done. Appease the wrath of God, done. Now because he's seated, because he's risen, and Christians are risen with him, in the sense that because we have life through the imputed righteousness of Christ, we are to have thinking, we are to set our minds on heavenly things.

We're not motivated by things just here on earth. This is not saying you stop working, you stop living, you stop feeding. That's not what this is saying. Essentially, your motivations and your pattern of thinking is heavenward, where Christ is.

It's different. And he's reminding us here that the way we think is motivated by the resurrection. It's extremely important. He goes on to say in verse 12, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience.

Paul continues in this very chapter to give more virtues. But what's the result of this kind of thinking? What's the result of, well, why do you think like this? Why do you act in a certain way? Chapter 3, verse 12.

Why are you acting with compassion? So why do you want to do that? Why do you want to obey the word of God? Chapter 3, verse 12. Because of God's electing, choosing love. That's the motivating factor, isn't it?

That's why we think in a certain way. That's why we act in a certain way. And that's where our hope comes from. And then not too far in verse 16 and 17, he continues, by the way, this book is all about Christ.

So he talks about the greatness of Christ, sufficiency of Christ. And then as he comes to 16, he can't stop. Now he goes on to say even more. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. That the word of God, the person of Christ, the truth about Christ dwell in you richly.

Let it control your mind, in the sense that you have to be filled with it. And you use that to encourage one another. Use that in any form, in any shape, that's what he's essentially saying, with different kinds of singing, with different kind of music, essentially the gospel of Jesus Christ, give it to one another with a thankful heart.

We are to submit to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to always be joyful and always be thankful. Why? Because we have union with Christ. Why? Because of God's electing, choosing love. This book deals with Christology, but throughout this book, you'll see the word thanks, thankfulness, thanksgiving.

In other words, Christology is related to thankfulness. Your doctrine of Christ is directly equal to how much thanks and praise you give. And Colossians is full of that word. So if you can say the primary theme of Colossians is preeminence of Christ, supremacy of Christ, there is a secondary theme, thankfulness, joy, because of who Christ is and what he has done.

So why is this important to talk about? Depending, especially if you're in early stages and if you're struggling with mild anxiety and you see it repeating over and over, and it will, right? Any of us who are fallen eventually, something in this world, some trepidation, some fear will get to us.

Here, how do we deal with it as Christians in the forefront before it gets into a deeper issue which will eventually require medical intervention and a lot of help? You have to be constantly thinking about who the Lord Jesus Christ is.

You have to be constantly set your mind on who Christ is and what he has done. And you have to rest in his finished work on the cross. And here it is, somebody who is constantly joyful, constantly thankful because of who the Lord is, will automatically has like a shield against the onslaught of stuff that we hear from media and the news, isn't it?

Agree, disagree? So that's where the resurrection and theology of Christ is so important, even as we deal with something as complex as the human psyche. Next, let's look at understanding habitual sin and how that deals with union with Christ.

Last week, I read Romans chapter five, verses one to 11. And we saw that because we are in Christ, we have hope. In the end of Romans chapter five, Paul makes the statement, essentially I'm paraphrasing, when sin increased, grace increased.

So what was Romans chapter six? That's the next verse. What did Romans chapter six, how does it begin? One of our favorite verses, how does it begin? Yes, should we sin more? Should we sin more so that grace may abound?

Essentially, okay, let me get this straight. So if I sin more, Christ gets more glory because he's atoning more of my sin. Hey, that makes sense. I'm gonna go and sin more so that God's gonna get more glory because guess what?

He's atoning more of my sin, he's working more. This makes sense. Yes, I'm good. By no means, by no means. So should we sin more if God gets the glory? Shouldn't we sin more if God gets the glory? That's the essential question that Paul is asking.

But the reason he's even asking that question is because his audience understands by the time they reach Romans chapter six, the monergistic view of salvation. God saves by grace alone for his glory alone according to his pleasure alone and his will alone.

Man dead to God cannot rise up by himself and save himself. It is fully a work of God. So by the time you get to Romans six, there's no doubt in the mind of the reader and of course, the apostle Paul that God saves by his grace alone and his work alone.

But as you get to this verse, what is he talking about here? He's talking about habitual sin. He's talking about sanctification. Romans chapter six, verses one to four. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death.

In order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we too might walk in newness of life. This is talking about habitual sin, going on sinning in any way. And I'll get to Luke chapter 12 and Philippians chapter four where God commands us, sovereign divine command not to be anxious.

If we are continually sinning in one area and we have no remorse over it, no desire to change in it is despite being confronted by the word, despite being confronted by others, are we saved? How do we think about this when we're dealing with sin?

How do we think about this? How do we think about habitual sin and sanctification? Is it okay? Hey, but Christ died for all my sins. So then what's the problem here? Should I, I'm fine, right? So are you saying that the resurrection has like real meaning?

It has real meaning to everyday, everyday in our lives. Without the resurrection, there'll be no union with Christ. We would not be made right with God. And we'd have no way we can understand the word or walk in the ways that he's already established us to walk in.

Amen? Impossible. So the resurrection has real implication. It's not just an academic doctrine. There's real implications every day in the life of the believer. They love sin. They hate God. They love what they're doing.

That's what the word says. That's what Romans says, Romans 1, 2, 3, right? Specifically deals with that. They love their sin. Thank you, Brian. So even when we're dealing with something like anxiety, most of the time, the people that I talk to, the people that I counsel, they struggle with anxiety being a sin.

Luke chapter 12 disagrees. Philippians chapter 4 disagrees. Any other verses? Is anxiety a sin? Is worry a sin? Okay, can you guys give me more verses other than Luke 12 and Philippians 4? Somebody comes to you and say, I understand Romans 6 saying that if you're in habitual sin, you're maybe not saved.

But I understand that the powerful work of Christ is efficacious and meritorious. And by that, I can grow in sanctification. But before we get to that, I don't believe anxiety is a sin. The love of God, which you see shown through the cross and understood through even Hebrew chapter 5 and 6, dealing with the meritorial work of Christ and dealing with the high priestly ministry of Christ.

We see the love of God primarily through that. It should translate and put out fear of any kind, knowing that He is sovereign. But it's easy to get trouble as we look at advertisements or as we look at other people or as we greedily want, the way Colossians talks about that too, how to covet more than... or covet or how not to want everything that somebody else has.

Eventually it is a sin, but it's another sin and it comes in the way of anger or anxiety, isn't it? But are we trusting in the Lord and are we trusting in His provision? Anxiety is a sin. In Luke chapter 12, this is what the Lord says.

I won't read all of it because of the sake of time. But in Luke chapter 12, this is what He says, verse 22. And He said to His disciples, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life. What you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.

For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. And then He says, consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouse nor barn and yet God feeds them. This doesn't mean we stop working.

That would be against first Thessalonians, which tells us to work, right? And tells us that if the man who does not work does not eat. So let's be careful immediately giving up our jobs and sitting at home crossed with our legs crossed, right?

That's not the goal of this. The goal of this is not to worry, not to have this trepidation or fear to the extent even after working you're still worrying. How will I live? How will I have clothing? How will I, you know, deal with all of these lack or even with this abundance of things?

The disciples had this overwhelming fear over them because they didn't trust God. And that's a similar situation. Do you trust God? Do you rest in Him? If you do, then anxiety, even if it comes back, you work with it.

You work with the word of God. You understand the gospel and you can almost say you push it aside and you put off the old self, put on the new. Amen? Agree? Disagree? I'm not trying to simplify this. It's a very complex topic.

But that's where when Luke chapter 12, when the Lord Jesus Christ gives this, it's not a suggestion, it's a command. It's a sovereign divine command. And we need to listen to it. Next in theology, let's look at Philippians chapter 4.

Let's read this slowly because we know these verses very well, but it's so true. Even when you're dealing with the early stages of anxiety, depression and suicide, although there's no early stage in suicide, I'm sorry, it's a progression, not a progression, it's a horrible digression by the time you get there.

These are ways in which you can deal with it yourself with brothers and sisters in Christ around you and going alongside others in the church and not just telling them to snap out of it. Philippians chapter 4 verses 4 to 7.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, 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 your minds in Christ Jesus.

Rejoice in the person of Christ. Rejoice in the truths about Jesus Christ. That's where it begins. Like I said earlier, your doctrine, your view of Christ directly affects your thanksgiving. You rejoice in the person, the life, the death, the resurrection and the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You rejoice in the union with Christ. And then again, here's a command. It's not a suggestion. It's like a military term used here, don't be anxious, worried, fearful about the future, about the present.

And then very importantly, pray, pray, pray. Give praise to God in prayer. Confess your sins in prayer. Give thanksgiving to God in prayer and give your supplication to God in prayer. Always pray. So that we can find peace with God.