There’s so much promise in this Bible passage: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6, New King James Version). And yet, what a tall order! Be anxious for nothing. On any given day it seems there are a lot of things to be anxious about. The United States Census Bureau’s 2023 survey found that half of young American adults surveyed deal regularly with anxiety. It’s now considered an epidemic.

But there is a way out. The Bible is full of accounts of individuals being saved from fear, distress, and harm by turning straight to God in time of need. One such account is of the prophet Jeremiah. Overcome by the mistakes of the people of Judah and their unwillingness to admit their faults and live in a God-centered way, he turned from discouragement to seek direction and peace in God. He heard this reassuring guidance: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit” (Jeremiah 17:7, 8, NKJV). 

To trust in the Lord is to know God as sovereign over every thought, every care, everyone. It is to know, in fact, that divine Love reigns supreme and governs all. This divine fact provides a sure and steady foundation for our lives. 

So many of our anxieties are essentially fear of being separated from something good. Therefore, freedom comes from a better understanding of God as all-good, ever-present Love and of man as the complete reflection of divine Love. Realizing that we are actually one with God and accepting the reality of God’s perfect nature and activity shows us a creation that is wholly good and spiritual. This oneness enables us to first pause rather than react, and then take action with love rather than act out of fear. And we begin to feel something of the irrepressible peace and joy found in a life dedicated to learning more about and expressing divine Love.

When we lean on God and yield to His supremacy and care, we increasingly find that we can rejoice rather than worry.

Jesus’ example in the Bible shows how Christ—the godliness that motivated Jesus—awakens human consciousness and grounds it in a new, reliable basis of being “anxious for nothing.” From his temptation in the wilderness to his struggle in Gethsemane, Jesus battled the belief of mortality and the anxiety that comes with it, and yet he successfully resisted the force of those thoughts to remain conscious of God’s presence. The transforming influence of Christ gave him power to break through the dream of mortality and find the comfort and authority of God. This same Christ is present to establish us on the only foundation for trusting good there is—Spirit’s supremacy. This foundation is unbreakable, unshakable, ever present. 

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives us direction for dealing with any sort of anxiety, as paraphrased in The Message: “What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. . . . Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow” (Matthew 6:31–34, Eugene H. Peterson). 

Here, Jesus presents two essential points: 1) Focus on what God is giving instead of what we feel we want to get, and 2) Give full attention to what God is doing right now, in the present, because worry and anxiety are focused on the future. The only way to accomplish this is to know our oneness with God and the allness of God. Then it becomes natural to follow Jesus’ teachings. We are designed to be, and are, Godlike, immortal—therefore, we can’t help but have a heartfelt desire to be God-centered and to focus on present good. 

Often, anxiety results from an attempt to control situations in human experience that we simply don’t have control over. And fear arises when we feel that everything in our life depends on us. Yet Christian Science shows that when we lean on God and yield to divine Love’s supremacy and care, we increasingly find that we can rejoice rather than worry. Our joy is due to the indelible fact of our life as permanently reflective of God’s goodness. We also learn in this Science that we’ve never been scared mortals who have minds filled with worry. We have always been God’s, divine Mind’s, immortal and fearless ideas. 

Christian Science teaches, “Never ask for to-morrow: it is enough that divine Love is an ever-present help; and if you wait, never doubting, you will have all you need every moment” (Mary Baker Eddy, Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 307).

So, can we be anxious for nothing? Absolutely.

Larissa Snorek, Associate Editor