Anti-Anxiety Grace

I have certainly soothed and quieted my soul; like a weaned child resting against his mother, my soul within me is like a weaned child. — Psalm 131:2 NASB

John Calvin and I, we both remember the year we were four.

The year I was four, my sister Aimee was killed by a truck in our driveway. That is my first memory.

Fears have formed me.

John Calvin’s mother died the year he was four. Calvin buried all three babies born to him and his wife. Scholar and historian William Bouwsma described Calvin as “a singularly anxious man.”1

What might somewhat alleviate some complicated anxiousness in a complicated world of unknowns? Calvin wrote, “The stability of the world depends on this rejoicing of God in His works... If on earth, such praise of God does not come to pass,... then the whole order of nature will be thrown into confusion.”2

In a confusing world, our interior world can reel unless we rejoice, and a song of thanks can steady much more than you imagine. In the midst of many needful and thoughtful approaches to anxiousness, this is one possibility:

deep anxiousness may find deep comfort in deep adoration of Christ.

“We are cold when it comes to rejoicing in God!” wrote Calvin. “Hence, we need to exercise ourselves in it and employ all our senses in it — our feet, our hands, our arms and all the rest — that they all might serve in the worship of God and so magnify Him.”3

There’s always this invitation to exercise: to pick up a pen, write down a few more gifts — employ the senses to see and hear and inhale and taste the grace and gifts and goodness of God.

Your sense of joy can grow stronger when you exercise your senses to taste and see unexpected ways to keep exercising your gratitude muscle.

• Much exaltation of Christ can bring much comfort to much anxiousness.

Holy Father, John Calvin said the stability of the world depends on the rejoicing in Your works. Doesn’t my world find a deeper sense of stability when I rejoice in Your works? Cause me to remember it today, Lord: adoration of Christ comforts much anxiousness.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever. — 1 Chronicles 16:34

I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. — Philippians 4:10 

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. — Philippians 4:6

1. Belden Lane, Ravished by Beauty: The Surprising Legacy of Reformed Spirituality (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 65.
2. Ibid., 66.
3. Ibid.

Excerpted with permission from Gifts & Gratitudes by Ann Voskamp, copyright Ann Voskamp. 

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Your Turn

How is your interior world? With so much madness in our everyday world, how are you doing? Are you worshipping through it? Our anxieties find their comfort in adoration of the Lord Jesus who loves us! ~ Devotionals Daily