What’s the worst thing you could say to someone wrestling with anxiety or worry? Probably something like:
“Relax, it’s just in your head.”
“Stop worrying so much.”
“You’re overreacting.”
“Everything is going to be fine. Just look on the bright side.”
Even worse?
“Your anxiety is a sign of weak faith.”
“If you prayed more, you wouldn’t feel anxious.”
“You need to repent and ask God to take away your anxiety.”
The funny thing is, we’ve all heard statements like these and possibly even said them to someone else (a spouse, a child, a friend). But if conquering anxiety is as simple as “looking to the bright side” or “strengthening our faith,” why do our worries persist? Is our anxiety really just a sin we haven’t repented of?
What is Anxiety?
To answer the question, “Is my anxiety a sin?” we must first answer the question, “What is anxiety?” Defining anxiety is far from an easy task. Some define it as “an emotion characterized by apprehension and somatic symptoms of tension in which an individual anticipates impending danger, catastrophe, or misfortune.”1 Others describe anxiety as “distress responses to the circumstances of life in this fallen world.”2 One of my favorite counselors on the topic describes anxiety like this: “Negative feelings we experience when external circumstances threaten something we value.”3
Why Do I Feel Anxious?
When I was six years old, I sat on top of my brother—a toddler at the time—in a small supply closet just outside of my Sunday school classroom as an F4 tornado ripped through my church. My parents and grandparents hid in the hallway and under church pews in the sanctuary. Within seconds, the roof disappeared, and we could see the greyish-blue sky over our heads from our unique hiding spots.
Is it a sin that I feel apprehensive when tornado sirens blare outside my window? Of course not! I take tornado warnings seriously because I learned, at just six years old, that tornados are dangerous and threaten my safety and the safety of those I love. In some cases, anxiety is simply a cognitive and/or physical, God-given, protective response to danger and the effects of sin in our fallen world.
In other cases, anxiety could be the result of hormonal imbalances, nutritional deficiencies, or unhealthy lifestyle habits. After living in Ohio for 26 years, I can confirm that Ohio winters are long, cold, and grey, and a lack of sunshine and vitamin D negatively affects your mood and body. Of course, we can make conscious decisions to eat well, exercise often, and discuss our unique physical needs with a doctor. Still, these internal and external factors are only somewhat within our control, yet they impact our everyday embodied experience in the world. While we still must fight to honor the Lord despite how we feel, the fact that we might “feel” sad, bad, or anxious doesn’t mean we are sinning.
Is Anxiety a Sin?
Is anxiety a sin? I don’t think answering “yes” to that question is fair. Even Jesus recognized that his people are prone to worry and anxiety in Matthew 6:32, even if he did admonish Christians not to remain anxious or worried. We also fault Jesus if we conclude that all forms of anxiety or distress are sinful (Luke 12:50), and we know that Jesus lived a sinless life. Such a blanket assertion could inadvertently cast doubt on the sinlessness of Jesus, which is a foundational belief in Christianity.
Similarly, Paul expresses feelings of anxiety, pressure, or distress in 2 Corinthians 11:28 as he writes, “And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.” We can’t fault Paul for longing to protect and care for the believers he loved. You might bear a similar daily pressure to protect your spouse or children from harm, or you may experience distress or concern as you await significant news. Are these longings or feelings inherently sinful? Not necessarily. Can they be experienced sinfully? Absolutely.
How Can I Avoid Sin in My Anxiety?
The Scriptures abound with commands to trust the Lord and to turn to him in our experience of fear, anxiety, and worry. Paul even instructs us: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Again, Paul is not saying that if we feel anxious or apprehensive, we are sinning. Otherwise, he would not have also written about his own experience of anxiety for the churches.
What Paul means is this: Even in our experiences with anxiety, we have the joy and honor to pray and present our requests to God. Because we have the Lord—our strength and shield (Psalm 28:7-8), a rock and fortress (Psalm 18:2), a refuge and place of safety (Psalm 91:2)—we can experience anxiety with peace. We can experience an embodied existence in a fallen world and peaceful security in Christ simultaneously. We can say to our anxiety, “I’m not going to obsess over you,” because doing so won’t change my circumstances.
It is dangerous to assume that anxiety can be “prayed away” or that the presence of anxiety is a sign of weak faith. Some of Christ’s most faithful male and female servants—King David and Charles Spurgeon, to name a few—wrestled with soul-wrenching anxiety, yet their faith was great. Like these men and women, you might not avoid anxiety altogether, but you can fight to avoid sin in your experience of anxiety.
How can you avoid sin in your experience of anxiety? The answers to that question are likely deeply personal, but I’ll leave you with a few examples:
- Take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5)
- As I said, the answers to this question are deeply personal. I often sinfully believe I can obsess my way back into control when life feels out of control.
- Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth (Matthew 6:19-21)
- Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding (Proverbs 3:5)
- “Anxiety,” American Psychological Association, accessed April 9, 2024, https://www.apa.org/topics/anxiety. ↩︎
- “Anxiety,” Ligonier, accessed April 9, 2024, https://www.ligonier.org/guides/anxiety-and-worry. ↩︎
- Jeremy Pierre, “Is Anxiety a Sin?” Southern Seminary,February 14, 2018, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA1wRqPr3Dk. ↩︎
