REST: Living Anxiety-Free in an Anxiety-Full WorldSample

Guarding Against External Anxiety

Explore the impact of external factors on our internal state in the fourth part. Analyze Luke 8:24 and understand how Jesus dealt with external voices. Gain insights into guarding your heart against anxiety-inducing information and influences.

Today we want to look at something important that we must learn from. In that account in Luke chapter 8:22-25, we discover something quite salient that we may never notice yet we all fall prey to.

In verse 24 we read, "They came and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are about to die!” So he got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they died down, and it was calm."

Here is something I want to point out: Jesus was in a state of rest until his disciples came to wake Him up. We all experience this. Some of us were not anxious until some friends or family members spoke to us or we read an article or watched the news on TV or a social media platform. Several pieces of information flying around bearing in their wings words capable of injecting anxiety into us. It was so for Jesus too but He responded differently.

It may be difficult to determine things you hear but you can determine what you give your ears and heart to. Jesus saw them crying and fearful due to the storm but He never allowed their fear and anxiety to rub off on Him. We should be like that; we must guard our hearts from communications that stir anxiety in us. We must not allow the anxiety of others to rub off on us. The ears and eyes are gates to the mind and if we must have a heart filled with peace we must be strict with what we hear and see. We must make up our minds to shut out voices and visions that bring anxiety. Anxiety comes from external factors and then gains root internally. If we deal with these externalities we will be able to keep our hearts from anxiety.