Is Being Anxious Sinful?
You make that determination.
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. (Philippians 4:6–7, NRSVUE)
Within Christian teaching, there is a recognized standard list of the seven deadly sins. They are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth. Yet other actions qualify as sins that may be within or apart from this list, such as not forgiving others who have wronged us, resentment, apathy, blasphemy, and unhealthy habits that harm our body, the temple of God. The list goes on throughout the Bible.
But it goes even further yet.
It is a sin when someone knows the right thing to do and doesn’t do it. (James 4:17, CEB)
Sin is not always an apparent outward action but can be an inconspicuous inward mindset or lack of effort. It can be the things that steal from our faith relationship with Christ. It can be the temperament that we feed with time and power until it seems to overshadow our knowledge of the power of Christ in us.
As we allow anything to take up a residency in the place where God belongs, it is a sin. No one or nothing should ever separate us from the assurance of God’s grace because the Bible tells us that nothing separates God’s love from us.
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow — not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. (Romans 8:38, NLT)
Sin is anything that steals from our faith relationship with Christ. As we sulk and brood, sin is empowered as our actions of love for others abate. Soon all hope is gone as our sin festers and oozes like an infection.
So is being anxious considered a sin? If it makes us doubt the immutable love of God, then it is a sin.
Mason Barge says it so succinctly on his website: www.dailyprayer.us
If it helps, you can think of anxiety as a sin. We usually think of sin as something that gives us pleasure in the short run, but here is a sin whose only purpose is to make us miserable! But it is sinful, really, because ideas of anxiety always occur in a vacuum of faith and hope.
Are you experiencing a vacuum of faith and hope as anxiety overwhelms your heart? Try the recipe in Philippians 4:6. Trade your anxiety with prayer, supplication, thanksgiving, and requesting anxiety removal from your heart. Then, bask in God’s overwhelming peace, as stated in Philippians 4:7.
When God is on the throne of your heart, you will know without a shadow of a doubt that He will guard your heart and mind through Jesus.
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