Future Grace to Battle Anxiety
Piper begins Future Grace by defining future grace as , “not merely the grace of heaven and the age to come. [It is] the grace that begins now, this very second, and sustains your life to the end of this paragraph. [This] does not merely mean the pardon of God in passing over your sins, but also the power and beauty of God to keep you from sinning (5).”
In this series on utilizing future grace in biblical counseling I desire to consider Piper’s work in counseling - how can we as counselors look past bygone grace toward the work that God desires to do both presently and in the future. Specifically in this post, how does the work that God is doing presently, and promising to do in our future, help us battle against anxiety?
A key text to begin with in considering this battle against anxiety is Matthew 6:25-34:
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?[a] 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Spurgeon once said, ‘anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength…’ This is a true observation in light of Jesus’ words here in Matthew. The root of anxiety is inadequate faith in our Father’s future grace. As unbelief gets the upper hand in our hearts, one of the effects is anxiety (54). When we fail to trust in all of God’s promises for us in Jesus anxiety takes hold in our hearts and not only do we not remove one sorrow from tomorrow, we stand in the way of God’s power and put forth our own confidence (or lack of confidence) in the face of our troubles and we crumble in the wake of its magnitude.
The good news is that when we see the connection between our anxiety and the unbelief that so quickly lays siege to our hearts we are able to rightly focus our fight and lay hold of victory in the promises that God has for us in Christ. The reality is that when anxiety strikes and our vision of God’s glory is blurred and the greatness of the future that he plans for us grows dim, when this takes place it does not mean that we are faithless, rather it means that our faith is under attack. Anxiety - unbelief in the promises of God - is the laying siege against our hearts by lies and lesser gods that strive to rob us of all hope and joy that is already ours in Christ.
Piper points out in Psalm 56:3 (56) - When I am afraid, I put my trust in you - does not ignore the reality that fear will strike. In fact, it embraces the reality and puts forth a greater reality: the faithfulness of God when we place our trust in him. We are to cast our anxiety on God.
So how do we fight against the fear and anxiety that aims to lay siege against our hearts? We fight anxiety by fighting against unbelief and fighting for faith in future grace. And the way we fight this good fight is by meditating on God’s assurances of future grace and by asking for the help of his Spirit (56).
I want to end by offering the seven promises that Piper puts forth in Future Grace as fuel for our fight against anxiety and for faith in future grace (57-59):
Promise 1: No matter what happens God will raise your body some day and preserve your life for his eternal fellowship (Matthew 6:25).
Promise 2: You are worth a whole lot more than birds (Matthew 6:26).
Promise 3: Anxiety accomplishes nothing worthwhile (Matthew 6:27-28).
Promise 4: God will take certainly take the the same energy and creative skill used towards the flowers of the field and use it to care for his children who will live forever (Matthew 6:28-30).
Promise 5: God does not look on indifferently toward your struggle - he will act to supply your need when the time is best (Matthew 6:31-32).
Promise 6: God will make sure that you have all you need to do his will and give him glory (Matthew 6:33).
Promise 7: Every day will have no more trouble than you can bear, and every day will have mercies sufficient for that day’s stress (Lamentations 3:22-23).
