Leaving Anxiety Behind

Let us leave anxiety behind. We have no use of it as God's children. Surely, it will interrupt our lives but let us ponder on Pink's godly advice:

“Be anxious for nothing”— Philippians 4:6
Worrying is as definitely forbidden as theft. This needs to be carefully pondered and definitely realized by us, so that we do not excuse it as an innocent “infirmity.” The more we are convicted of the sinfulness of anxiety, the sooner are we likely to perceive that it is most dishonoring to God, and “strive against” it (Hebrews 12:4). But how are we to “strive against” it? ....

The best antidote for anxiety is frequent meditation upon God's goodness, power and sufficiency. When the saint can confidently realize “The Lord is My Shepherd,” he must draw the conclusion, “I shall not want!” Immediately following our exhortation is, “but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God.” Nothing is too big and nothing is too little to spread before and cast upon the Lord. The “with thanksgiving” is most important, yet it is the point at which we most fail. It means that before we receive God's answer, we thank Him for the same: it is the confidence of the child expecting his Father to be gracious.

“Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought (anxious concern) for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:25, 33) - From The Arthur Pink Anthology.

Pink on Anxiety

As we watch the current events around us, the economic crisis, the military excursions of our country, rampant unemployment, rising costs for everything, home foreclosures and more, it is very easy for us to become anxious. And who would blame us? Yet we are God's children and therefore under his constant watchful care. From the Arthur Pink Anthology let's read what he says on anxiety and put ourselves to the test:

“Be anxious for nothing”—Philipians 4:6
Worrying is as definitely forbidden as theft. This needs to be carefully pondered and definitely realized by us, so that we do not excuse it as an innocent “infirmity.” The more we are convicted of the sinfulness of anxiety, the sooner are we likely to perceive that it is most dishonoring to God, and “strive against” it (Heb. 12:4). But how are we to “strive against” it?

First, by begging the Holy Spirit to grant us a deeper conviction of its enormity. Second, by making it a subject of special and earnest prayer, that we may be delivered from this evil. Third, by watching its beginning, and as soon as we are conscious of harassment of mind, as soon as we detect the unbelieving thought, lift up our heart to God and ask Him for deliverance from it.

The best antidote for anxiety is frequent meditation upon God's goodness, power and sufficiency. When the saint can confidently realize “The Lord is My Shepherd,” he must draw the conclusion, “I shall not want!” Immediately following our exhortation is, “but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God.” Nothing is too big and nothing is too little to spread before and cast upon the Lord. The “with thanksgiving” is most important, yet it is the point at which we most fail. It means that before we receive God's answer, we thank Him for the same: it is the confidence of the child expecting his Father to be gracious.

“Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought (anxious concern) for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:25, 33)

A.W. Pink on Prayer part III

Pink offers us so much wisdom in the area of prayer. Let's look again at some thoughts on prayer from chapter 3 of his A Guide to Fervent Prayer:

Herein, indeed, is a humbling truth, yet a fact it is that Christians are, in themselves, incapable of discharging their duty. Though the love of God has been shed abroad in their hearts and a principle of holiness (or new nature) communicated to them, yet they are unable to perform the good they ardently desire to do. Not only are they still very ignorant of many of the requirements of God's revealed will, but indwelling sin ever opposes and seeks to incline their hearts in a contrary direction. Thus it is imperative that they daily seek from God fresh supplies of grace. Though assured that God shall surely complete His good work in us (Phil. 1:6), that does not render needless our crying to Him “that performeth all things for me [us]” (Ps. 57:2, brackets mine). Nor does the privilege of prayer release us from the obligation of obedience. Rather, in prayer we are to beg Him to quicken us to the performance of those duties He requires. The blessing of access to God is not designed to discharge us from the regular and diligent use of all the means God has appointed for our practical sanctification, but is meant to provide for our seeking of the Divine blessing on our use of all the means of grace. Our duty is this: to ask God to work in us “both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13); to avoid quenching His Spirit by slothfulness and disobedience, especially after we have prayed for His sweet influences (I Thess. 5:19); and to use the grace He has already given us.

A.W. Pink on Prayer part II

From chapter three of Pink's A Guide to Fervent Prayer we are blessed to find the following:

A Prayer for Holiness and Fruitfulness
Prayer, for holiness“The God of peace make you perfect in every good work to do his will.” Substantially, this request is for the practical sanctification and fructification of God's people. While the everlasting covenant has been suitably denominated “the covenant of redemption,” we must carefully bear in mind that it was designed to secure the holiness of its beneficiaries. We do well to reflect upon the prophetic, Spirit-filled cry of Zecharias, that “the Lord God of Israel [should] remember his holy covenant; That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our [spiritual] enemies might serve him without [servile] fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life” (Luke 1:68-75 brackets mine). And while it has also been appropriately designated “the covenant of grace,” yet we must also remember that the Apostle Paul said, “For the grace of God-that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men [Gentiles as well as Jews], Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope” (Titus 2:11-13, brackets mine).

The grand purpose of the everlasting covenant, as of all the Divine works, was the glory of God and the good of His people. It was designed not only as a display of the Divine munificence, but also for securing and promoting the claims of Divine holiness. God did not enter into that compact with Christ in order to set aside human accountability, nor did the Son fulfill its terms so as to render unnecessary for His redeemed a life of obedience.

Christ agreed not only to propitiate God, but to regenerate His elect. Christ undertook not only to meet all the requirements of the Law in their stead, but also to write it on their hearts and to enthrone it in their affections. Christ engaged not only to take away sin from before God, but to make it hateful and heinous to His saints. Before the world began, Christ undertook not only to satisfy the claims of Divine justice, but to sanctify His seed by sending forth His Spirit into their souls to conform them to His image and to incline them to follow the example that He would leave them. It has been far too little insisted on, in recent times, by those who have written or preached upon the Covenant of Grace, that Christ engaged not only for the debt of His people, but for their duty, too: that He should make a purchase of grace for them, including a full provision to give them a new heart and a new spirit, to bring them to know the Lord, to put His fear into their hearts, and to make them obedient to His will. He also engaged for their safety: that if they should forsake His Law and walk not in His judgments, He would visit their transgressions with the rod (Ps. 89:30-36); that if they should backslide and stray from Him, He would assuredly recover them.

A.W. Pink on Prayer part1

From the Introduction to A. W. Pink's A Guide to Fervent Prayer we read:

Prayer, a Universal Duty Among Believers
But let it not be thought that this marked emphasis of the Epistles indicates a duty for preachers only. Far from it. These Epistles are addressed to God's children at large, and everything in them is both needed for, and suited to, their Christian walk. Believers, too, should pray much not only for themselves, but for all their brothers and sisters in Christ. We should pray deliberately according to these apostolic models, petitioning for the particular blessings they specify. I have long been convinced there is no better way—no more practical, valuable, and effective way—of expressing solicitude and affection for our fellow saints than by bearing them up before God by prayer in the arms of our faith and love. By studying these prayers in the Epistles and pondering them clause by clause, we may learn more clearly what blessings we should desire for ourselves and for others, that is, the spiritual gifts and graces for which we have great need to be solicitous. The fact that these prayers, inspired by the Holy Spirit, have been placed on permanent record in the Sacred Volume declares that the particular favors sought herein are those which God has given us warrant to seek and to obtain from Himself (Rom.8:26-27; 1 John 5:14-15).

A.W. Pink on God's Best For His Children

The central thing which we wish to make clear and to impress upon the reader is that God has established an inseparable connection between holiness and happiness, between our pleasing of Him and our enjoyment of His richest blessing; that since we are always the losers by sinning, so we are always the gainers by walking in the paths of righteousness, and that there will be an exact ratio between the measure in which we walk therein and our enjoyment of “the peaceable fruits of righteousness.” God has declared “them that honour Me, I will honour” (1 Sam. 2:30), and that expresses the general principle which we are here seeking to explain and illustrate, namely that God's governmental dealings with us are regulated by our attitude toward Him and our conduct before Him: for in proportion as we honour the Lord, so will He honour us. But suppose we fail to honour God, suppose we do not obtain from Him that grace which He is ever ready to give unto those who earnestly seek it in a right way—what then? Why, we shall not enter into His best for us; we shall miss it. For as the same verse goes on to tell us, “and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.” (From Pink's, Practical Christianity)