Ed Welch is the author of a wonderful book titled Running Scared, Fear, Worry, and the

God of Rest.

A few years back in the offices of the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation

in Philadelphia, I asked him, what does anxiety say about our spiritual condition and how

should we respond in moments of fear and worry?

Here's how Dr. Welch responded.

Mark IV and Matthew 13 talked about the parable of the Soror of the Seed and it slips in this

one little comment about how the worries of life can be one of the incumbrances to spiritual

receptivity and spiritual growth.

So that immediately puts it high profile.

So if you're a person like myself who's real familiar with anxieties and worries, it says

this is an important spiritual matter.

So right off the bat, it's an important one.

I think one reason the scripture identifies it as an important one is, is so often fears

and anxieties create this world where the only thing that exists is myself and the threat

to the thing that I love.

And the thing that I love could be something very good, it's my life, it's food, it's sustenance,

it's my spouse.

So it doesn't have to be a bad object necessarily.

But so often fears just, they condense life to those two things and God is functionally

not there.

At least that's my own experience.

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