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Despite the many promises at the turn of the century, the world hasn’t really changed that much. There are still conflicts, poverty, disease, and turmoil marring much of the world. Some days, both interpersonally and internationally, simply feel bleak–there’s too much anxiety to deal with and a lot of worrying to do. Fear becomes a constant companion, almost a friend. Yet, there is always hope.
Through Christ, who overcomes the world, anyone has the potential not only for those who follow his teachings, but also for those who read Bible verses to help overcome anxiety and fear, and those who wake to a better world and believe in a brighter future.
Ashley D. Wille is one of those people, but she wasn’t always. She details her awakening and her reconnection with Christ in her book, My Journey Through the Cross, which underpins much of this article’s insights.
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The Weight of the World on Our Shoulders
Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? —1 John 5:5
Though the weight of the world might be felt upon our shoulders, God is not one who burdens us with insurmountable challenges. There is only promise in His guidance and ever-flowing hope.
Yes, it is the reality that the landscape of the world isn’t what was foreseen when the World Wars ended, nor is it the world that was predicted to arise during the turn of the millennium. Far from the world being fixed or mended, it seems more and more to have regressed with the earlier brutalities and oppressions now becoming much quieter and subtler. And it is within this pervasive malaise that anxiety, worry, and fear are so much stronger than ever before, palpable like a dense fog over our senses.
All of this is without mentioning that there has been a massive and clear decline in belief all across the world. Younger people these days are less likely to attend church, identify with any denomination (or any religion for that matter), and believe that there is a higher power pulling the strings on the world (and with the way things are going, it is understandable why they might think that way).
Without a spiritual anchor to keep us grounded, we are most vulnerable to spiraling mentally, becoming too mired within our own misgivings about the world and ourselves. Who overcomes the world does not do so by themselves; they do so and are only capable of doing so through God’s grace and along the path that Christ opened.
IN ALL THESE THINGS WE ARE MORE
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. —Romans 8:37
Anxiety and fear are ubiquitous emotions. There is no one on this Earth who hasn’t felt them before, even if only once. Ashley presents these two not as problems to be solved through willpower alone, but as symptoms of a much larger network of overlapping effects, from a misplaced focus to accidental idolatry to a failure of trust. Overcoming them is a process of stilling the soul, renewing the mind, and correcting faith on the right path.
What is Anxiety?
For Ashley, anxiety is not, in any way, a crisis of faith but more so an unconscious submission to fear, which opens you up to harm caused by the enemy. This fear often manifests itself as a fear of the unknown and a fear of losing control. We become anxious because we focus too much on maintaining our own agenda and establishing our new life away from Him.
Anxiety, in this perspective, is a heavy anchor that one should not attempt to carry, let alone lift up, as taking on even one care can sink a person and make them useless and fearful.
“The only way for me to maintain perfect peace was to have complete focus on the One who never changes. However, in order to focus on Him, my attention had to be decisively drawn away from the chaotic, mind-filling, heart-pounding, soul-numbing distractions of life.”
What is Fear?
Fear, for Ashley, is a negative and deceptive force that is the direct opposite of God’s perfect love, often called Agape. She distinguishes between the old covenant “fear of the Lord,” which she describes as the “knee-knocking terror” of punishment, and the new covenant reality where God’s love casts out all fear. There are many kinds of fears, but they are all linked to shame and independence, keeping people continuously distant from God.
“He told me that if I were ashamed and afraid, then I did not know Him as He is… Transferring the wound from my childhood father onto my heavenly Father caused me to struggle receiving Him at this point or letting Him receive me.”
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What Does It Mean to Rest in Christ?
“Come to Me all who labor and are heavy-laden and weary and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28-30). Have I really come to Him? The Sabbath Rest is the evidence that I have.”
Resting in Christ is the principal theme of Ashley’s journey; it is the thesis upon which she has reclaimed her faith and begun her story. It is not passive inactivity but an active, surrendered state of abiding in God’s finished work, which she calls the “Sabbath rest.”
This is a rest that begins when one stops from exerting “self-effort in obeying laws that cannot be fulfilled by humans” and, thus, turns to abiding by Christ, who has already fulfilled the law. It is entering the “Holy of Holies” by faith, leaving behind the “temporary” altar of ritual confession, guilt, and self-improvement, and resting “…in His one and only finished sin payment and imputed righteousness… completely finished.”
Worship is the primary vehicle for rest, according to Ashley, where she began by playing worship music constantly to maintain a heavenly perspective. Then later on, she enjoyed the internal heavenly rest without any music because she had internalized the worship. In other words, over time the worship had become a natural outflow of her heart.
“Worship is a heavenly way of living… Living within worship of the Great I Am means living in the very presence of the King of glory.”
YOU ARE WHO OVERCOMES THE WORLD
When Ashley finally rested in Christ, she found her true self, saying, “I have discovered my childhood dream in the wonder of myself, dancing with Him. I am His treasure, at home now, living in Him.”
Become a part of those who overcome the world, guided by Ashley D. Wille’s My Journey Through the Cross.
