Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.
– Proverbs 12:25
I just want to read that one more time to make sure you heard what God’s Word just said in an age of anxiety. In all the ways that word is used, as a clinical definition of anxiety or just worry and anxiousness about anything in our lives. Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, we know this.
I think pretty much everybody who’s listening to this, at some level, and some of us at very deep levels, can identify with the weight that comes with anxiety. And Proverbs 12:25 says, “But a good word, makes him glad.” There’s so much we could talk about here and I clearly don’t have time to go into the clinical picture of anxiety. And I don’t want to presume to offer, in a couple of minute podcast, an overly simplistic solution to anxiety. But I do want to say, one, a good word makes him glad.
Proverbs 12:25 reminds us that God’s Word is our source of gladness in the face of anxiety.
God has given his good Word to us. So in an age of anxiety, live in God’s Word. Meditate on his Word day and night, on his promises, on truths about who he is, on how he can be trusted, on how he is sovereign and in control. Not just everything in the world, but all the details of our lives, and hear from God every day, morning and evening. You need, I need the good Word of God in order to be glad in an age of anxiety. And not just a good word from God, but to look for opportunities to encourage others with good words in age of anxiety.
I want to encourage you today to look at the people you’ll interact with. Realize some, maybe many, maybe most, are dealing, at some level, with anxiety. So put some good words into their minds and their hearts. Be an encouragement with your words to the people around you today that are amidst whatever anxieties they might be experiencing. They might be made glad by a good word spoken into their life.
Oh God, we praise you for your good Word, even specifically for your good Word in Philippians 4… In Matthew 6. Don’t be anxious about anything but in everything with prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God and the peace that only you can give that passes all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. God, I pray that good Word over every single person listening to this right now… And whatever they’re walking through. Pray for your peace that passes all understanding.
Proverbs 12:25 encourages us to apply God’s Word to the anxieties of this world.
Matthew 6, straight from your mouth, Jesus, that we would not worry about anything but we would trust in you… That we would seek you and your kingdom first knowing you love us just like you provide for flowers and birds… All the more so you are committed, your very nature to providing for us. God, we pray that you’d help us then to meditate on and apply your Word to our anxieties in this world. And in the process, God… Help us to speak good words into others’ lives today that encourage them to build them up.
God, help us to take advantage of every opportunity we have today to encourage others with good words that would make them glad, knowing many, not most of the people we’re interacting with today, are experiencing some weight that comes with anxiety in this world. Jesus, we praise you as the Prince of Peace… As the one who makes freedom from worry and anxiety ultimately possible.
We praise you for the hope that we have in you… That all who are weary and heavy laden and weighted-down can find rest in you. Oh God, we pray you help us to point people to the rest that’s found in you today. Help us not just to keep this rest, this peace to ourselves.
Prayer for the Western Cham People
And God, we pray specifically for the Western Cham people of Cambodia and Vietnam. They’ve never heard the good news of the peace that is found in Jesus.
God, we pray that they would be reached… For the Western Cham people to be reached with the good news of your love for them. Freedom from the weights of this world, freedom from sin, and ultimately death. God, we pray the Western Cham would be reached with that good news… With that good Word even as we praise you for your good Word that makes us glad. In Jesus’ name, we pray according to Proverbs 12:25. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
