Hi ~

News! The audiobook for Untwisting Scriptures #1 (yes, the first one!) is now available here. Finally!

***

For many years, back in the day, I thought of anxiety as a sin.

After all, I think it was John Wesley who said something like, “I would just as soon practice witchcraft as I would worry, because both of them deny the power of God.”

Unthinking sin-leveler that I was (and he was), I believed him.

I was taught and believed that worry—which I equated with anxiety—was a result of the sin of pride.

When I worry, the argument goes, I'm thinking that God can't handle my troubles, so I must be figuring that my ruminations will take care of them.

Otherwise, why would I be worrying?

Surely I’m not the only one here. Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

Then I began to learn about trauma. I began to understand that anxiety and even panic attacks can be generated because of something that happened in the past that hasn’t been resolved. Sometimes the person doesn't even remember it.

But the anxiety/worry/fear/panic is not from the sin of the individual experiencing it, but is from the sin of others who perpetrated on that individual.

Recently I also learned about akathisia, a medically induced terror that can’t be described. This has nothing to do with sin at all on the part of anyone (except perhaps those who produce the medication knowing what the side effects can be).

I believe it does the Word of God No. Good. Service. It does our Lord No. Good. Service. to say that all anxieties are sin.

The word of God does not teach that anxiety is sin.

It is ignorant to teach that anxiety is sin. Anxiety needs to be resolved, surely, but it is not an offense against a holy God.

I’ve said much more about this in Book #3 of the Untwisting Scriptures series, Your Words, Your Emotions.

Feeling perhaps a bit indignant and begging your indulgence,

Rebecca

Untwisting Scriptures at heresthejoy.com

See my Untwisting Scriptures series

Trauma-informed group book coaching at Book Crafters Academy

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