Does God want you free from anxiety?

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 7:32,

I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.

I guess if we read this verse devoid of its context we could surmise that God wants us free from the “anxieties” of serving him and free from the concern and preoccupation of how to please him. Is that really what Paul is saying? “Free from anxiety!” That sounds like a great title for a seeker sensitive sermon. The truth however is that God actually wants us to be anxious about serving him. In context Paul was speaking about the situation of the married versus the unmarried. He writes,

26I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is. 27Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. 28But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that. 29This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, 30and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, 31and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away. 32I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. 33But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, 34and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. 35I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord. 1 Corinthians 7:26-35 ESV

Paul’s aim in all of this is that each believer must make life decisions that “promote good order” and further secures their “undivided devotion to the Lord.” So then let us obey him. Let us be anxious to serve Christ. This advice is backwards from what I see as the norm. In my pastoral experience devotion to Christ and his church is usually the last thing on someone’s mind when making major life decisions. The job/career is sought first. Once the job is secured and the person gets their work schedule handed to them then family and friends will get squeezed around the work schedule. Sunday is usually looked upon as the “only day left” that one can rest (sleep late) from all their worldly activities. I do not necessarily mean worldly as in sinful, but worldly in that what normally occupies the average person are things that have no positive contribution to eternal life. Yet the Lord says that we must first seek the kingdom and everything must fall behind that. The usual response to this kind of talk is that such a proposition is really tough and sacrificial. I’ve heard professing Christians in protest say, “This means that my whole life must be reordered! Everything has to change!” Duh! What do you think Christ is us calling us to? Don’t marry that career if it will prove destructive to one’s individual devotion to Christ. Don’t marry that new home and take on that huge mortgage payment if it will not promote individual devotion to Christ. Be anxious. The appointed time has grown very short therefore be anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit.