Anxiety and social anxiety is a sin?

[StandTro]

Greetings everyone. I have faith you all are doing well thanks to the Lord.

I need to ask you a question. Is the existence of anxiety and social anxiety seen as sinful, since they are connected to fear?

2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV) For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Given the assumption that God did not provide us with a spirit of fear, can fear arising from anxiety be classified as a sin?

Any thoughts?

Thank you!

 

[Grafted In]

I think so.
I'm guilty often.

 

[Tempura]

No. That text is meant to be an encouragement, not a judgement on someone's character when they suffer from anxiety. People with mental problems have magical ways of finding condemnation from where there is none. I'm not blaming you, I've done it myself, and I am susceptible to it daily. When I visited this site more often, there was a time when I almost daily saw a thread where someone was certain, absolutely certain that they had committed a non-forgivable sin against God. No matter what anyone told them, they would not budge, they would hold on to their state of horror and condemnation like it was the only thing that existed or needed to exist.

Not saying you were like that, you were just asking a question, but that was an extreme end of the same thing. It can be like a never-ending loop where we run in circles, chased by our fear, into more fear and go insane in the process. It's truly astonishing how our minds can turn our Father into something else.

You are loved by the Creator of all. No fear, whether you're afraid or not.

 

[soldier of light]

It's no sin to have mental illness, fear, or social anxiety. Having a sound mind doesn't mean that your mind will always be sound. You can have times of illness or spiritual warfare and you may not even know what to think. I just wait on the Lord and pray in such times.

Look at the apostles in the scripture below. They were out of their minds at times. Look at David, he wasn't fearless but he trusted in God. It's no sin to experience fear. The 2 Timothy scripture below seems to suggest that we dont fear sharing the gospel. I'm not totally sure about that but obviously David had fear and he had God's holy spirit. Same with the apostles, they had God's spirit but they we're out of their minds at times.

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God

2 Corinthians 5:13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you.

Psalm 56:3 Whenever I am afraid,
I will trust in You.
4 In God (I will praise His word),
In God I have put my trust;
I will not fear.
What can flesh do to me?