Noble

Noble isn’t a word we hear much these days, at least not here in the United States. It’s kinda sad because it describes someone or something with high moral character, a grand appearance, or a high birth rank in an aristocracy. Unfortunately, when most of us hear the word “noble” we think of someone with a high birth rank. I think it’s important to understand what it means and how it’s meaning may be able to help us with our anxiety. When our anxiety grips us we aren’t thinking about positive things. Everything running through our minds is negative. The worst of possibilities. In order to overcome our anxious times we need to start thinking about positive things.

Noble is the second in line of Philippians 4:8, where the apostle Paul lists things to think about to overcome our anxiety. We look around our society and it’s hard to find anything that is noble. Governments from top to bottom are full of corruption. Some family and friends don’t have a high moral character. We search our society for people and things that are noble, but we come up short. So where do we turn to find nobility? We stop looking at society and start looking up. We look to the one who has the highest moral character of all. The one person with the highest birth rank. “Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever” (Psalm 111:3). Majestic is a synonym for noble. So we hear the Psalmist declaring God as majestic in all His deeds. The highest moral character is found in Jesus. Jesus, God in flesh, shows us the character of God.

When our anxiety is running wild, and we can’t seem to calm our fears, we can turn our attention to Jesus. When we set our eyes on Him we see someone who is noble. Not only noble in character, but noble in deeds. Everything about Jesus screams noble. His words and deeds point to a high moral character we can’t find anywhere else. So when anxiety has a tight grip on us we look to cancel our fears with truth. More of our fears that fuel our anxiety are not true. So when we look at what is true we identify the lie we believe. What is true is the nobility of Jesus. During our bouts with anxiety we can calm ourselves by looking up. In Jesus we find what is true and noble. This was how Paul conquered his anxiety. It is also the way we can conquer ours. The world doesn’t have what we need to overcome our anxiety. In fact, it’s the world that is partially to blame, and we can’t find relief in the things that contribute to our anxiety. Our focus has to shift away from society and towards Jesus.