Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
-Philippians 4:6-9 (NIV)
Many (men and women alike) have expressed to me that they experience intense anxiety regularly.
The Bible shows us that anxiety is attached to experiences and situations that need to be brought to the Lord for healing and freedom. Thoughts that are the opposite of praise, His Truth, and our insecurities will also lead us to experience intense anxiety. Situations can arise daily that can create fear and worry leading us down a spiral of anxious-driven thoughts. These passages teach us what to do to have peace, to remain in Christ, to focus on what’s good, lovely, noble, etc., to put into practice the things we read about in the Bible, and we will be filled with a peace that goes beyond our human understanding. His peace will guard our hearts and our minds—our thought-life—safely in Him.
From my observation, anxiety seems to be the most common mental battle in the body of Christ that is widely accepted as something we are stuck living with or ours to manage. Yet when we read the Word of God and start to connect with the mind of Christ that Jesus paid for us to have, we should submit that battle to the Lord and partner with Him for our freedom from anxiety. Rather than recognizing where this might be an area for Jesus to come in and build a foundation of confidence, filling us with His everlasting peace and strength, we own the anxiety instead. We have a habit to live with statements like:
- “I have anxiety and panic attacks.”
- “I have had anxiety my whole life, ever since I was a kid, I have just learned how to manage it.”
- “I am anxious.”
When we start our thought-life with, “I have,” or “I am” statements, we are subconsciously owning something that is opposite of what God desires for us to partner with. I have found that when I am intentional with what I say about my feelings, I am less likely to allow them to grow in my life.
I will replace I have with I feel.
I keep the level of anxiety that I am feeling to just that, a feeling. I am not owning it as if it’s mine to manage. This might seem so ridiculous and insignificant, but I assure you, as I have applied this simple shift in my belief about anxiety as well as using this as a tool with my clients, anxiety loses power, enabling us to put it in a different category of our lives. One that says, “I am not going to live with anxiety because I do not live by my feelings,” and we work through a process of renewing our minds, inviting Jesus into the root for healing.
If we are experiencing anxiety, we need to recognize the area where we are struggling to trust God. A lack of trust gives room for fear. When there is fear, thoughts come in that create knots in our stomach, tightness and heaviness in our chest, causing intense panic that can be so overwhelming we become paralyzed. We can learn to discern through the Holy Spirit that anxiety is attacking our flesh. We do not have to live under the feelings of our flesh anymore. We have access to the mind of Christ. We are born again by the Spirit, filled with a supernatural strength. From there, we make a conscious decision to not agree with our flesh.
As citizens of Heaven, we are not supposed to agree with our flesh (our feelings). We live by the Spirit, and with the conscious choice of turning to Truth, our mind begins to shift to what we have in Christ. Faith gets activated as we choose to live out what we believe even when what we are seeing and feeling may be the opposite. We choose to focus on what God says to be True and meditate on the promises from His Word. The Word of God has to become more powerful to us than what we are feeling. We have to value His Truth over our feelings so that we are actually living out what we believe.
God does not want you to manage anxiety — He wants you to cast it upon Him.
He wants to carry the burden of the anxiety and lift it off of you.
Culture has normalized anxiety so much and somehow we have embraced it rather than activating the power and presence of the Holy Spirit and learning what it means to renew our minds. The Church has outsourced to worldly tools leading us to believe these tools are how to manage our anxiety, leaving God out of the equation. In short, the body of Christ has adopted a worldly standard of normal. That acceptance puts parameters around the bigness of our God who still heals minds today, and this includes the pounding panic of anxiety.
Let’s undo this negative ripple effect that has blocked our infinite God from moving powerfully in our lives and start believing for more with childlike faith, ready to receive the fullness of what Jesus paid for.
Let’s stop boxing in the power and presence of God by believing we need to accept what the world says is normal. Our life with God should not look the same as someone’s life without Him.
No more giving anxiety permission to stay in your life, okay?
Pray with me:
Father, I am done believing a lie that says anxiety is something I have to battle or manage. I’m realizing that anxiety stems from a lack of trust in You and a mind filled with thoughts and feelings that argue with what I have in and through You. Holy Spirit, help me identify the negative mind trails that are knocking me out of Your peace and reveal the areas in my mind and heart that need your healing touch. Show me how to walk this process out until anxiety completely loses power over me. In Your mighty name, amen!
