Dealing with Anxiety: What the Enemy Doesn’t Want You to Know
It may be happening right now. If so, check back here after reading these Bible verses for dealing with anxiety.
Opening up to God is the first place to start.
At the root of anxiety we often find fear. Some of the most common fears include:
- Fear of the unknown
- Fear of dying
- Fear of failing
- Fear of rejection
- Fear of loss
- Fear of losing control
At the root of fear, we find the enemy (Satan).
And there’s something the enemy doesn’t want us to know about dealing with anxiety: that defeating it has to do with a different type of fear. The right kind of fear. Fear of the Lord.
Ready to go by faith? Stay with me for this two-part post… it’s going to change everything.
When Anxiety Hits, Acknowledge God
In the Bible we read how David dealt with anxiety. After facing down the giant Goliath with only a slingshot, stone and his faith in God, you’d think he had it made.
Unfortunately, he was pursued and threatened relentlessly by Saul for many years afterward. Saul wanted to kill David so he wouldn’t take his place as king — note: more fear.
We read about David’s struggles with anxiety all over the book of Psalms.
For example:
Be merciful to me, O God, for men hotly pursue me;
all day long they press their attack.
My slanderers pursue me all day long;
many are attacking me in their pride.
When I am afraid,
I will trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I will not be afraid.
What can mortal man do to me?
-Psalm 56:1-4
When dealing with anxiety, David turned his focus to God. He asked God to protect him and comfort him. If God is in control and He is all-powerful, how could anything or anyone else be in control?
David trusted that just as God allowed him to defeat Goliath, God would deliver him from evil.
This is faith.
Who Do We Call on for Help?
The enemy doesn’t want us to turn our focus off of the anxiety. We stay tormented as long as we allow the fearful thoughts to continue turning over and over. But what if we don’t feel we can control our mind to focus elsewhere? What if we feel that our mind is racing on its own?
Remember what Paul tells us in Romans 7:18-20:
I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
So let’s not be deceived. There are times we aren’t in control. This is the time to call on God for help — our all-mighty protector.
In my own life, when I have prayed to God for help during what feels like a loss of control, this moment has felt like a hand is reaching out. I have to hold on to that hand as everything else swirls around, and sometimes I have to reach back to it over and over again. When I’m holding on (for dear life), that’s when I feel hope. I feel steady when everything else in me feels unsteady.
We read in 2 Tim 1:7, “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”
During bouts of anxiety, while embroiled in the flames, our faith is tested. Turning to God and trusting Him to intervene is the first step.
Can I really trust God to save me from this?
While we must call on God in a time of anxiety, we also must live for God to become fully equip with the right “spiritual armor” needed for this kind of battle. Get ready for part two: When we fear God, we cannot fear man or anything else that exists in the world.
P.S.
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