Hope for the Anxious Mind
“When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.” Psalms 94:19
Sometimes it starts like this. It is three in the morning. I am awakened suddenly, my eyes adjusting to the darkness around me. After checking that my baby is indeed still breathing and sleeping peacefully in her crib, I begin to run down the checklist in my head of all the things left to do in the house. Eden’s laundry. My husband and I’s laundry. Clean the bathrooms. Eden needs new pants. She’s rapidly outgrowing all her clothes. We need to finish remodeling our kitchen asap. Suddenly the thoughts shift. Am I a good enough mother? Am I a good enough wife? What am I doing with my college degree? Its only downhill from there. She’s growing up so fast. Pretty soon she’ll be out in the world on her own. What if I can’t protect her there? What if something happens to her? Wait, is she still breathing right now? What if someone breaks into the house this very moment? On and on it goes. From cringing at things I said or did in the past to imaginary conversations over what I should have said, imagining all the various ways I could die and not be able to protect Eden, wondering if my husband and I will divorce one day, etc., I can assure you, I’ve thought of every worst case scenario.
Did reading my description give you anxiety? It gave me anxiety writing it. This is a quick rundown of my nights. I read that a woman’s brain changes after she has a baby, growing in regions dealing with empathy, emotion regulation, and re-wires itself to better detect danger. This explains a new mother’s obsessive-compulsive behaviors, including thoughts about things beyond their control in terms of their babies. Though it comforts me to know that part of this is a biological mama bear postpartum response, I also know that I had anxiety long before I became a mother. This is a little thing called spiritual warfare and its purpose it to destroy you. I know, that sounds dramatic, but scripture is very clear about Satan’s purpose. John 10:10 says that the thief comes only to kill and steal and destroy. Think about that. Thieves break into homes to steal all that they can find, grabbing fistfuls of objects they think have worth. That’s what anxiety is. A thief coming to steal your thoughts, kill your peace, and destroy your faith. Satan loves to attack a person when they are at their most vulnerable.
Some nights all I can do is lay in bed in terror, paralyzed by fear. If this happens too often during the week, my fight or flight response will be triggered and I’ll have to take deep breaths, trying to talk my body out of having a panic attack. In these moments all I can do is pray and remind myself of what I know to be true. There is power in the Word of God and in repeating the truth of Scripture to yourself. If this is you too, I want to share these truths with you and the reminder that the focus is not about our lack of control, but on trusting the One who is in control.
Five Truths
God is sovereign. He is above us, behind us, beneath us, before us, all around us. He is in control, which means you don’t have to be. Release your grip on wanting to know what the future holds. You don’t have to know; you just have to trust the One who does. Read Colossians 1:16-17.
God sees you. He understands how you feel. Hebrews 4:15 says that we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Our Savior humbled Himself in flesh and blood in human form to feel what we feel- all the pain, the grief, the fear, the anxiety, the temptations. He can sympathize with us because He has lived and felt in a broken world Himself and knows the struggles we face. He is the ultimate friend.
God is mighty to save, and He responds to your cries for help. He always answers the one who seeks Him with all their heart and delivers us from our fears. Read Psalms 34:4.
He is Immanuel, God with us. You can rest in the confidence that God is always with you. You are never alone and when you focus on that comforting truth, His presence will be your peace. Read Deuteronomy 31:6.
God is eternal. This is how you feel in the present, but it is not necessarily based on truth, simply on ever-changing emotions. We can’t trust our hearts, but we can trust God. We can fix our eyes on eternity. This is simply a moment in time, but this too shall pass. The day is coming when there will be no more suffering, no more tears, no more anxiety, and we will dwell with our God forever. Until then, we can keep an eternal perspective, knowing that all things will pass away one day except the Word of the Lord. Read Revelation 21:4.
Thorn In Our Side
As long as we are in this broken world, we will struggle with ugly, hard feelings. For some, anxiety is the thorn in our side that Paul spoke of, the heavy thing that you’ve always struggled with. For some it is simply a season they’re experiencing and for others, a problem so severe it affects the health of their daily life. For those in the latter category, I want to add that I am not a mental health specialist, but it is my hope for you that encouragement can be found in the words of Scripture. I believe wholeheartedly that our God is in the business of miracles, restoration, and rest. I’ll leave you with these additional Bible verses to calm your spirit in moments of anxiety and pray His peace over you.
Scripture for Anxiety
Joshua 1:9
Psalms 23:4
Psalms 34:4
Psalms 56:3
Isaiah 41:10
Isaiah 40:31
Zephaniah 3:17
Matthew 6:25-34
Matthew 10:29-31
John 14:27
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Hebrews 13:5-6
Philippians 4:6-7
2 Timothy 1:7
1 Peter 5:6-8
