I am someone who has struggled and still struggles with anxiety. My anxiety is often triggered when something happens that’s outside of my control. Feelings and thoughts swirl around, but at its core, I have discovered much of what triggers my anxiety is the feeling of helplessness and powerlessness.
I have a “fix-it” mentality. My brain works and re-works to make the pieces fit. When I work my brain and I can’t seem to find a solution, my anxiety is kicked into overdrive. Before I know it, I think of the worst possible case scenario. And then I fall into a depression that can last for hours. My faith wavers. My hope is depleted. The tunnel appears sealed on the other side and I struggle to find the light.
Sound familiar?
When I was younger, in my teen and young adult years, I wasn’t aware of the tools at my disposal to know how to deal with my spiraling anxiety and depression. I took medication, and even though that helped a fair amount, it often ended up medicating the problem instead of helping me deal with it head-on.
And so the cycle would continue, over and over and over again. That is until I found a way that helped me to release my anxiety. Not medicating it, not numbing it, not allowing it to take me out, but truly finding my way out of the storm before the waves dragged me under.
This is not a one-size-fits-all all guide. Depending on your level of anxiety, you may need additional tools and sources of aid. But I want to add that following these steps will help if you are open to it.
1. Releasing my worries to the Lord through prayer, worship, and reading the Word.
This has been life-changing for me in my struggle with anxiety. By releasing my worries to the Lord, I am handing my burdens (that were never meant for me to carry) into His capable, sovereign hands. At the moment, it can be darn impossible. The what-ifs can come flying at you…What if God doesn’t come through for me? What if everything falls apart? What if my worst fears are realized? We have to remember: Do we want to keep the illusion of control along with the anxiety or do we want peace? Worshiping, praying, and surrendering to Jesus will give you peace. When we re-direct our gaze to Jesus, we see and experience things from His angle. We may not understand, but we can trust. We may not have the answers, but we know God does. We can hope in the good God has planned for us. To me, this is a far better alternative than keeping the swirling storm of anxiety in my soul.
I have also found that I can make better decisions when I’m not anxious. Releasing my burdens to God allows Him to give me His wisdom, guidance, and peace. God may give me a clear direction that I wasn’t able to see when I was blinded by my fear (I have had this happen to me many times). Other times, there’s nothing I can do but wait. So I wait, choosing to receive God’s peace in the midst of it. When I wait, I don’t wait complacently, hoping that something will fall into my lap. I wait actively—that is, I wait in expectation of what God is going to do. I wait in anticipation. I am active in my pursuit of Jesus, of hearing what He has to say to me, and digging into His Word, knowing at the right time God will make it happen. I listen for His voice. I pray with prayers of thankfulness and gratitude. My goodness, it can be hard to do this most times! When I do, I experience peace instead of impatience or striving to make things work in my favor. All in all, anxiety never fixes anything, it only adds confusion. God’s peace provides us with sober-mindedness in the middle of what can be a complicated and tough circumstance.
An example of releasing my worries:
Jesus, my heart is in anguish. I am worried and burdened by many things. Lord, I don’t want to feel like this anymore. I am tired of worrying, stressing, and thinking of the worst case scenario. I feel hopeless, discouraged, and afraid. I want to fix this situation but I can’t. Oh, Lord, I have tried and it has only gotten worse. I can’t do anything but wait. The waiting is killing me. You say in your word to not be afraid or discouraged, for you are with me wherever I go (Joshua 1:9). Help me to believe that you are with me and that you are working in the midst of this. I release my anxiety to you! I release my confusion and mis-understanding. I release my pride of needing to fix this on my own. I confess that I need you, Jesus! I surrender to your leadership and your working, and humble myself before you. I ask for your peace and your joy to fill every part of me—in my mind, soul, and heart. Help me to remember your promises. Help me to believe and to trust in you in this situation. Give me your wisdom and guide me with your righteous right hand through this. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Breath Prayers In Releasing Worries
I have found this tool that has helped me tremendously in releasing my worries to the Lord: Breath Prayers. What are breath prayers, you may be asking? I find a verse or a saying that helps me visualize releasing my burdens to the Lord. I close my eyes and extend my hands out, palms up, to Jesus. I breathe in slowly through my nose and exhale through my mouth. I do this a couple more times. Then, I make it personal. As I breathe in, I breathe in a part of the scripture and exhale the rest of the verse. I do it repeatedly until I am in a place of rest and peace. An example may be: (Breathe In) Be still (Breathe out) and know that I am God. I may do this for a period of five to ten minutes, depending on the level of my anxiety. Try this! Praying Scripture over ourselves is not only a tried-and-true way to defend ourselves against spiritual attacks, but science has proven that taking in more air helps circulate much-needed oxygen to our bodies and our brains, giving us a dose of calm and tranquility. When we are stressed, we tend to hold our breath or not breathe in as fully as we would in a normal state of being. Mindfully breathing while speaking God’s Word is a great exercise—and it’s absolutely free!
2. Speaking and singing scripture over myself.
It’s so easy to allow my thoughts to spiral into a place of fear and uncertainty. This is why I can’t allow myself to just think only my thoughts, but also God’s. Oswald Chambers tells us that the Bible is God’s thoughts in written form. We can be assured that when we speak Scripture over ourselves, we are speaking God’s thoughts over us. What He thinks about us is life-changing, healing, and true. Pick out a few verses that can be your go-to’s in moments of anxiety and speak them over yourself. Our words have the power to give life or death (Proverbs 18:21) and blessings or curses (James 3). In moments of anxiety, I need life and blessings to be poured into me. After releasing my burdens to the Lord, I often flow into a time of speaking or singing God’s words over myself. I soak in them. I dive into them. I swim in them. And if I don’t feel like it’s penetrating, I do it all over again until it does. Let me tell you, it always does.
My go-to verses and songs when I am anxious:
“Rest in God alone, my soul, and put your hope in him; for he alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will not be shaken.” (Psalm 61)
“Do not be anxious about anything, but through prayer and petition, make your requests known to God, and the peace that passes all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.” (Phillipians 4:16)
Psalm 23
“Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
(There will be some verses that God will guide you to that will be specifically for your situation. Lean into God and allow Him to pour His encouragement over you!)
Songs from my “Hard-Times” Worship Playlist
- See A Victory by Elevation Worship
- I Speak Jesus by Charity Gayle
- Worn by Tenth Avenue North
- Keep Your Head Up by Fireflight
- Worship Through It by Tasha Layton
- Find You On My Knees by Kari Jobe
- Confident by Steffany Gretzinger
- Breath With Me by Lacey Sturm
- Peace Be Still by The Belonging Co & Lauren Daigle
- God Problems by Maverick City Music
- Draw Near by Passion
- Stand In Your Love by Bethel Music
- God’s Not by Dani Gokey
- Not Your Fight by Lacey Sturm
3. Thankfulness and gratitude.
Don’t skip over this one! Let me be clear and tell you how I used to skip over this one until, one time, this was the thing that actually released me from my anxiety. I was going through a conflict with a close friend and felt so much fear, uncertainty, and anguish. I intentionally opened a can of worms that I believed at the time the Lord was leading me to open—a place in our relationship that we needed to bring into the light. After opening the can of worms, my friend, agreeably, became defensive. I became fearful that our relationship was going under. I felt heartsick and soulsick because I loved this friend very much. We already had struggles in the past and were able to overcome them through God’s healing redemptive work. We were in a place of closeness and vulnerability that I had long prayed for…and suddenly, I saw it all going up in smoke. All because of my big mouth. And yet, the most heartbreaking thing was, that I sincerely believed we needed to come together in this if we wanted to continue to grow in our relationship.
After the initial conversation, we decided we would meet up and talk about this over the phone to clear up any confusion. I was in knots for days. The day of the call, I felt so sick that I couldn’t focus at work. I was afraid I would say the wrong thing, that my friend wouldn’t understand, and so on. I finally left work and went up to our church prayer room to spend time with the Lord. I wept before Him. And suddenly, I felt the Lord prompting me to thank Him for everything I could think of. To thank Him until I lost breath. I was so fed up with my anxiety, I was desperate for anything. And so I began to thank God for everything I could think of…for forty-five minutes. I began to feel my anxiety begin to ebb off and by the time I got to thanking God for my friend and everything in our relationship, my anxiety was gone. Then I prayed for our conversation. I prayed that the Holy Spirit would fill me and lead my words. I prayed that I wouldn’t come across as accusatory but with compassion and love. I prayed for understanding and clear communication between us. By the time the call came, I had no anxiety. Most of all, I felt the Spirit leading the entire conversation. I was able to voice my needs, and my friend was able to as well. In the end, we parted being refreshed, heard, understood, and able to move forward in our relationship to a higher plane. Thank you, Jesus!
Since then, I have used this tool in my times of anxiety. It works! Thankfulness has paved the way to peace and contentment in my life. Thankfulness decreases the power of fear and elevates the power of God. This is not to say that our thankfulness gives God power (because it doesn’t) but it elevates our thoughts into heavenly places, where God resides. This is a great tool to combat fear and the attack of the enemy, anytime and anywhere. Satan hates it when he is reminded of God’s promises and blessings in our lives. If we ever want to get under his skin and make the devil flee, thank God.
4. I process my anxiety with the Lord.
This is one I didn’t begin implementing until recently about a couple of years ago. In the explosion of emotions that come with anxiety, it’s impossible to get to the root of what’s causing it. For years, I would release my anxiety to the Lord until it subsided, and then went on my merry way, not thinking about the situation again. But when similar situations would arise, I would be struggling with the beast of anxiety all over again. It wasn’t until I went through a situation about two years ago that I began to wonder, perhaps there’s a better way to deal with this. At the time, my husband and I had been looking for a house (for years actually), and we came across a property that we believed the Lord was leading us to. Never mind that there was no possible way we could afford it with our resources, but we truly believed that if God was leading us there, He would provide the finances. After months of going through the process with the owners that seemed to move at a snail-speed, we were told that we needed to pay the full cost of the property surveillance, not including the extra cost of closing on the house (and being a commercial property, the cost to close was much higher). We saw yellow flags throughout the process and even some red flags, but chose to ignore them. Eventually, we decided to walk away from the property because of these red flags. We were no longer experiencing peace and realized that the Lord was not leading us there. We were so heartsick for a home that we fought tooth and nail for this place, hoping and believing that God could make it work.
After walking away from the home, we experienced a weight being lifted off our shoulders. We knew this was the right decision. After a few weeks, though, I began to have episodes of anxiety and depression. I would burst into tears randomly throughout the day. I thought I was under a demonic attack and began to go after the enemy with all that I had. No matter what I did, nothing worked. I finally had it and pleaded with the Lord, What is going on? Please take my anxiety and depression away! The Lord revealed to me in that moment that my anxiety and depression were being caused by disappointment. I was shocked! To understand in more detail why I was shocked, let me take you back to my journey of looking for a house.
Up until the last property that fell through, we had been looking, searching, and praying for a house for almost 5 years. It seemed like no matter how hard we tried, we could not find a place where we could make a home for our growing little family. Every time a potential home came up and it fell through, I struggled with disappointment and hopelessness. Not again. I would fall apart before the Lord, dust myself off, and then hope again. And then the same thing would happen again: a potential home came up but then would fall through. And I’d be pummeled. Over and over and over again. By the time this last property was within our sights, I made a deal with myself: This time, disappointment will not get the upper hand. I will be strong and not fall apart if this falls through. The Lord will be my strength and my song. For the 6 months we walked with the owners of this property, this was my conviction. When the property did fall through, I didn’t process the disappointment with the Lord as I had done in the past. Instead, I kept going, kept hoping, and kept walking with my head held high. Until I didn’t. Until my anxiety hit and my body began to tell me, You’re not okay.
After the Lord revealed to me the root of my anxiety, the disappointment of losing another home once again, and I processed my disappointment with Him, my anxiety and depression left. Just like that. Isn’t that amazing?
The Lord has been teaching me that anxiety isn’t the primary issue. The issue is what’s going on under the surface. He has revealed to me that anxiety is a symptom of a deeper problem. This is why medicating and numbing it isn’t a clear-cut solution. The problem remains, even if we think we have dealt with it.
This is why I want to share this step with you because this has helped me so immensely in my struggle with anxiety. After going through the other steps and releasing your anxiety, when your head is clear and your emotions are calm, process your anxiety with the Lord. Ask yourself this question:
Lord, what is causing my anxiety? Show me what is triggering this so we may pull the root out once and for all.
Once you can get to the root of what’s causing the anxiety, you may be able to pull it out and never struggle with that problem again. What I mean is that if the root that caused that particular anxious episode was, for example, financially related, God may uncover the root of a scarcity mindset beneath the surface. This was one the Lord had to pull out of me. I had a scarcity mindset due to the environment I grew up early in my childhood. I didn’t trust that God could provide for my needs. I believed that I had to have a plan A, B, and C to ensure we would never be in a place of poverty or need. I did everything possible to ensure that we would not end up on the streets again.
By processing and allowing the Lord to heal me of my scarcity stronghold, I am in a far better place of trust and rest when it comes to money and finances. When fear comes creeping in again (and the enemy will try to get that stronghold rooted back in there if he can), I know what I need to do. I turn to the Lord and release my burden to Him. I recount God’s faithfulness. I remember His provision. I praise Him for His continued generosity, trusting that He will see me through, no matter what.
Process your anxiety with the Lord and watch as He pulls those roots out of your own heart!
5. Involving community prayer and support.
This is a big one for me. For a long time, I lived life as a closed book. People weren’t allowed in. I certainly would not invite others into my struggles and air my dirty laundry. As I began to walk with the Lord, I realized how important it was to walk with a community—a close-knit tribe—who could pray for me when I was in the low of my lows. When we live on an island of isolation, we cut out one of the most valuable fruits God has given us to share with one another: Love. We love each other by helping one another, building each other up, and praying for each other. “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working (James 5:16).” Prayer has the power to break chains, bring dead bones to life, and speak God’s thoughts into fruition. When you are anxious, it’s okay to ask others to pray for you. Don’t mistake this as an opportunity to vent out all your frustrations and concerns to the world. Remember, life is in the power of the tongue! If you need to vent, ask the other person, but don’t allow it to preside over the conversation. Let the time of prayer be longer than the duration of the venting.
Community prayer and support have helped me so much in my times of anxiety! I remember a particular recent time when I was in a meeting with the staff at church, and I could hardly focus on the conversation at hand because of my many worries. They were sharing incredible testimonies within the church, and here I was worried about certain tasks I needed to do later in the day. My staff friends noticed and asked if they could pray with me. I accepted their prayer and it was like a night-and-day difference! Even though I had a full workload that was waiting for me after the meeting, I was able to enjoy the meeting and stay in the moment. What a gift community is to a dry and weary soul!
So, how about you? Do you struggle with anxiety? If so, perhaps you have implemented these steps and they’ve helped you! Or maybe you have done some but not all. Perhaps this is all new to you. I encourage you, if you haven’t tried something on this list, go for it! I pray these tools help you just as much as they have helped me. My fight with anxiety continues, but it is so much better than what it used to be. What used to be a daily and weekly struggle now only comes in waves here and there. Sometimes, I forget these tools are in my pocket and allow myself to go down the dangerous path of giving voice to the liars and deceivers in my head. This is what anxiety does to us—it feeds the spirit of fear until it grows bigger than the problem at hand. Worse yet, until it grows bigger than the hope of Jesus Christ, who is always there to help us in our times of trouble (Psalm 46:1).
Jesus tells us that through His divine power, we have everything we need to live a godly life (2 Peter 1:3). This includes overcoming anxiety. I want you to hold on to the hope that Jesus is restoring you and healing you. He wants to set you free from the spirit of fear! Scripture tells us that God doesn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). My prayer for you is that you believe this, truly believe that this promise is written for your life. Receive this promise, even in the midst of your battle with anxiety. God is healing you!
