Beating Anxiety at Its Own Game Sýnishorn

Call It Out

Are you someone who gets worried easily? Do you have panic attacks that immobilise you at the most inopportune of times? Do you get stressed and lose your peace alarmingly often?

It’s okay to admit that you suffer from anxiety. Half of the problem is the stigma associated with this issue and the fact that we feel we must hide what we are going through. We experience freedom when we are open with God, ourselves and trusted friends that we are battling this invisible but very real enemy. Anything that holds us captive loses its power when we call it out of the darkness and into the light. in the light we can see clearly what we are dealing with and certify if it even warrants the attention we are paying it. 

Our anxieties can be based on very real and troubling happenings in our life or can be based on imagined or irrational fears. Once we admit that we are struggling with it, we can look closer at what is triggering this anxiety and lay it all out before our God who asks us to cast every anxiety onto him because he cares for us. Admitting and addressing it reduces the shame and guilt that are frequent companions to anxiety while also enabling us to seek help from the one who knows us the best, our Creator. On bringing God into the jumble of emotions we are dealing with, through His word and through continued conversation with Him we will begin to experience more clarity to our situation. He may not give you the answer to your question that you want, but His quiet presence and gentle strength will envelop you and bring peace..  

As your relationship with God begins, you will find that relinquishing the need for control is necessary in order to let God be God and you be you. Handing it over to God is not a once-in-a-lifetime thing but a regular discipline, sometimes even an everyday sort of thing. You can trust God to look after you like the loving and gentle Heavenly Father He is with no judgement or harshness. He longs instead for you to draw closer to Him so that you can rest in His embrace and trust Him with every concern of your heart. 

He also desires for you to find freedom from the anxiety that keeps you entrapped and live a life of unbound joy, peace and rest. God is deeply invested in your healing and deliverance so let’s not shut Him out. Will you today and every day face your anxiety head on boldly with the courage that Christ gives you and then humbly hand it over to Him to handle?

Prayer:

Dear Lord,

I admit I have been struggling with anxiety in the area of _____________. I need You to help me. Forgive me for holding on tighter to my fears than I do to You. I need You close to me and I give You this worry. I ask that You carry this burden for me. Thank You for the finished work of Your Son on the cross, to which my anxiety is nailed once and for all. Help me live in freedom and enjoy the life You have given me.

In Jesus' name,

Amen.