Breaking Anxiety's Grip By Michelle BengtsonSample

Day Three

Is It God or Is It Me?

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 10:5

As God walked with me in my journey to relinquish worry, anxiety, and fear, He showed me that exchanging them for His peace isn’t a onetime event. It’s a process. I’m grateful that the book of Psalms gives us a glimpse of David’s struggle, a bit like spiritual whiplash. In one breath, he laments about his worries and fears, and in the next, he returns to profess his faith in God, who reigns bigger than all his fears. 

The best way to prepare to fight worry, anxiety, and fear is to learn God’s Word and plant it firmly in our hearts. Then we must take our thoughts captive and discern if they are from God or from the enemy. When they’re from the enemy, we must exchange them for God’s truth, just as Paul instructs us in 2 Corinthians 10.

Many people have asked me how they can determine if their thoughts are from God or from the enemy. Here are some suggestions: 

* When God speaks, He never contradicts the Bible or His character. That is why it’s so important to know what the Bible says. 

* God never condemns or shames us like the enemy does. God forgives us, and His voice gently corrects us out of love, to keep us in a right relationship with Him. 

* God leads us and stills us, whereas the enemy pushes and rushes us. 

* God’s voice is comforting, calming, and reassuring, while the enemy worries, frightens, and stresses us. 

* While the enemy confuses, God encourages. God is never the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33). 

To gain freedom from worry, anxiety, and fear, we must shift the responsibility for all outcomes to God. We must choose not to be anxious but to keep our peace by trusting that just as God causes the leaves to remain green and a crop to grow, so He will help us fulfill whatever He asks of us. “Whatever he asks us to do, he equips us through!” When it comes to keeping our peace rather than letting our hearts become troubled or anxious, we have a choice to make: choose to trust in God’s powerful and loving provision or try to do it ourselves. 

God, I want to take every thought captive in obedience to You. Help me to choose to trust in You instead of in myself. In Jesus’s name, amen.