How to Fight Anxiety

[Cast] all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7)

Psalm 56:3 says, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.”

Notice: it does not say, “I never struggle with fear.” Fear strikes, and the battle begins. So the Bible does not assume that true believers will have no anxieties. Instead, the Bible tells us how to fight when they strike.

For example, 1 Peter 5:7 says, “[Cast] all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” It does not say, you will never feel any anxieties. It says, when you have them, cast them on God. When the mud splatters your windshield and you temporarily lose sight of the road and start to swerve in anxiety, turn on your wipers and squirt your windshield washer.

So my response to the person who has to deal with feelings of anxiety every day is to say: that’s more or less normal. At least it is for me, ever since my teenage years. The issue is: How do we fight them?

The answer to that question is: we fight anxieties by fighting against unbelief and fighting for faith in future grace. And the way you fight this “good fight” (1 Timothy 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7) is by meditating on God’s assurances of future grace and by asking for the help of his Spirit.

The windshield wipers are the promises of God that clear away the mud of unbelief, and the windshield washer fluid is the help of the Holy Spirit. The battle to be freed from sin — including the sin of anxiety — is fought “by the Spirit and belief in the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13).

The work of the Spirit and the word of truth. These are the great faith-builders. Without the softening work of the Holy Spirit, the wipers of the word just scrape over the blinding clumps of unbelief on the windshield.

Both are necessary: the Spirit and the word. We read the promises of God and we pray for the help of his Spirit. And as the windshield clears so that we can see the welfare that God plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11), our faith grows stronger and the swerving of anxiety straightens out.

Comments

"Exposing Jezebel's Influence" James W. Goll, Franklin, TN

James W. Goll, Franklin, TN We are in a last days battle for the true and pure prophetic to come forth. It is a battle between the demonic powers of Jezebel's influence and the promised restoration of the spirit of Elijah. In the natural, Biblical setting, Queen Jezebel manipulated King Ahab and pressured the prophets into hiding. Elijah came forth with an authentic prophetic mantle to dismantle the ruling false power. As it was in this historical context, there are parallel lessons for us to learn and apply in our day. It is time to expose Jezebel's influence and for the authority and anointing of the true prophetic to disarm this fierce, dark force! Let's look at Queen Jezebel's background and the tactics she demonstrated. Background on Queen Jezebel and Her Tactics A Look at 1 Kings 16:31, "It came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal...

Building Boldness from the Verse "God Has Not Given Us a Spirit of Fear"

When you look in the dictionary the word fear has two main definitions: A distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, threat or evil whether the threat is real or imagined; and a reverential awe, as in the fear of the Lord. With this in mind, what does the verse “God has not given us a spirit of fear” mean? Let’s start by looking at the whole verse which is found in 2 Timothy 1:7: “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” The New King James says it this way – “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” Based on the definition of the word, it can’t mean reverential awe because that wouldn’t make sense. Clearly fear means something else so let’s dig deeper to understand what it means. Let’s also consider the proper response we should have to fear. Photo credit: Unsplash/Aziz Acharki ...

How to Know if You're under Spiritual Attack

As Christians, we wish that once we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, everything would immediately go well in our lives. However, if you’ve walked with Christ for more than 24 hours, you probably already know that is simply not the case. We can experience true peace, joy, and hope with Christ; however, living on this side of eternity doesn’t necessarily become easier. In fact, there is one thing that may intensify when we choose to follow Christ, and that’s spiritual attack. Spiritual attack is opposition from the enemy in your life to prevent you from living out your faith in Christ. Once you are saved the enemy can’t separate you from God but he’ll do his very best to discourage you from living out the abundant life Christ promises to believers ( John 10:10 ) and being a witness to the goodness of Christ to others. We know this to be true because we see spiritual attack throughout the Bible . Examples of Spiritual Attack in the Bible In t...

Battle of Spiritual Realm

Search This Blog