You can’t place the root of it, all your know is that the Anxiety is always there. You have tried all you know to do, but it’s not leaving. If this sounds familiar, then your not alone. Anxiety disorders affect over 40 million adults in the United States. In this post, I’m going to give 4 Biblical tips that I used to overcome Anxiety.
Here are 4 Biblical Tips for Overcoming Anxiety
Have you ever had to host a party? Your mind was split between entertaining guests, cooking, cleaning, and so on? Now imagine Jesus in the flesh was coming over to attend this party.
Anxious Much? Me Too.
That is what happened to Martha. Jesus came over, and she was freaking out trying to get everything ready. Her sister Mary was doing what little siblings often do when you’re working so hard. Nothing. She sat and listened to Jesus.
Martha Rebuked Mary in front of Jesus for not helping. Anxiety often tries to reproduce Anxiety in Others.
Jesus’ response is astounding, and the first tip towards conquering anxiety.
Tip 1. Redirect Your Cares
Luke 10:41-42 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
The fact that Mary chose the good portion proves there was a bad portion she could have chosen. Mary had other cares, but she chose the one that mattered most, being with Jesus.
The word Jesus uses here for Anxiety is the Greek word “Merimna”- and it means ” to care,” but in a distracting way. It comes from the root word “Merizo,” which means “to divide or cut into pieces.”
Anxiety comes from things you care about that divide and cut your heart into a bunch of different pieces. Sound about right?
Anxiety is care in the wrong direction. God made you care, the Devil twisted it into Anxiety. Anxiety is the counterfeit of care.
So how do you begin to fight Anxiety back?
Redirect your cares.
If Anxiety is caused by distracting cares, then focusing our care back towards what is most important, is the beginning first step to overcoming it.
A practical step that began to help me was to organize my care. How? Make a list and write out your cares in order of their priority to you. What you care about most on top and least at the bottom.
Writing it out will force you to direct your cares and get them out. This alone will bring so much clarity!
Tip 2. Choose What Matters Most
Often, we have to choose between what is good, and what is best. There are things you have to do that are good, but are they important now? Do they matter most at this moment?
In this day and age, the ability to focus is a superpower. Everyone everywhere is trying to get your attention. Try to give it to everyone, and you will give it to no one. You get to choose what gets the best part of you.
Martha tried to divide herself into too many pieces and was now distracted. She missed Jesus sitting in her living room. In the midst of the chaos, Mary chose correctly. “Right now,” she decided, “Jesus matters most. I choose him. “
Practically, start your list, and stay on topic. When you finish priority 1, move on to priority 2. Accept that you won’t get it all done. Whenever you run out of time, draw the line, and start again tomorrow. At least what matters most got done first. Refuse to get divided by Anxiety.
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Tip 3. Throw Up On Jesus
1 PETER 5: 7 NLT says “casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”
That word casting means “to throw upon.”
Each care holds a certain amount of emotional weight. That’s why thousands of little cares feel so heavy.
As Max Lucado says in his book Anxious for Nothing (affiliate link) “The presence of anxiety is unavoidable, but the prison of anxiety is optional.” Though I may feel anxious in this moment, what I choose to do about it is what really matters. I choose if I stay in this anxious moment, or if I get out.
When I feel myself starting to swirl out, I have to choose to stop myself from getting divided and go take a break. I go throw my cares upon God.
Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
As I learned from Praying with the Underground Church of China. The antidote for anxiety is prayer. I stop what I’m doing, and go for a walk to pray. I vent my whole heart to God. He is a big boy, he can take it. I tell him the unfiltered version of how I feel.
Tip 4. Thank Him
After you vomit all your emotions on to God, after a while you will notice you kind of hit a lull. You run out of things to say. That’s when you follow the next part of the verse above. You begin to thank him for what he has done.
Telling God your needs gets the junk out. Thanking him puts the medication in. It recalibrates our hearts.
I find anything and everything to thank him.
Philippians 4: 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
After I thank him for a while, the strangest thing starts to happen. I start to feel a quieting in my spirit and emotions. Like the verse promises, “you will experience a peace that surpasses understanding.” I don’t know why, but I just start to feel peace again.
We must bring God into the picture if we are to put anxiety on the defense. We must choose to direct our cares on to Him. We must learn to choose what matters most. We must learn to cast our cares on him, and ultimately thank him for what he has done.
These are just a few beginning steps that have helped me. Next week I will tackle a few more. But I know there are so many more small tips that can greatly help! I would like to hear what works for you?
I try to slow down. The pace I go is at a jogging pace. He is walking and I am jogging. I end up going in front of him at a jogging pace and have to slow down and walk with him.
I call casting your anxieties on Jesus (1 Peter 5:7) “tossing practice.” I toss (cast) things onto Jesus. He likes in on the game and only tosses good stuff back. For example, if I toss anxiety onto Jesus, he tosses back peace. Sometimes, I have to toss the same thing onto Jesus multiple times. He understands! And now, Taylor has given some more good guidelines for dealing with anxiety. Thanks, Taylor!
I never get anxiety. But if I ever do i will cast all my anxiety on the feet of Jesus I can overcome anxiety by slowing down and just talking to God thank you Taylor for the guidelines
Prayer does it for me. But I really don’t know how to cast everything at His feet. Because I believe in “pray, then do”. Thankfully, the Lord always comes through to remove the cause of my anxiety.
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