Anxiety can cause serious health problems, if you do not
find ways to keep your worries in check. For example, research shows that a
man’s risk of getting a heart disease or a heart attack later in life increases
if
he is diagnosed with anxiety in his late teens or early 20’s.
So, how do you deal with anxiety as a Christian? What do you
do to check the fears and worries that trouble your mind as a child of God? How
do you deal with anxiety that is keeping you awake at night?
In this article, I want to show you how to deal with anxiety the Christian way, if you have a personal
relationship with Jesus, so that you can save yourself unnecessary health
bills.
So, what should you do?
1.
Remember God’s Deliverance Yesterday
In 1 Samuel 17: 36,
37 when David was facing a big challenge, Goliath, he said, “Your servant has killed both lions and
bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them.” In
other words, he had faced challenges in the past and he believed he had what it
took to deal with the challenge that he was facing him.
In verse 37, David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of
the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” David had the
faith that the God who saved him from trouble yesterday, the God who helped him
to solve tough problems in the past, the God who had helped him to overcome
great challenges would help him to overcome the challenge he was facing.
I have to deal with anxiety every day because I have so many
challenges that I am battling with—my writing career has not taken off yet, I have
not earned living income yet, I am battling four diseases which cause me pain
and humiliation, and that makes fear grip my heart and I get worried about the
future.
However, when I remind myself of the fact that God gave me a
scholarship which helped me to get a University education, that God has touched
the heart of someone who has helped me to get a laptop, that God has helped me
to get a Google Adsense account which has now given me the opportunity to earn
money, that though my circumstances are very bad God provides me with food
every day, it fills my heart with gratitude and that drives away fears and
worries because I see that the God who helped me in the past, and who is
helping me today, will help me tomorrow.
Therefore, remind yourself of what God has done for you
before.
- Take a sheet of paper and
create two columns on it. Label one column “Challenges I Have Faced In The
Past”. Label the other column “Ways God has Helped Me To Solve These
Problems.”
- Write down 20 problems
that you faced in the past in the appropriate column, and the ways God
helped you to solve those problems in the other column.
- Ruminate on what God has
done for you and it will strengthen your faith in the Lord. Consequently,
you will believe that God will help you to solve the problems that may be
causing you to get worried and that will help you to feel relaxed.
2.
Praise And Worship God When You Feel Anxious
In Acts 16: 25 , as
Paul and Silas praised and worshipped God at midnight, God caused an earthquake
to occur in the prison which set the two men free from the shackles that were
binding them. In that same way, when you praise and worship God when you are in
a “mental prison,” when you are bound by fears, He will cause an “earthquake”
in your life which will set you free.
I do this when I feel very anxious, or I listen to
inspirational gospel music on radio, I song along to some of them, I feel my
spirit is strengthened, I feel happy, and that makes it easy for me to calm
down.
So, when you are gripped by nervous feelings as a result of
your fears, or when you fear that something will happen as you prepare to write
an exam, as you go for a job interview, as you go out to search for a job, or
as you go to work to face your intimidating boss again, start to praise and
worship God.
To help you do this, remind yourself of some of the good
things God has done for you, or remind yourself of God’s wonderful creations,
such as your body, the sun, moon, stars, mountains, valleys, and oceans, and
you will feel glad and that will help you to lift a song of praise to God.
Sing it will gladness and joy, focus on God, let it come
from the depth of your heart, and God will honor you because you honor Him and He will bring
positive thoughts into your mind, just as He dropped a thought in Nehemiah’s
head in Nehemiah 7: 5, which will help
to dispel the mental torment you are going through.
3.
Remind Yourself Of God’s Love For You
Sometimes, when you are going through suffering, when you experience
one disappointment after the other, when life is full of challenges and
difficulties, you tend to think God hates you or God delights to see you suffer,
you feel cut off from God, you feel the
connection to heaven no longer exists, and that can make you anxious.
However, when you regularly remind yourself of God’s love
for you, when you refuse to believe that God has abandoned you and that God no
longer cares about you, it can help you to feel relaxed.
So, every day , make positive self-affirmations such as
these, “God sent Jesus to die on the
cross because of me. God loves me
and that is why He has not killed me inspite of all the sins I have committed
against Him. God loves me and that is why I am going through these challenges
because He wants to test me so that I can prove that I am a true son. God loves
me and that is why inspite of the challenges , I still eat every day, that is
why He protects me every day, that is why He has helped me in the past and I
believe He will make a way for me to get out of this bad situation.” It will
help you to feel that the God who loves you will not let you suffer forever,
and that He will provide ways of escape even when the worst comes to pass, and
that can help you to set your mind at rest.
4.
Read Matthew 6: 25—34 Every Day
Read this passage in which Jesus talks about the
fruitlessness of worrying, and in which Jesus tells us not to be anxious about
our lives, every morning and evening.
This passage will teach you that worry and anxiety are
needless because the God who takes care of sparrows, who takes care of birds,
is capable of taking care of you. Additionally, it will teach you that just as
you were able to deal with challenges in the past, by the grace of God, you
will be able to handle the challenges that you will face tomorrow and so you
must learn to live one day at a time. Therefore, you will find it easier to
calm down.
5.
Meditate On Bible Verses
Research
shows that meditation is one way a person can deal with anxiety. You
can therefore practice Biblical meditation to help you to deal with anxiety.
How do you do that?
- Pick one Bible verse or
Bible passage that you will focus on for the day. It must be a verse that
teaches about how to deal with anxiety, such as Isaiah 41: 10 or Philippians
4: 6.
- Spend five minute reading
the verse or passage and then ruminate on it for another ten minutes. Commit
the whole verse to memory if you can. Or, commit the lessons you learn
from it to memory.
- Throughout the day, as you
go about your activities, find time to think about the passage and what it
tells you about anxiety, and what to do to be rid of anxiety.
- Implement what it teaches
you.
When you consider
that everything is in God’s hands, you will feel relaxed and calm inside your
soul.
6.
Fast Often
When you choose to forego eating food so that you can
concentrate on reading your Bible, praying, glorifying God, humbling yourself
before God, it helps you to control yourself better, you learn self-discipline and
that can help you to control negative thoughts, which are sometimes the cause
of anxiety, better.
Scientists
also confirm that fasting can help a person to deal with anxiety. So,
you can use fasting intermittently, especially when you are facing huge
challenges which are giving you insomnia and which scare you, to deal with
anxiety before an interview, for example, or to deal with anxiety caused by
guilt so that you can ask for forgiveness from Jehovah.
7.
Prayer
Praying
can also help one to deal with anxiety.
Therefore, every day, say a prayer such as, “Dear Heavenly Father, I thank You
for Your mercies and Your grace. Father, you know that since I finished school
I have been jobless. That is causing me sleepless nights and I am filed with
anxiety as a result. I want to earn so that I can take care of myself and
marry, Lord, I want to earn so that I can pay my bills, help my family, and
enjoy the world and the wonders You have created. Please, help me to get a good
paying job. Make a way for me just as You showed Peter how to earn money, just
as You turned around a great famine in Samaria and provided abundant food
later, and just as You helped Jacob to get a good paying job. I know You will
be merciful to me and I glorify You for that. Amen.”
Conclusion
How to deal with
anxiety the Christian way is to remember what God has done for you in the
past, which will fill you with peace, to praise God for His goodness, to remind
yourself of God’s love, to focus on Matthew 6 every day, as well as meditate,
fast, and pray.
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