The Crippling Nature Of Anxiety

When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy. Psalm 94:19 

 "Bad Nerves" runs in my family. That is just another way of describing anxiety that has afflicted some family members including myself. I have battled it nearly all of my life. Even as a boy I tended to worry. And being the oldest of three children the responsibility of being the eldest, along with there being an absentee father, allowed the anxiety to become "normal" for me. 

Yet I have not stood by helplessly as anxiety has buffeted me over the years. I have counted upon the Lord, filled my mind with His words from the Bible, and depended mightily upon Jesus to see me through. 

Worry is dread of a bad outcome. Fear is the expectancy of terrible events or enduring what we comprehend as a terrible event. Anxiety is an emotion that latches onto fear and worry driving our thoughts in a direction away from faith. Faith is the antidote to fear and worry. 

When we put our complete trust in God, knowing that He is sovereign over all of the events in our life, even the fearful and tragic ones, we can begin to lay aside our worries. If we lay our fears and worries at Jesus' feet He knows the best way to deal with them. Leaving them with Jesus we will cease to be controlled by Anxiety. 

Anxiety can cripple us, especially when we give it a steady diet of fear and worry to feed upon. When we let our thoughts run down the darkest path of our imagination, when we let negativity and doubt about God's goodness and provision overcome the reality of God's sovereignty, we set ourselves up for increasing anxiety. 

Life will bring us troubles and fears. Every day will have its challenges. While we cannot always control out-of-touch emotions, we can always call upon God to help us with our worry and fears. When we place our anxiety under God's authority we can find courage, faith, and the boldness we need to move forward despite emotions and thoughts that would drag us down. 

Sometimes our anxiety needs medication because of biological issues. Other times we may need counselling to help rein in our emotions. Yet often the situations we find ourselves in with anxiety is because instead of faith, we have let fear and worry steal away our focus instead of focusing on God's Goodness. 

Prayer: Dear Lord deliver us from fears and vain imaginations. Give us boldness and wisdom and the understanding that You are always in control and ultimately there is nothing to fear. Amen. 

Karlton Douglas 

Copyright 2017