Breaking the Anxiety Cycle

How are you dealing with your anxiety? Are you depending on someone or something to get you through? Do you ignore your anxious thoughts and hope they’ll just go away?

Anxiety won’t go away on its own and we can’t just WILL it away. Anxiety brings chaos to the body, mind, and spirit. It wears you out. When you wake up tired, each new day’s worries lead to more anxiety. You need to get off the “hamster wheel”!

Dealing with anxiety takes work. It takes dealing with lies you have believed, hurts you have held on to, and wrong patterns of thinking you have embraced.

Dealing with anxiety also requires God’s intervention and help. Jesus encourages us to yoke ourselves to him so that we can find rest from carrying heavy burdens (Matthew 11:28–30). He doesn’t want you to face life’s trials and worries alone. He offers to walk alongside you as your comfort, strength, and hope.

Today, if you’re struggling with anxiety, be willing to accept from Jesus the courage to face your worries head-on. Here are some steps to take to break anxiety’s grip and begin your journey toward freedom:

• Uncover the sources of your anxiety (Psalm 139:23–24). Set time aside to pray. Instead of asking God to remove your anxiety, ask him to show you what is causing it. Do you struggle to trust God? Do you believe he loves you enough to help you? Do you believe God is mighty enough to deal with your challenging situations? Let God reveal the areas in your thinking and behavior that need to be aligned with his truth.
• Stop fearing fear (2 Timothy 1:7). Fear feeds on itself. The more we think about it, the bigger fear becomes in our minds. You combat fear with faith. Instead of focusing on what you are afraid of, focus on God and his power to help you overcome the anxieties that consume you.
• Ask God to renew your mind (Philippians 4:8). Ask God to replace unhealthy patterns of thinking with his truths. On a piece of paper, write down and meditate on these five Scriptures: Philippians 4:6–8, Colossians 3:2, Isaiah 41:10, Psalm 4:8, and Joshua 1:9. (We will look at them again tomorrow.) Let God’s Word soak in and strengthen you.
• Offer up your prayers and requests to God (1 Peter 5:7). Share your concerns and fears with God. God hears, and he wants to help. His Spirit will empower you to overcome your fears as soon as you cast all your cares on him.

Today’s Prayer:

Lord, empower me to look beyond my circumstances. Overcome my anxiety. Help me exchange my attempts at control, escape, and worry for your perfect peace. I choose to trust you and your wisdom in every circumstance. I choose to cast all my cares on you because I know you care for me. Today, I surrender—again!—the things that have kept me imprisoned inside my heart. Walk with me, Lord, into freedom and victory over anxiety. In Jesus’s name. Amen.

This devotional by the American Bible Society is available at Bible.com. (MCN)