When I was younger, I found myself in a constant state of worry. I worried about every single thing in my life. It became a big issue, because as I got older, that worry led to anxiety. The anxiety led to panic attacks, and the panic and anxiety I felt only fueled the depression I felt.

Now, I often find myself worry-free and anxiety-free! I would like to share what I realized and what God showed me in hopes that you too can live worry free!

What is Worry?

I feel that this is the best place to start because when discussing worry, it can sort of lose its meaning. So, what does it really mean?

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines worry as this: mental distress or agitation resulting from concern usually for something impending or anticipated.

Most of us are well aware that worry can cause distress and agitation, but the detail we often overlook is impending. This definition reveals to us that we often worry about something in the future. That can be an important test, a family reunion, anything.

How often do we think about what could happen? How about the crazy scenario that will never happen?

We do it too often and it’s only going to lead to more and more issues.

Why Do We Worry?

It’s very easy to find someone that has some sort of anxiety. That is, because according to Medical News Today, “almost 1 in 5 people” struggle with anxiety disorders. That is an absurd amount.

It begs the question, why do we really worry?

I believe that our thoughts are the most critical culprit in our battle with anxiety.

If we look at what anxiety really is, it can be considered a good thing. We need anxiety to tell us not to run at and hug a bear. We need it to be alert while driving. The uncertain is always something that we have to be aware of, in certain cases.

A problem arises when we think about the uncertain in everything we do, and in an extreme manner. For instance, one doesn’t need to think on the uncertain when going to the store. The store is most all of the time a safe place. There is nothing there that is really going to hurt you. Although this is true, I do remember a time I had a panic attack in a store, simply because I let my thoughts run wild.

This happens far too often. We think on uncertainty and let that control and move our thoughts. Fortunately, we have a way to completely counter that.

Take Control of Your Mind

Taking control over your mind and thoughts is the key to countering anxiety.

As we all know, our minds are a powerful place. They can really affect the entire body, and we as humans are actually the only species that can think the way we can. That being said, it doesn’t make much sense for us to treat it so horribly, right?

I know you’re probably thinking you don’t treat it so bad, but here are a few ways we hurt our own minds.

• We feed it junk. We often fill our minds with the things of this world, whether it be music, movies, tv. It hurts us more than we realize.

• We don’t take ahold of our thoughts. If we don’t take our thoughts and control them, they will control us through anxiety and worry.

• We let it wander. This may be a new idea to some, but we as humans are not always naturally good. When we let our mind wander, it can often wander into a bad place.

Here, I hope to address all three of these and show how we can counter each one.

Watch What You’re Feeding It

I hope we all know by now that we, as Christians, should look like the rest of the world. We are supposed to be different. Live different. Act different. However, we expect to do this, by taking in the same stuff.

Think about the content you consume. Does it really do your mind a favor?

Do you watch scary movies at night and live in fear? Maybe all you watch is violence and you are an aggressive person. It may be a lot less obvious but there is no doubt that what we consume, affects us.

The way that you fight that is consuming the word of God. Jesus himself is called the bread of life. He is the only thing that can truly sustain any of us and his word, the Bible, is exactly how he does that.

Through his word, I have been sustained many times and I always feel a sense of peace. His word alleviates my mind and relieves me of my worries, at least it has on many occasions. It is the key to feeding your body on what it really needs.

Take Your Thoughts Captive

We discussed briefly the affect that uncertainty can have in our lives. It can really lead us to think on many things.

Thinking on the uncertain can be helpful at times but worry causes us to think on the uncertain to an extreme. When we let our thoughts be led by the uncertain, worry has its way with us.

Therefore, it’s incredibly important to think about the certain and let what is certain about your future be on your mind.

You can look at it from a more worldly perspective and think about how that math test won’t make you fall completely behind or that you won’t get tomatoes thrown at you when you speak publicly, but we should really try to look at it from a Biblical perspective.

When you look at the Bible, there are a ton of promises in there. That is because God is a good father and doesn’t want his people to be in worry or in fear. If you want more insight on the promises, you can check out our post here.

Some of the greatest promises found in the Bible that have helped me with my anxiety are:

• “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)
• “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:37)
• “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17).

When we take our thoughts about the uncertain and make them adhere to the certain, our thinking will change. We will start to see that what we find uncertain will not matter to us as much as certain does. the best way to do that is with scripture.

These verses have all helped me relieve my anxiety and worry as I can certainly say that those things will happen.

Don’t Wander into Worry

Humans are not naturally good. I think this is clear but if not, let’s use Jesus as an example.

Now Jesus was perfect. He didn’t do anything wrong, and his sinless nature is the reason we are able to have salvation. However, he was not born of man. He was born from a woman but was created by God. This makes Jesus fully God and fully man.

Jesus didn’t inherit the sin nature of man, but the perfect nature of God.

We inherit the sin nature automatically, which is why you can often find babies and children that have tendencies to be mean or hurtful. Of course, how bad someone is is completely dependent on that person though.

Anyways, the way a person thinks often tends to lean towards negative and bad thoughts, especially nowadays, which is why we must keep track of our thoughts.

Last week, we spoke about the focus of our lives and how we must keep our eyes focused on the Lord. You can read the full post here. This concept relates to worry in that we must keep our thoughts on the things of Jesus.

Philippians 4:8 tells us this:

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

When we think on these things, worry and anxiety have no chance at all to creep in. This prevents us from wandering away from the Lord in our thoughts completely.

Practical Application

It’s so important with a topic like this one to leave with next steps. Here are a few ways that you can counter it.

• When worried about something specific, find a Bible verse that completely contradicts that thought.

• You can realize something without thinking about it. If you find something that you can’t get your mind off of, go on a run or do something to place your thoughts elsewhere.

• Set your thinking on the Lord. As a precaution, make sure you’re already thinking of things that are holy and Biblical. This helps us to prevent from getting too off track to begin with.

Final Thoughts

Worry may seem like a constant battle for you, and it may feel like it’s never going to end but have hope. The battle plan for worry and anxiety really is simple; keep control of your thoughts.

When we let our thoughts run wild, we will be run into the ground with worry, and it will overtake us.

I remember when my worry had gotten so extreme that I felt like I was forever stuck. But the Lord pulled me out. Remember that he can for you too.

I want to leave you with a quote that really helped me. Earl Nightingale said this:

“The mind moves in the direction of our currently dominant thoughts.”

Remember that when you go about your day. Whatever you make dominant in your mind is what inevitably controls is.

Take control back and completely free yourself from worry.