What are your strategies to overcome anxiety and be at peace? What are you doing to overcome anxiety and be at peace?
Have you had these moments when something or somebody suddenly disrupts your day and from one second to another brings confusion and anxiety? Bad news, a problem at work, a conflict at home, or some life-altering traumatic event can plunge us into a constant state of anxiety and make us lose our peace.
How can we best respond in such situations and restore peace in our minds and emotions? What are the biblical strategies to overcome anxiety that we can use?
Overcome Anxiety by Giving Up Our Peace and Embracing God’s Peace
There are two kinds of peace. The first is our kind of peace – meaning we are relaxed and confident when things go our way, and according to our expectations, wishes, and plans. Naturally, this peace is disturbed by every single thing or problem that does not fit in our scenarios. Then we usually react by trying to keep our little worlds under control. The more we try, the more our anxiety rises.
And then there is this wonderful gift – God’s peace. It is available for every believer through the Holy Spirit. This is a supernatural peace, the product of our acknowledgment of the loving presence of God. This is a peace of mind rooted in the confidence that God loves us, and that He is always with us, working for our best interest. And that He is in control because only He has the power and the wisdom to run the show.
The path to go from our shaky kind of peace to God’s peace is called surrender. We consciously by faith choose to release control, making known our prayers and concerns to God with thanksgiving and submitting to His control situations and people. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)
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Remembering – a Powerful Strategy to Overcome Anxiety
There are two other powerful strategies to overcome anxiety – remembering and forgetting. Do you know that we are called to remember God and meditate on His word daily? Psalm 105 is a beautiful invitation and reminder to acknowledge God’s presence and do life with Him with a thankful heart.
Remembering God helps us to redirect our attention from the negative thought patterns causing anxiety and worry and shift it to the Rock, at our Centre of Stability. We are to remember daily God’s love, His faithfulness, His words and promises, His deeds.
Remembering God helps us overcome the negative thought patterns causing anxiety. #anxiety #thoughts #mentalhealth Share on XWe do this by engaging in prayer and praise, calling upon His name, reflecting and talking about what He has done for us in the past, boasting with His name, singing, and choosing to rejoice despite the circumstances. God invites us to a conscious choice to search and find our joy, shelter, and peace in Him.
Nevertheless, He is also a God, Who remembers – His covenant, His promises, all our sorrows and tears, and our deepest desires and needs. He is a God, Who remembers us every day choosing in Christ to forget our sins and transgressions.
Forgetting Is also Necessary to Overcome Anxiety
We are to remember but we are also to forget. It is our choice of what to remember and what to forget that leads to victory in overcoming anxiety and being at peace. What do we need to forget?
In the first place, these are our sins and the sins of others. There is no condemnation in Christ and God has called us to a lifestyle of forgiveness and soft hearts free from resentment, bitterness, and malice. We are to forget the offenses and disappointments and learn to be humble. This means to live unoffended by submitting our rights to God and asking for healing for our wounds.
The second thing to forget is the past. God urges us to let go of the past and not to dwell there. Instead, He invites us to see the new things He is doing every day. (Isaiah 43:18-19) The prophet Ezekiel describes 4 living creatures that are carriers of God’s glory. These creatures are following the Spirit of God and moving only forward, without turning back. (Ezekiel 1:12, Ezekiel 10:11)
This is our direction too. Let’s stop putting more energy into the “why” question. Instead let’s focus on new questions and issues, on the new things God is doing and showing us today.
The third thing to forget is the temporary things that do not matter for eternity. We need discernment and wisdom from God about this and the grace to choose rightly and invest ourselves in things that matter.
Overcome Anxiety by Creating These Daily Habits
- Forgiving, letting go
- Praying
- Giving thanks
- Worshipping / Singing / Listening to worship music
- Reading and meditating on God’s word
- Speaking God’s Word
- Saying “Jesus, you are my peace”.
More Encouragement for You
ANXIETY is a painful experience but it has the potential to bring us closer to God and make us grow. One of the chapters in my book Draw Near: How Painful Experiences Become the Birthplace of Blessings is devoted to anxiety.
The book aims to help the readers not only to identify and accept their losses but more importantly to show them that each painful experience could be a birthing place of specific gains, benefits, and blessings.
Do you want to learn more about the book and read a chapter for FREE?
My Amazon Picks for You
Transforming Your Thought Life by Sarah Geringer
Knowing God by J.I. Packer
Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics by William Lane Craig
Make Up Your Mind: Unlock Your Thoughts, Transform Your Life by Denise Dubois Pass and Michelle Nietert
Finding Peace: God’s Promise of a Life Free from Regret, Anxiety and Fear by Charles Stanley
The Path to Peace: Experiencing God’s Comfort When You’re Overwhelmed by Ann Swindell
Trusting God in All the Things: 90 Devotions for Finding Peace in Your Every Day by Karen Ehman and Ruth Schwenk
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Your Turn
How are you doing in your struggle with anxiety? What do you choose to remember and what to forget? Come share your thoughts and experiences. And don’t forget to visit the Resources page and download a beautiful desktop wallpaper as a reminder to seek the Lord always.
It is our choice of what to remember and what to forget that leads to victory in overcoming anxiety. #anxiety #overcoming #peace Share on X
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Sometimes we feel at the mercy of our thoughts, but it’s so important to remember we have control over them. I like the emphasis that it’s important to remember certain things but to forget others.
Thanks, Barbara! Yes, we have control over our thoughts and our choices on what thoughts we dwell have great power to bring us either peace or increase our anxiety.
I love these Scriptures to encourage us to trust in the Lord!!
Thanks, Christin! I am glad that you felt encouraged!
What a beautiful piece! I think I need to be good at forgetting. Forgetting the pain and wound of the past. Thank you for this timely reminder! Focus on the new things that God is doing every day!
Thank you! I know from my own experience that it is quite a struggle to forget past hurts. But when we constantly choose to stay in forgiveness and search God for healing, we can move forward.
I’ve never really thought about the part forgetting plays in having peace. This month I’ve been consciously forgiving someone who has treated me disrespectfully for years. Your post made me realize I need to forget all the offenses, too.
I pray for you, friend! I know it is not easy, especially when these offenses piled up through the years, but this is a necessary step into more freedom and peace.
I think it is a good reminder to let go of the past. Since we can’t change the past, then better stop trapping ourselves in it.
Breath and live in the present is indeed one of the best advice to stop anxiety. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! Yes, living in the present is the best thing we can do – free from the past and from worries about the future.
Very empowering! Some wonderful thoughts in this post. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks, Ana! I am happy that the post encouraged you.
What a fantastic explanation. The way you describe the 2 kinds of peace makes so much difference in overcoming anxiety!! Thank you for simplifying this concept!
Thank you so much, Aryn! I am glad that I could explain in a way that brings greater understanding!
The seven “daily habits” are practical & followable. Forgiving, letting go is not only essential to overcome anxiety but also important to go forward, to teste new experiences, to delete bad memories & to make space in our brain for new sweet memories.
Jesus, you are my peace..
Thank you, Jason! Yes, you are right – so often the reason we can not live fully in the present and move forward is our unwillingness or inability to let go of the past.
Thank you for this wonderful thoughts. Letting go of the past is essential, even though very difficult.
Thank you! Yes, I can relate! It is especially difficult when there are still unresolved issues from the past or we are still in the process of healing. But it is important to develop a growth attitude and mindset allowing us to keep developing.
A lot of greats scriptures in this post! Philippians is one of my favorites! I am doing very well with managing my anxiety right now. I remind myself to give it to Jesus in surrender like you instructed. Thanks for a great read and great reminders.
Thank you, Amy! I am glad that you are doing well in managing anxiety! Releasing control and surrendering to God always leads to greater peace.