Purpose of this Study: The purpose for this study is to understand how anxiety is perceived within the bible and understand the biblical approach to anxiety (or words related to anxiety). In addition, even when we do face anxiety (whether it be things of the future or fears that we may have regarding something), what we are to place our hopes in, which should therefore release our anxieties and provide peace in the midst of whatever circumstance we are walking through.
Anxiety Defined
According to Dictionary.com, anxiety can be defined as distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune. According to healthline.com, anxiety is your body’s natural response to stress. It’s a feeling of fear or apprehension about what’s to come.
Doing a general search of the word “anxiety” into the Bible App, the following verses show up (within the New Living Translation (NLT) version:
- Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7 NLT)
- Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. (1 Peter 5:7)
- “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? (Matthew 6:25-27)
- Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today. (Matthew 6:33-34)
- When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer. (Psalms 94:19)
- This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)
- “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. (John 14:27)
- Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up. (Proverbs 12:25)
While the Bible (NLT version) does speak about the topic of anxiety, it does not directly use the specific word or title “anxiety”. Instead, the diction ranges from words such as “worry“, “worries“, “doubts“, “afraid“, “discouraged“, “troubled” and “fear“. However, because the concordance resource (The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, 1996) translates words from the King James Version (KJV), we will need to look at the word selection based on the King James Version. By doing so, we encounter the following words: “careful for nothing“, “care“, “no thought”, “thought“, “afraid“, “dismayed“, “troubled”, “heaviness in the heart” and “fear“.
Now, during the course of this study, I will also be utilizing several devotionals provided by the Bible App (links for these devotionals will be located at the bottom of the Notes). For each day spent studying, I will record down the verses proposed within that devotional as well as the others. The three devotionals that I am using consist of:
- “Keys to Anxiety” by Time of Grace
- “Get Out of Your Head” from Jennie Allen
- “Anxiety Not!” by Gary Hohweiler
Day 1 – “Thoughts”
From the “Keys to Anxiety” by Time of Grace devotional, the verse that stuck out to me was Philippians 4:6 and the main takeaways that I received from this devotional was: “Are you praying with thanksgiving and in a way that shapes your heart according to God’s plan?” In addition, I also learned that “Anxiety is the idea that we know exactly how our lives are supposed to go, but don’t.”
From the “Get Out of Your Head” from Jennie Allen devotional, the verses that stuck out to me were 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, James 4:7, and Philippians 4:8. The main takeaways that I got from this devotional was that: “Emotions lead to thoughts, which then lead to decisions, which consequently leads to behavior and finally results in relationships. Because of this, we must take our thoughts captive. Paul understood that the war takes place within our thoughts, becoming weapons to undermine our faith and hope.”
From the “Anxiety Not!” by Gary Hohweiler devotional, the verses that stuck out to me were Philippians 4:6-7, Psalms 94:19, and 1 Peter 5:6-7. The main takeaway for me was: “Leaving worrisome thoughts unchecked can turn into fear. By taking things to God, we can gain the peace of God over our hearts and minds. I also made note of the song “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” by Joseph Scriven (1855).
A common denominator that I noticed within each of those devotionals is the word thoughts. Thoughts play a huge role within anxiety. From one nervous thought to the next, it begins to snowball into something worse. Because of this, we are instructed to take our thoughts captive and give our worries over to God, understanding that He will take care of us and work everything out for our good. Let’s take a deeper look at what the The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (James Strong, LL.D., S.T.D., 1996) has to say and what it defines “thoughts” as:
(Study Note: Wherever there is a lowercase and italicized t in the following entries below, that is where the underlined word would be located within that verse)
THOUGHT
Take no t for your life, what ye … Mt 6:25 … G3309
Which of you by taking t can add… Mt 6:27 … G3309
And why take ye t for raiment … Mt 6:28 … G3309
Therefore take no t, saying, what … Mt 6:31 … G3309
therefore no t for the morrow … Mt 6:34 … G3309
take t for the things of itself … Mt 6:34 … G3309
G3309 – μεριμνάω transliterated as merimnaō (pronounced as mer-im-nah’-o); from G3308; to be anxious about: – (be, have) care (-ful), take thought.
As noticed, within this translation of “thought”, directly connects back to anxious or anxiousness. Let’s explore G3308 for a deeper meaning and understanding.
G3308 – μέριμνα transliterated as merimna (pronounced as mer’-im-nah); from G3307 (through the idea of distraction); solicitude: – care
In this transliteration, we can note down that our care or concern for something distracts us. This is so very true, as anxiety pulls our attention off of what is and places it on what could be. We’re going to look at G3307 for even further context on thoughts and anxiety.
G3307 – μερίζω transliterated as merizō (pronounced as mer-id’-zo); from 3313; to part; i.e. (literally) to appropriation, bestow, share, or (figuratively) to disunite, differ,: – deal, be difference between, distribute, divide, give part.
As seen in this transliteration, not only does anxiety distract our thoughts and attention, but it also divides it. I would even go so far to say that it divides us from the truth of God by filling our thoughts with doubts and lies.
Day 2 – “Surrender”
From the “Keys to Anxiety” by Time of Grace devotional, the verse that came to mind was 1 Peter 5:7 (NLT) which reads, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you”. The main takeaway from this was that “We tend to cast our anxiety like a fishing net, in which we reel it back in, but we need to leave it. The apostle Peter states that when we cast our anxieties, we need to leave it at the foot of the cross.”
From the “Get Out of Your Head” from Jennie Allen devotional, the verses that stuck out to me were Philippians 1:21, 1 Timothy 1:12-17, and John 8:44. The main takeaway was that “We don’t have to be victims of toxic thoughts, rather, we are victorious through the truth of Christ.” In addition, “when Paul entered the new reality of Christ, he stopped the things that distracted him and shifted his focus.”
From the “Anxiety Not!” by Gary Hohweiler devotional, the verses that stuck out were 1 Peter 5:7, Isaiah 66:2, Proverbs 16:18, and Psalms 34:19. The main takeaways included: “A proud man is like an unbroken horse; he is not of real use. Once a man’s pride is broken, then he can be used.” To add to this, “A proud person is usually reluctant to admit they have anxieties, and so they need to lose their pride.”
The spotlight word for me while reading the devotionals was the word surrender. In order to allow God to work within us and remove out anxieties and provide us peace, we must surrender the pride, lies, and anxieties that hold us back. To better understand this concept, let’s look deeper into the meaning of surrender.
According to Dictionary.com, the word surrender can be translated as “to yield (something) to the possession or power of another; to give up, abandon, or relinquish; to submit or yield.”
According to rosevinecottagegirls.com, “Surrendering to God means letting go of our plans, and letting God have His way in every aspect of our lives… As Christians, we are called to turn over every aspect of our lives to God’s control, but how do you surrender to God spiritually? There is no one-step way to surrender to God, it’s a daily, moment by moment choice to give it to God.”
According to gentlechristianparenting.com, the biblical definition of surrender can be defined as “accepting that the battle has been won not on your own terms, and you are willingly giving your life over to the authority of the winning side. It means taking a humble position and embracing what is over how you would have it.”
Finally, according to gotquestions.org, “Surrender is a battle term. It implies giving up all rights to the conqueror. When an opposing army surrenders, they lay down their arms, and the winners take control from then on. Surrendering to God works the same way. God has a plan for our lives, and surrendering to Him means we set aside our own plans and eagerly seek His.”
Some methods of surrender consist of:
- Surrendering to God through Prayer and Fasting
- Seek God’s Will and Seek Godly Council
- Wait on God and His Response
- Spend Time in His Word
- Praise and Worship
In reflection, when we surrender these things (lies, pride, anxieties), we are choosing to give them up. We are humbling ourselves, acknowledging that we don’t know everything, including what tomorrow brings, but we trust in the God… who can and does.
Day 3 – “Inspecting Our Thoughts”
From the “Keys to Anxiety” by Time of Grace devotional, the main verse that stuck out to me was Romans 8:28 (NLT) which reads: “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” The main takeaways include: “One contributing factor to anxiety is the fear of lack of control in our lives. The antidote to the above issue is the sovereignty of God. You don’t have to be in control, because God is.”
From the “Get Out of Your Head” from Jennie Allen devotional, the main verses that stuck out were Ephesians 1:4-5, John 1:12, and Romans 8:14-17. The main takeaways include: “Every lie we buy into about ourselves is rooted in what we believe about God. Reset and Redirect.” This is supplemented with the idea of “How we think can change how we think of God. How we think can shape how we live.”
From the “Anxiety Not!” by Gary Hohweiler devotional, there were a multitude of verses, which will be listed as follows: Proverbs 2:4-5, Proverbs 4:20-22, Proverbs 12:25, Provers 13:12, Proverbs 14:30, Proverbs 17:22, 1 Kings 3:12 and Hebrews 14:12. The main takeaways include: “We must search for God’s Word. Search through it as if it were a hidden treasure.” With this, I also really appreciated the prayer at the end that stated, “Lord, reveal to me the hidden secrets of your Word.”
Another resource that helped supplement these devotionals was the book Winning the War in Your Mind by Craig Groeschel (2021). In the book, just like the “Get Out of Your Head” devotional, it talks about how we must redirect our thoughts from the lies brought forth from the enemy and replace it with the truth from the Word of God. In Exercise 1 “Your Thought Audit” of Part 1: “The Replacement Principle”, it has readers take an inventory of their thoughts and then audit (inspect) them by responding to a number of questions (Pages 22 – 26). The questions that stood out to me in particular were:
Defense (Protection from the Enemy):
- Do I find myself skeptical of others?
- Do I lean toward imagining the worst-case scenarios?
- Are my thoughts negative, toxic, or self-deprecating?
Offense (Growth Toward God):
- Do my thoughts reflect my faith?
- Are my thoughts God honoring?
- Do my thoughts connect to the vision God has for my life?
These questions in particular stuck out to me because they are concepts that hit close to home for me. For me, I can see where anxiety tends to creep in when my thoughts are not reflecting my faith or are not God honoring. My thoughts tend to drift towards worst-case scenario, which feeds into the negativity and self-deprecation. Because of this, I need to stop and audit my thoughts, inspecting where they are coming from and analyze of whether they align with God’s Word or not. Because if we truly inspect our anxious thoughts and test them to see if they stand true to God’s Word, we will find that those anxious thoughts fall short of God’s Word and his promises.
Day 4 – “Our Relationship with God”
From the “Keys to Anxiety” by Time of Grace devotional, the main verse that stuck out to me was 2 Corinthians 5:21 which reads, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be for us, that we might become righteousness. The main takeaways from this devotional was that: “Another type of anxiety that we experience is the fear and guilt of our past mistakes.” In addition, the Greek word for anxiety is “merimnao” which means “to be divided into parts”.
From the “Get Out of Your Head” from Jennie Allen devotional, the main verses that stuck out were Romans 8:1-11, 1 Corinthians 2:16, and Isaiah 26:3. The main takeaways from today’s devotional is: “It is a daily battle and discipline to take every thought captive and shift our thoughts (Romans 8:5).” We see this when “Paul tells us that we take captive our thoughts and can wield our power for good or for God.”
From the “Anxiety Not!” by Gary Hohweiler devotional, the multitude of verses that stuck out include Jeremiah 17:7-8, John 20:25, John 20:28-29, Proverbs 3:5-6, John 7:38, Matthew 20:1-33. The main takeaways from this devotional were: “Trust in something unseen takes faith. You must have faith in God with who He says He is.” From this, “May others see in me and taste and see You (God) are good! May I never doubt You or your word.”
The thing that sticks out to me is that the resolve our anxiety rests in the knowledge and relationship with God. When we know and understand His character, and believe in it, then we can become free of the anxiety that attempts to hold us back. Christine Caine in her podcast The Christine Caine Equip and Empower, Episode 177: “You Don’t Have to Do It All” states the following:
- “The thing that stopped them [the children of Israel] from entering into the promises of God, weren’t the giants of Canaan, that kept the children of Israel out of the Promised Land; it was the unbelief of the people of God…”
- “And you know that you’ve started to drift when you’ve stopped believing God, when your Christianity just becomes the religious routine…”
- “We need some believing believers on the Earth, we need some people that believe God is who He says He is, that God will do what He says He will do, that God is for me, that God wants to use me to make a difference in my generation, but the sin of unbelief kept an entire generation out their destiny and it still does today…”
So, now the questions stand: “What is your unbelief about God, who He is, and what He can do? What is it keeping you from?”
- Is it keeping you from peace?
- Is it keeping you from change?
- Is it keeping you from growth?
Our anxiety flourishes when we take our eyes off of God and we look at either the circumstance or our capabilities. But to resolve our anxiety, we must adjust our sights back onto our God, his character, and what He is capable of doing! With this, let’s pray:
God, forgive me when I tried to relieve and resolve my anxieties by my own efforts rather than trusting in You and your character. Help me to take my eyes off of what I can do and align them on what You have already done. Amen.
Day 5 – “The Choice of Anxiety”
From the “Keys to Anxiety” by Time of Grace devotional, the main verse that stuck out to me was Romans 8:38-39 (NLT) which states, “‘And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.'” One of the main takeaways from this devotional was that we can’t try to live for other people’s acceptance in fear of rejection. This also led me to the point of understanding that “we must be careful with what we intentionally choose”.
From the “Get Out of Your Head” from Jennie Allen devotional, the main verses that stuck out were the verses: 2 Corinthians 5:17, 2 Timothy 1:7, and Matthew 19:26. The main takeaway from this devotional was we can start to take every thought captive by taking one, which reveals, “I have a choice”. Regardless of our current situation, we can choose to shift our minds back to God.
From the “Anxiety Not!” by Gary Hohweiler devotional, the main verses that stuck out were Psalms 94:18-19, 2 Corinthians 10:5, Philippians 4:6-7, and 1 Peter 5:7. The main takeaways were this: Thoughts lead to worry and worry leads to fear. With this, we can’t just medicate our anxious thoughts away. Rather, we are told to cast all our anxiety onto God through prayer and petition.
Looking at each of these devotionals, I feel like the main message that can be taken away from this is that we must choose not to fall into anxiety. We must decide daily who/what are we living for. We must decide daily what we allow ourselves to think about. We must decide daily to surrender our anxieties over to God. And it truly is a choice, because if we don’t choose the above, then we are choosing to allow the enemy into our headspace and into our lives.
As mentioned in “Winning the War in Your Mind” by Craig Groeschel:
- The battle for your life is won or lost in your mind.
- Your thoughts will control you, so you have to control your thoughts.
Craig Groeschel adds on further, “The problem is that many Christians don’t wage war at all. Satan is assaulting us with evil. He’s delivering blows of deception and bombarding us with lies. But we can be oblivious to the attacks… To win the battle for our minds, we must engage, because there is no other way for us to defeat evil. The days of being neutral must be over” (Pages 27, 30-31).
What Craig Groeschel is stating here is that the state of our mind is dependent on the intentional choices that we make. We must make the active decision to align our thoughts onto God; otherwise, we are making the active decision to let our minds drift into enemy territory. Christine Caine in here podcast The Christine Caine Equip and Empower Podcast, Episode 172: “The Key to Staying on Track with Your Purpose” confirms this notion when she states, “What do you have to do to drift? Nothing… In order to basically drift from anything, you don’t have to do anything.”
To conclude on this point, we must not be idle with our thoughts, rather, we must be vigilant! We must make the daily decision to put our trust and faith in God rather than our worries and anxieties.
What Do We Hope In?
According to GotQuestions.org, Christian Hope is:
“The biblical definition of hope is ‘confident expectation’. Hope is a firm assurance regarding things that are unclear or unknown (Romans 8:24-25, Hebrews 11:1,7) … The New Testament idea of hope is the recognition that in Christ is found the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises (Matthew 12:21, 1 Peter 1:3). Christian hope is rooted in faith in the divine salvation in Christ (Galatians 5:5). Hope of Christians is brought into being through the presence of the promised Holy Spirit (Romans 8:24-25) … Hope is produced by endurance through suffering (Romans 5:2-5) and is the inspiration behind endurance (1 Thessalonians 1:3, Hebrews 6:11) … Hope produces joy and peace in believers through the power of the Spirit (Romans 12:12; 15:13).”
Endurance Through Suffering –> Hope –> Joy and Peace
According to the Bible Project….
What Hope Is:
- A state of anticipation
- Waiting or tense expectations
- Based on a person
What Hope is Not:
- Not optimism
- Not focused on circumstances
- Not based on the odds
“Yakhal” – יָחַל – which means “To Wait For”
“Qavah” – קָוָה – which means “To Wait”
“Elpis” – ἐλπίς – which means “Expectation, Hope”
Takeaway Verses: Isaiah 8:17, Psalm 130:5-7, Psalm 39:7
Key Takeaway: It’s God’s past faithfulness that motivates hope for the future!
Closing Words/Conclusion
Anxiety is rooted within our thoughts. What we allow to manifest inside of us will pour out into our external lifestyle. The purpose of anxiety is to distract and divide our trust in God, leading us to look at the magnitude of our circumstances rather than the magnificence of our creator. While anxiety seeks to steal our attention and apprehend our security, we counter anxiety through surrender. By surrendering, we submit and yield to God, acknowledging the fact that He is in control regardless of what is going on around us. We do this daily through prayer, fasting, reading His Word, seeking His will, waiting for his response, and praising and worshiping. We also supplement all of this by filling our minds with His truth in order to drown out the lies provided by anxiety. This calls for us to take both an offensive and defensive position in which we spiritually equip our minds and fortify them with the weapon that God has provided: His Word. It should be more than just a book of wise sayings; it should be our sword and shield that we go to war with. In order to use these weapons confidently, we must grow in our relationship with God to see that He is a good God who wants what is best for us. We must learn to trust and rely on God by what He has done for us in the past, believing that He will continue to protect and prosper us. And this must be a daily decision that we actively make in which we seek God and fortify our minds. Only by doing that, do we avoid drifting back into our anxiety. In conclusion, anxiety is that which we must actively combat against. In order to avoid falling away from God, we must actively push forward to Him.
Resources
Podcast Link:
Devotional Links:
- “Keys to Anxiety” by Time of Grace
- “Get Out of Your Head” from Jennie Allen
- “Anxiety Not!” by Gary Hohweiler
Book Links:
