Dealing with anxiety as a Christian is no small feat. Want to learn how to defeat anxiety with the help of Almighty God? This post will give you 9 ways to successfully wage war in your mind against worry, stress and anxiety.
Fear, anxiety, and worry are some of the devil’s favorite and most effective tactics he uses against our minds. Anxiety disables the mind and plagues our thoughts with lies, unrealistic worries, and doubt in God. With each challenge life presents, we have two choices: to either respond faith or fear. They cannot coexist.
God gives us real and relevant strategies to use to combat the wiles of the enemy in His scriptures. When we can effectively learn to put these principles into practice, we can level up our faith in God and spiritual warfare defenses. All we need to do is trust in God’s promises and we can successfully defeat the Goliath of anxiety that tries to control our lives.
I have struggled with anxiety for many years, and I’m familiar with how debilitating it can feel. It was only when I truly surrendered to God that I finally experienced peace and freedom from my tendencies to operate in fear, worry, and anxiety.
Through the strength of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we can have dominion over Satan’s devices and live in freedom, joy, and peace of mind. Ultimately Jesus has already conquered all and we can have confidence that His plan is perfect even when we don’t fully understand it.
Here are 9 life changing ways to defeat anxiety as a Christian!
1. Seek first the kingdom
Much of our anxiety stems from trying to do things our way instead of following after God’s. When we seek after God first, we will automatically be aligned with His will for our lives and many of the frustrations we face will dissipate.
Seeking first the kingdom means to follow after God’s Word, provision, and unctions above all else. When we want what God wants for our lives we will get to experience the purpose and placement God has always envisioned for us (before the foundation of the world)! If we seek after God first, everything else will fall perfectly into place.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 6:33
2. Trust that God has good plans for you
If you’re anything like me, you might have a bad habit of trying to control the outcomes of situations when things aren’t going your way. For me, this stemmed from not having a strong enough faith that God had something better for me when I was in a season of loss.
God’s love is unfailing and He wants to see us happy and fulfilled. However, we won’t get to experience the fullness of His plans for us… until we let go and trust that His plans are far more beautiful than what we could have ever dreamed or imagined.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Jeremiah 29:11
3. Lean not on your own understanding
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6
God charges us with leaning on His understanding above our own because He can see our lives from every angle, every second of our lives. If He is not giving you something you want, He has something better for you and can see aspects of your situation that you can’t. He always has reasons for His yes’ and His nos’.
We’re human beings, and we’re emotional creatures. Our feelings are part of our carnal nature, and that’s why God warns that our hearts can be deceitful above all else. This is why we should lean on God’s understanding over our own, at all times.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jeremiah 17:9
4. Take your thoughts captive
The mind is the primary battlefield of life, especially when we become aware of the truth of Christ. Satan’s main target is our minds, because if he can control the mind, he may be able to control our body, our actions, our thoughts, etc.
When we are in communion with God, we can stand against the wiles of the enemy because we become aware of Satan’s devices and strategies against us. This is why Paul tells us to take each thought captive and make them submit to Christ. How do we do this?
By becoming conscious of our thoughts, instead of merely thinking about them. And fending off the flaming arrows from the devil when he tries to deceive us with lies.
Thoughts that try to demean us, make us feel shame, or try to get us to sin, are not from God. And when we’re aware of this, we’re able to fight back with the Truth.
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:5
5. Pray without ceasing
When we pray without ceasing, it gives the enemy less of an opportunity to get a foothold in our minds. Your time with God should be priority #1 every single day. Talk to God on your drive to work, journal with God daily, meditate on scripture, and pray throughout the day for the strength you need.
Constant communication with God can keep the Devil’s lies at bay, and keep you close to the heart of the Father.
Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
6. Let tomorrow worry about itself
God wants us to live in the present moment and trust Him one day at a time. He doesn’t want us to be dwelling in the past or stressed out about the things to come. He just wants us to trust Him one moment at a time.
There are revelations God is trying to give to us today, and if we allow ourselves to be anxious about tomorrow then we might miss them!
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Matthew 6:34
7. Lay your burdens down
When things become so heavy that we cannot hold them anymore, our only option is to lay them down at the feet of Jesus. To surrender.
Sometimes things don’t work out the way we planned or hoped, but we can always trust in God’s mysterious ways. His timing is perfect and we can have faith that He is looking out for us at all times, even when circumstances don’t appear that way.
Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
Psalm 55:22
8. Realize that anxiety is a weak spot in our faith
What we worry about the most…Is what we trust God with the least. When we become aware of this truth we may be able to self-evaluate and figure out what is causing this blockage in our faith, and why.
God puts us through seasons to develop our faith, character, and trust in Him. But at the end of the day, we have to decide to trust Him or not, with everything.
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
Isaiah 26:3
9. Be at peace knowing that God is in control
We have to keep in mind that faith and fear cannot coexist. Faith is having confidence in God, and fear is having confidence in the Devil. We know that anxiety is a device of the enemy to instill irrational fears, and cause us to doubt our faithful God.
2 Timothy 1:7 tells us explicitly that “God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind”.
If we are experiencing fear, we know that the devil is trying to gain a foothold, and we need to remind ourselves of the power and dominion given to us by the Holy Spirit.
In conclusion,
We have the power to overcome anxiety with Jesus Christ by our side. When worry starts creeping in, understand that it is a tactic of the enemy to rob us of our joy and to distract us from the promises God has made us.
We can have faith knowing that the same God who has set all of life into motion has concern and love for us and that His plans for us are good!
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