Why Anxiety Is More Spiritual Than We Think
Anxiety affects us mentally, yes, but it is also affects our view of God
*Disclaimer: I am not a psychologist, medical doctor, or therapist. What I am about to share comes from my own experiences.
God speaks to me during odd and mundane moments. In the bathroom after waking up isn’t the most ideal place for a spiritual experience, but that’s where it happened. I heard God say to me, “You need to work on your mental health.” Now, I already was making progress with journaling, therapy, and self-awareness; these were all things I was implementing in my life at the time. However, I believe God was calling me to pay more careful attention to what I was allowing my mind to dwell on, especially when it came to anxious thinking.
A few years back a friend of mine told me that she doesn’t allow herself to think negative thoughts. This concept was foreign to me. I didn’t even know that was possible. I have control over my negative thinking? Well of course. In the past, God had helped me to discipline my mind when it came to not allowing myself to think about sexual impurity, why would negative thinking be any different? Doesn’t Jesus tell us that when we truly come to him that we have the mind of Christ? Surely God wants all of my thinking to be transformed, even my anxious thinking.
That inspiration from my friend began to inspire me to become more self-controlled in my anxious thoughts. But the task was daunting. Anxious thoughts, in a way, had become a coping mechanism for me. If I thought obsessively over something, I would be able to understand every detail and prepare myself for the impending doom that was certainly coming. If I thought constantly about whatever I was worrying about, I felt in control of it, and confident that it would not be able to catch me unaware. But to give that up, wouldn’t that leave me vulnerable to attack? Wouldn’t that require too much effort and thinking?
Yes. Learning to be disciplined in my thinking would leave me vulnerable to life’s uncertainties and pains, but it would also leave me more surrendered to God.
I know what you may be thinking. Trusting God, prayer, scripture? How are those going to help my anxiety condition? The temptation may be to think that anxiety is merely a medical condition. It’s true that well meaning people may have over-spiritualized anxiety and given a band-aid answer such as “trust God more”. I’ve often felt misunderstood when it came to my anxiety too, but as God is strengthening me in this area, I now see that there was some validity to their statements.
Anxiety Is A Spiritual Battle
Since anxiety impacts our minds, it impacts our view of God. Anything that gets in the way of our view of God is something that he does not take lightly. If you are in Christ, God wants you to come to him with your anxiety because anxiety is not just a mental matter it is also spiritual matter. And spiritual matters require discipline.
The discipline of learning to say no to anxious thinking reminds me of 2 Corinthians 10:5
“We are destroying sophisticated arguments and every exalted and proud thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought and purpose captive to the obedience of Christ”
The principle of this scripture absolutely applies to anxiety. My anxious thoughts can put forth some pretty sophisticated, exalted, proud, and disobedient thinking and purposes. Surely these thoughts need to be brought under the obedience of Christ. To think otherwise undermines the life of salvation God has in store for us.
When I find myself anxiously thinking/being distracted by worries, God has been teaching me to mentally say “no” and to keep saying “no” until that thought dissipates.
If the thought concerns uncertainty about my future, God reminds me that my future is in his hands and that He is sufficient for today.
If the thought concerns what other people may think of me, God reminds me that I am fully known by him and completely secure in his love.
If the thought concerns a sin I’ve committed, God reminds me that if I confess my sin to him, I am forgiven.
All of these counter thoughts are spiritual, in that they are thoughts and beliefs that have been formed by knowing the Bible and God’s character. Just as the scripture says, ungodly thinking sets itself up against the true knowledge of God. Worrying is a spiritual issue because it distracts us from who God is, what he has done, and what he will do in our lives.
Anxiety threatens to take God off the throne in our hearts and minds. That’s simply the truth. But God has given those who belong to him the power and the ability to combat anxious thinking with his word and through the help of the Holy Spirit.
My encouragement for you dear reader is to first realize that anxiety is not from God and that he wants to help you overcome. Second, start to tell the negative, anxious thoughts “no” in order to stop them in their tracks. Third, begin to acquaint yourself with spiritual scriptural truth that counter-attacks the anxious thoughts. Repeat this and don’t lose heart!
Love and Light,
Kourtney Naomi
