Dealing with Anxiety – Part 1

• reads inspirational books
• gets advice on podcasts
• tapping into spirituality
• learning to identify feelings of worry
• learning to calm and distract self with music
• learning to lean into the fear
• started a gratitude journal

In a world of self- help books, podcasts, seminars, webinars, and professional counselors we have access to unlimited information and ideas of solutions. This can be a wonderful thing. I’m not opposed to counselors, medication and self help measures. I have a list of counselors I refer people to all the time. I’ve advised people to talk to their Doctor and to consider medication to help with their anxiety. But dear friends please hear me on this – we will be running our life in circles trying to find the next solution or coping measure if we don’t have a foundational relationship with Jesus Christ. If we don’t engage in our relationship with him as our main survival skill we will only add to the anxiety this life brings outside of Jesus.

This isn’t to say that Christians who have a relationship with Jesus Christ don’t ever struggle with anxiety. I know that’s not true. In fact we see examples in scripture of people struggling with depression and anxiety. And we can learn from them. I can’t wait to share with you later this week about a person in scripture who was in a deep dark pit of discouragement. We’re talking in a really bad place. Not eating, refusing to be comforted and ugly cry bad place. He had a few things that helped him too. Things that were a game changer for him. I hope you’ll come back on Wednesday and let me share those things with you because it can be a game changer for those of us who battle worry, stress and anxiety.