When Anxiety Comes

If I say, “My foot slips,”
Your mercy, O LORD, will hold me up.
In the multitude of my anxieties within me,
Your comforts delight my soul.
(Psalm 94:18-19)

ANXIETY is a toxin. It is a poison that comes to paralyze you by saturating your thoughts and emotions. It does not lead you into the purpose of God, but keeps you from fulfilling the wonderful destiny He has for you.

Anxiety is a toxin — but God has an antidote. The writer of Psalm 94 called on this when he found himself in a difficult and oppressive situation. When he felt his foot slipping beneath him, he cried out to the LORD and pressed into His mercy.

Hesed is the Hebrew word for “mercy” here. Some translations render it as “love.” It is the counterpart to the Greek word agape — the God-kind of love we find in the New Testament. Hesed is a covenant word that speaks of the love and mercy by which God has committed Himself to us. It is the assurance of God’s faithfulness toward us, for God keeps His promises. When the circumstances of our life start to slip and slide, the covenant love and mercy of God comes to stabilize us, to strengthen us and keep us from falling.

Anxiety tries to overwhelm us with a multitude of worrisome thoughts and fill us with doubts. Someone has defined worry, very accurately, I think, as meditating on the lies of the devil. The enemy comes and whispers things into our ears to consume our thoughts and get us into fear. If we let ourselves meditate on them, we give life to them.

My wife calls these whispers the “what if” voices: What if our car breaks down? What if we can’t pay for it? What if we get sick? What if something happens to our children? We used to pay quite a bit of attention to these what if voices — and it held us back from trusting God more and knowing Him better.

The devil has a lot of what ifs, but why should we even listen to them? “For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). The devil brings us a multitude of anxious thoughts, but God brings us His comforts: power, love and a sound mind. “Power” is the miracle-working dunamis of God. “Love” is the faithful agape of God. A “sound mind” is stable and disciplined, giving no place to worry and doubt. In short, the spirit of power, love and sound mind is the Holy Spirit.

Since we have the Spirit of power, love and sound mind at work in us, my wife and I have developed a different approach to the what if voices of the enemy? Instead of worrying and becoming paralyzed with fear, or eaten up with anxiety, we begin to speak some different what ifs. What if God brings us provision? What if God fixes this broken thing or replaces it? What if God heals us? What if God watches over our children? What if God brings us out of debt? What if God blesses us? In other words, we counter fear with faith, curse with blessing, and anxiety with joyful anticipation.

The devil tries to throw a lot of what ifs at us, but he cannot bring any of them to pass — unless we start to believe them. On the other hand, God has many wonderful promises for us, and if we trust Him, He will bring them all to pass. God is not moved by our worries or fears, but He is moved by our faith in His Word. So instead of repeating any of the things the devil whispers in our ears, why not start repeating the Word of God. The lies of the enemy cannot stand up to the truth of the Word.

The psalm writer said, “In the multitudes of my anxieties within me, your comforts delight my soul.” That is, instead of turning himself over to his anxious thoughts, though they were overwhelming, he turned himself over to the LORD. Instead of meditating on worry, he meditated on the Word. He pressed into his covenant with God. In this way, he experienced the comfort of divine love and faithfulness, instead of the chaos of fear and anxiety.

This strategy calls for two definite, qualitative, and decisive actions:

First, let go of the anxieties. They may come into your head, but do not give them a place in your heart. When the devil comes and whispers fear into your ear, do not give it life by speaking it with your mouth. Give it no quarter.

Second, embrace the comforts of the LORD — His Spirit, His Word, His power, His love and the soundness of His own mind. Then open your mouth and, instead of repeating the fears, start speaking the promises.

In the margin of my Bible, at Psalm 94:19, I have expressed it as an equation (not very grammatical, but it works): Let go of the anxieties + Embrace the comforts of the LORD = Delights my soul.

You are welcome to print it out for personal or small group use. You may also reprint it for non-profit publications online or offline. Just email us let us know — we would love to hear about it. Also, please be sure to include the copyright notice (found at the bottom of each article) along with the following:

“JEFF DOLES is a Christian author, blogger and Bible teacher. His books include The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth: Keys to the Kingdom of God in the Gospel of Matthew and Praying With Fire: Change Your World with the Powerful Prayers of the Apostles. He and his wife, Suzanne, are the founders of Walking Barefoot Ministries. Visit their website at www.walkingbarefoot.com.”