By confronting the anxious thought of, “I’m not good enough,” we can change it and say, “I’m good enough because of Jesus.” This can change the dialogue in our minds and help us have a better outlook on life.
If you know me, you know I have crippling anxiety. I am on medication, have attended long-term therapy, and have about a billion self-help books on overcoming anxiety. From all these resources, I quickly learned that some of my anxiety could be avoided. For example, some things are out of our control, but we can control how we react to situations. Moreover, we can also assess the situation to see if it is as severe as our brain is telling us.
Most of the time, our anxiety blows things out of proportion. In my personal opinion, one should never Google your symptoms, the illnesses you have, or really anything else on a search engine because it will tell you that you are about to die or you are already dead. None of this is helpful as it can only worsen your anxiety. From personal experience, I have seen my anxiety grow stronger after searching online for something that was supposed to give me some sort of peace.
Therefore, we need to be careful with our anxiety because it can increase or decrease based on what we do. There are many things we can do to decrease it, and these are the things we need to focus on. Rather than doom scrolling on social media, the internet, or anywhere else, we need to address our anxiety, confront it, and challenge it.
Addressing Anxiety
If we are going to get our anxiety under control, we must address it. Addressing it doesn’t allow us to put it on the back burner and avoid it at all cost. While we might think ignoring our anxiety is helpful, but it will only make the anxiety worse. We have to acknowledge that our anxiety is there and acknowledge that it cannot hurt us.
Healthy doses of anxiousness or excitement are natural, such as the anxiety that is related to studying for a test or getting ready for a first date, but when it goes haywire, it can be anything but helpful. This is why it is crucial for us to focus on what we can control rather than what we cannot control. In my own struggles with anxiety, this means controlling my thinking pattern. Whenever I try a new medication for either my autoimmune disease or my mental health issues, I get extremely anxious. In other words, I feel worried, stressed, and overwhelmed.
At times, it can feel like it is impossible for me to relax. All I want to do is be better without trying something new; however, it is not reasonable. People often aren't healed so easily. While I wish God would just heal me, I understand that is not how He typically works in the modern day. Therefore, all I can do is try the new medicine, pray for the best, and be brave. In truth, I cannot control how my body will accept the medication, which means I cannot control the outcome.
In the same way, whatever is causing your anxiety, you need to address it. You need to ask the Lord for His peace and ask for Him to give you comfort. You cannot control the outcome; therefore, there is no reason to stress over the situation. Give it to the Lord, address the anxiety, and keep moving forward (Matthew 11:28-30).
Confronting Anxiety
Once we have addressed anxiety, we can confront it. Confronting it means that we talk about it, talk back to it, and think about it on our own. If we think about what we are anxious about, we will quickly see these thoughts rarely have a basis of truth. Common anxieties that cross my mind are “I’m not good enough,” “I’m not smart enough,” or “I’m not capable.” By replacing these anxious lies with positive words of encouragement, we can begin to change the way our brains work.
The more we feed negative, anxious lies inside our minds, the more interwoven they will become with our very selves. However, if we separate these lies from the truth, we will begin to see improvement. By confronting the anxious thought of, “I’m not good enough,” we can change it and say, “I’m good enough because of Jesus.” This can change the dialogue in our minds and help us have a better outlook on life.
The more we practice saying positive encouragement to ourselves, the more we will see anxiety disappear. Instead of saying harmful things to ourselves, we will say encouraging things. This is ultimately what God wants for us as He doesn’t want us to tear ourselves down. Similar to how the Bible tells us to build others up, we need to build ourselves up too (1 Thessalonians 5:11; Ephesians 4:29).
Challenging Anxiety
After we have addressed and confronted anxiety, we will be able to challenge it. I found that it is most helpful to challenge our anxiety with what the Bible says. Whenever our anxiety causes us to have difficult feelings or bad thoughts, we need to weigh them against Scripture. When anxiety says we are unlovable, we need to challenge it by saying, “I’m a beloved child of God” (1 John 3:1).
Another example is when anxiety tells us that we are not capable, we can say, “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). Once we get in the pattern of doing this, we will be able to overcome our anxious thoughts by the power of the Lord. However, this does not mean we will never struggle again. There will be times when anxiety will rise, but the more we challenge it, the less crippling it will be.
Each of us has the choice of whether we challenge our anxiety or not. If we keep caving into the anxiety, we will never move forward. Instead, we will stay in the prison of our anxiety. Truth be told, anxiety has the potential to destroy our lives, as I have seen this personally. Rather than living in the freedom of the Lord, I have had times when I’m unable to meet up with people, go to social events, or even function because the anxiety is paralyzing.
One of my biggest fears is that anxiety will one day prevent me from ever leaving my house again. Once this happens, I know the pattern of anxiety will be far too ingrained into my mind. This is why it is important for us to be proactive rather than reactive. Address anxiety, confront it, and challenge it instead of ignoring it, acting like it is not there, and living in it.
Help from the Bible
The Bible tells us, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). The Lord wants us to cast our anxieties on Him and leave them at His feet. We don’t need to hold onto this pain anymore. Anxiety eats away at us piece by piece until we are no longer truly living. Jesus doesn’t want this for our lives as He died in order for us to have an abundant life (John 10:10).
Each time anxiety creeps into our hearts, we need to turn to the Lord. Anxiety has no place in our lives because Jesus is our God, not anxiety. Hyper-focusing on anxiety will make it the “god” of our lives because it will have all our attention. Therefore, we need to walk away from the anxiety, give it over to the Lord, and re-establish Jesus as the God of our lives.
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/Georgijevic
